The Scarlet Woman

[Boots]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lqgGBLQC70

[Boots]

"Tell me your name."

"Roxy."

"Your real name."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"You're hiding something in those eyes of yours, it excites me."

"Good, that's what you're paying me for. Now, are we doing this or not?"

The rain pattered heavily against the grubby windows hiding whatever was going on within the slums house from the nosy gaze of onlookers on the street outside. Not that there was ever much popularity in this part of the city. Each night was more of the same, the same clients coming and going, coming and going. Fang changed hands but none ever reached hers. She was paying off a debt she had no way of
understanding until it was too late..

Drip. Drip. Drip. Drip.

One brown eye opened groggily, followed closely by the second. In a side view of the dank little room, she saw a small puddle of rain water collecting on the floor in front of her. She sat up slowly, turning the view of the room back to normal and shaking out her grotty brown hair."Gods, damn it Emilian! This place is falling apart!" She reached for the broom leaning against the wall and reached up with it to thump at the roof. Everyone was asleep, and she was in a bad mood today. Stomping up the stairs the dirty, black haired young woman booted the door open and balled her hands into fists at her side.

"I've had enough. You need to start paying me more. "

"-Emilian-."

No response. She stepped inside the room, sniffing and cringing at the aroma of sweaty bodies, cheap alcohol, and opium, peering around and noting the fat male figure asleep in the chair. Her eyes then snapped to the still figure at his feet. A moment passed before she realised what she was seeing. The lifeless whore on the ground at this pig of a man's feet sparked something in her, something dark. Her bare feet stepped over the corpse to send a hard-heeled kick into the man's chin, causing him to groan drunkenly, opening his beady eyes to regard her.

"Catalin, hells're you doing!"

Her knife was in her hand without much pause, embedding itself in the side of his throat with a sick squelching sound.

"Earning my keep."

A furious look flashed in his eyes, before they widened, fading before her own. As soon as she was sure he was gone she yanked the blade back out and wiped it on his oily shirt, looking down at the body of her past fellow employee. She was easy enough to carry, over her shoulder and out the back way of the little slums house, surprisingly she wasn't seen or followed to the little field a little way out of town.

"A funeral our kind doesn't deserve. With someone who cares to see." She tossed a wild rose down onto the girl's body, her dark eyes steeling over with some new decision.

Foot prints are easy enough to wash away, but can we ever really forget the reasons why?

[Boots]

Her hands were stained red.
The floor, red.
The walls, red.
Slowly, her face turned to the mirror,
Wide eyes framed with red.
Cheeks, smeared with red.

She took up her dagger, clasping a chunk of her hair and sawing at it.
Clumps and clumps of red curls fell to the floor, until she looked into the mirror and saw no trace of Catalin Danut.
She dragged the paint over her bottom lip, and then repeated the process with her top.
She pressed her lips to the glass leaving a kiss stain.

"I am Roxana Rosu."

"The old me is dead."

"I am born anew."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2jOLRj6ztI

[Boots]

A Fresh page is opened, a small hand smoothed over it's waxy surface as a heart shaped smile pressed upon the owner's mouth.

Vallaki. The city of sin, the way I remember it.
Even in my absence, body and mind-
Nothing has changed much.

The walls are still oozing with misery,
the shambles of the broken hearted
echo in my ears like thundering rain drops
against the grimey surface of my old windows.

Though one thing has changed, me.
I will not let the pressures of the world
Bend me so easily this time.
A friend once told me life was what we made of it.
I remember replying, "If so, then I shall turn it into fountains of gold."

The red woman pressed a hand to the steadily growing lines of stress on her forehead, massaging the stray strands of red away from her freckled cheeks and their usual flicking curls. Her eyes had been so tired, lately. Her body felt exhausted yet somehow renewed as though she had a purpose in this place, finally. She folded the book shut with a rose to mark her place, tossing it lazily onto the dresser and burying her head into the pillow as she welcomed the oncoming dreamless slumber.

[Boots]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-MxlImdIJ3M

The sound echoed through the silent room as she tapped her nails in slow, rhythmic paces on the table before her. A flash of red shot across her vision as the unwelcome memories began to creep into her thoughts, she squeezed her eyes shut, exhaling and curling her fingers outwards before resuming a more stiff tapping.

~Sobbing was equal to weakness in this house, Catalin curled the younger girl into her arms and silently rocked her skinny frame back and forth, back and forth, murmuring into her ear about the rules. Always the rules. Never to be broken, never to be challenged.

"You must not cry. Crying is ugly.  How will we earn our keep, if we do not please the customer?" Catalin's brown eyes traced over the girl's terrified, pale and underfed features and eventually settled their distant gaze on the wall before them. This one needed all the work she could give, and it would take weeks before she was ready to aim for the master's critical approval.~

Placing the empty bottle down and crushing out the stubbed end of the cigarette, Roxana removed her hat and tucked it under one arm, padding upstairs to bed. She splashed water across her face, and smoothed her hair back to get a good look at her features. She pinched her cheeks and pulled them back, stretching the lines out of her skin with a sigh. Stress did this to a woman.

It seems my plans have already been thought of, I have some competition.
The outlanders seem to have swarmed this place, worse than I remember.
Not that I mind, as long as they keep to themselves-
and don't push their opinions on me too much.

I have few friends and an even smaller want of them.
Though.. the two from my past life have proven useful.
I look forward to how this pans out.

I witnessed a rebel bombing today, it was frightening,
to say the least.
  

[Boots]

My blouse is ruined. That colour,
Both a blessing and a curse.

A Curse as it flows from my veins and stains my clothing.
A Blessing as it is painted upon my lips.

I suppose we cannot always have our way.
Though I do wish my head would stop
this aching, I cannot even recall what happened last night.

Those damned traders. Those damned outlanders.
Why can't everybody just leave me in peace?
Curiously, however; I find myself somewhat
worried about that Garda woman. Her leg
was injured, but the rebel attack didn't take
her life as well, thankfully.

This constant panging headache still
has not left me. My head feels as though
it is about to explode.

Time to look for a hobby.

[Boots]

A Borcan man who reminds me so much,
of the old master. Keeping a local girl in his snare,
I am glad she was able to leave him.
I hope something awful happens to him.

The small circle of people I am watching
grow around me makes me uncomfortable.
There are few in this world that I trust,
though some are truly breaching that rule.

V confessed his feelings and I felt
the immediate need to run. Sure, they are
good friends. But that is all they will
ever be to me. I do look forward to
teaching his daughter how to sing though.

I spoke of my wants to V, and Vivi's.
The idea of them actually becoming truth
is unsettling and exciting at the same time.
This world would be a better place without
men like him.

[Boots]

I worry for the guards woman, and her associates.
I will visit again tomorrow, with Istrati, perhaps
she is doing better. I have hired a maid, of all things.
I do not even need a maid, but she insisted it was
what she was best at, and truth be told,
she is an exceptional one.

As my comrades build I feel myself getting stronger.
Soon, I hope. I will be able to take up the position I want.
It has been quite some time since I stretched my legs.

[Boots]

Scarlet was tugged excitedly through the small home by a little girl, nervously grasping her skirt in her free hand as she was shown into a plain bedroom. It wasn't what you'd expect for a normal little girl. A small bed rested in the corner with an even smaller cupboard beside it. She slowly sank onto the bed and set her hands in her lap, watching out the door as the child ran back and forth from the living room, grabbing up various dolls and dresses from their neat perches to show her. "Papa got this unu yesterday. Is so pretty!"

"Very nice, Nikita. Are you ready to sing?"

"Da, domna Scarlet. The one from yesterday?" She chimed up at the red woman, who grinned and nodded. The previous night, Scarlet had sat with the child and taught her a lullaby she remembered someone singing her when she was a child herself...

The night had brought with it fierce winds and rain, terrifying the girl who dived into her bed and drew the covers to her chin. Scarlet looked about for any sign of her father, and failing to do so she swallowed nervously and moved to sit beside her.

"Is just a storm, little unu." She mumbled, awkwardly placing her hand atop the girl's head. "Please, Scarlet, sing the song again!" Scarlet cleared her throat and nodded after a moment, settling beside the girl and slowly brushing her hair back from her face.

"Nani, nani, puiul mamii,
nani, nani, puiul mamii,
puis, orul mamii mic,
Facete-ai maica, voinic..

Nani nani, puiul mamii.
Nani nani, puiul mamii.
Frumus, el s,i voinicel,
Mandru ca un stejerel..

Nani nani, puiul mamii,
nani nani, puiul mamii,
puiul mamii, puis, or..
Dormi, puiule, dormi, usor.."

Scarlet sang gently to the child in that husky, pleasant voice of hers. It had been so long since she had even thought of this melody, and she was surprised she even remembered the words. As she finished, the child had fallen asleep curled up, and Scarlet looked towards the window, watching the rain stream down the glass and losing herself in her memories.

Screams of agony echoed throughout the slums home, causing Catalin to throw her underfed frame out of bed, tucking the other shaking girl back in with a promise to be back and a kiss to her forehead. She padded to the door, her hand gripping tight to the tiny dagger she kept strapped to her thigh beneath her night gown. Cracking it open to let the light of the main living area stream into the bedroom, she peeked out at the scene.

The slightly older woman who must have been in her twenties, Catalin thought, lay on the dining table with a dirty and drenched sheet covering the bump in her belly and her legs, her face red and slicked with sweat. Emilian paced in the background as he watched with a disgusted expression, his meaty fingers curling around the cigarette in his mouth to drag again, coating the air with a foul mix of smells. An aged woman with her sleeves rolled up rushed to the end of the table, looking up frantically and yelling orders in Balok to the girl on the table, who let free another pain filled screech, her hands curling around the edges of the table, knuckles bone white with stress.

Catalin's eyes widened as she watched, quickly shutting the door before Emilian would catch her snooping and pressing herself to it, exhaling. She listened instead, and for many more hours she sat by the door with her ear pressed, the screams eventually giving ways to gasps, and then.. silence.

Catalin was fourteen when she looked after her first child.

[Boots]

Scarlet looked at her reflection in the mirror, tugging at the crimson skirt to pull it down somewhat. She already looked ten years younger, which worried her. Nothing to cover the flair of her womanly curves, the look she'd tried so hard to hide. Though she needed this, she needed to make a name for herself.

"One of Banciu's girls, mm?"

So, she really did know every business in the area. This worried her even more, if word somehow traveled to Emilian that she was working for someone else and so soon? Who knows what he'd do. She carefully placed the lip paint down, frowning at herself. Things were beginning to fall into place.

[Boots]

Scarlet idly tapped her manicured fingers on the bar, watching the man by the fireplace as she had come to so often do these days. His warm brown eyes always seemed to carry a twinkle, and the smile on his face never left. A lute in his lap he idly strummed, content with the quiet sounds of his almost-music. She scowled to herself as he looked over and caught her eye, turning away to scrub at the counter.

Catalin awoke to the chitter of morning birds, and opening her eyes to stare sleepily at the ceiling she watched one hop down and peep it's head into the hole in the roof, staring back at her. She wondered idly what it would be like to fly, to be small enough not to be seen or heard and leave whenever it pleased her. These thoughts were short lived as a knock sounded on the bed chamber door, waking up the other two sleeping girls beside her in the double bed with tiny groans from their lips. A man's voice grunted from outside the door.

"Five minutes, we have company today."

The morning's usual routine consisted of Catalin washing, dressing, and braiding the girl's hair into plain plaits that lead down one's back to one's waist. Once this was done, they'd get into their dresses and wait in the hall, some of the younger girl's fighting back sickly sniffles.

On these days, she didn't have to sit with the girl's all morning and wait. She had an hour or so of time for herself, where she would slip out of the back door and travel down the road to a little abandoned house. Inside, he would always be waiting for her. His brown eyes would always be welcoming, and there would be food. For an hour, Catalin was able to feel a little joy in her otherwise bleak existance, and be with her closest friend.

[Boots]

Scarlet looked at the red haired girl sitting on the stool in front of her. Humiliated of it, hating it. Scarlet was instantly disgusted. How could anybody hate such a wonderful thing? To be born like that, not have to change yourself. Damn Uta for sending her here, what was Scarlet going to do with a weak willed child? She couldn't be the same person anymore. She couldn't allow herself to be, else Emilian might sniff her out and take her 'home'.

She was a sniveling little coward, curling into a ball at every loud noise. Kind of like a stray animal, but only more pathetic. Scarlet watched her shivering and whimpering and found she was more interested in the curve of Mark's mouth. Noticing she was distracted, the girl tried to slink away and cower somewhere else. Mark casually brought the cleaver down on the bench, his eyes never leaving Scarlet's own. It was almost amusing, that she was meant to look after this sad creature as if she owed her something? Well. She would prove Uta wrong, the cow. She was probably back at the citadel laughing her rear off right now. Scarlet wished she could show this.. brat how difficult life truly was.

[Boots]

Scarlet paced upstairs slowly, raising a brow at the crowd outside the upstairs door. The dancers were in a frenzy, sobbing and holding eachother, and two of the patrons were awkwardly comforting them.

Bursting into the next room she could hear Sislau screaming at someone to "Let the girl go!", Ylenia looked as if she had seen a ghost, and as Scarlet moved close enough to see, pushing past Sislau to look into the small private room her stomach lurched. Nadia, one of the younger, prettier dancer's was slumped against the wall, her lifeless eyes staring at Scarlet accusingly, as if screaming "Why didn't you protect me? Where were you?"

A man without pants stood in front of her, waving around a bottle slicked with Nadia's blood. He was insane, clearly. As he spat a glob of flesh fell from his lips, and in a moment of cold horror Scarlet realised the flesh had come from Nadia's nose, and face. She'd been partially eaten.

Markus steeled himself with his spear, as the insane man lunged at him, quickly beaten down as his spear slipped and pierced him through his heart. Scarlet slowly slinked inside the room, touching the dancer's only non-mangled cheek gingerly, her expression completely blank.

She was back home again, a man was hurting one of her girls. One of her sisters. One of her daughters. She couldn't let a man do this, she had to do something. As if nothing had happened Scarlet stepped over the wreck of the door that had been kicked down to get inside, looking down at the corpse of the murderer. She lifted a stiletto heel, and drove it into his face. She lifted her leg again, and the heel came slamming back down. Again, and again she stomped on his head. Until it was nothing but a pathetic pile of mush. She then stepped back, exhaling through now blood splattered lips.

"Such a beautiful colour, nu?" She murmured as she kneeled to search the man's pockets, finding something wrapped in paper and opening it to stare at what looked to be shards of glass..

[Boots]

Now, before anybody calls me insane.
Whatever was in that package, must have been some sort of illegal substance.
I saw an odd horse with a horn,
I was queen of a place where I had a large group of attractive men at my disposal,
 and the tobacco never ran out.
.. What a wonderful dream that was.

Though instead of wanting more I feel ill at the thought.
My mind swims with the image Nadia's death gaze,
and I feel so guilty for not being there to stop him.
I've decided to track this thing down, and try to put an end to it.
This cannot continue.
The more women that get hurt, the moodier I become, and I do not like being moody this often, it's bad for business.

[Boots]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEgX64n3T7g

[Boots]

Three scrawny little boys came barreling up the path, skidding to a halt sending little stones flying from their heels as they howled up at the window of the small city house. "Cat! Cat! We found something amazing! You have to come see!" A tiny girl's grubby black-haired head popped up in the window to peer at them, she seemed tired. Reaching her little arm up for the latch she grunted with the effort of stretching herself up tall, finally releasing the window open with a breath of relief. "I c-can't!"

The boys looked put out. "Aww, but you always say that.." A large woman appeared behind the girl, moving in front of her and poking her red, ruddy face out of the window to shriek at the boys. "Get on home! She doesn't need your influence!"

Sad dark eyes watched the three figures of her friends slowly shrinking as they got further and further away. And for the next few weeks their visits became less and less regular, until finally, they had forgotten about the little girl in the house on the end of the street.


Scarlet blinked, peering at the three idiots that now sat before her at the bar. A Borcan, who would simply receive dirty looks as far as she was concerned, and the two from her past. How far had she really come since then?

[Boots]

Scarlet adjusted the terrified, skinny child in her arms, cradling her gently as she carried her towards the Nymph. A group of dirty looking working girls hurrying nervously behind her, she walked in stride with Dartov who seemed oddly calm, as if they were a normal family going on an outing. With no secrets to hide, and no ache in their world.

That night Scarlet didn't bother unlacing her corset or getting out of her dress, she didn't bother with her face or her hair, she simply fell onto her bed and stared at the roof with a blank expression, a single, exhausted tear falling from her eye to the red satin she lay upon.

Her nightmare was finally beginning to end.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNQu9rP7xwI

[Boots]

Three different sets of muffled whimpers and sobs echoed around the basement, as Scarlet's mind wandered to a happier place. A burn, an itch, the most wonderful feeling.. what was going on?

She fell to her knees and let free a loud, mournful sob. The first tear fell and mixed with crimson, trickling down her cheeks to pool around her knees as the girls hung limp from their bindings. Her girls were gone, burned, along with her home. Everything she knew, was gone. And what had she left to do, but move on?

The mirror held a different reflection now. Different to Catalin, and even to Roxana. Truly, she had become Scarlet, and only Scarlet. Was it her imagination? Or was she five years younger? She gently closed her eyes against her tears and turned her back. As if almost in slow motion, to remind her of everything she had seen and done that day, she left the grim scene behind, doing the same inside her head.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4FG_xZAzsQ

[Boots]

The beginning of.. who?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=locBtYh90-0&feature=player_detailpage

[Boots]

The twang of the guitar, the croon of the violin, blasting in her eardrums as she wove and swayed, tossing her long dark hair from side to side. Her body was water, and everyone watching would simply melt. Scarlet quietly mused to herself as he placed the drink in front of her, pausing only to lift it and inhale the enticing aroma of fruits and spirits, her eyes fluttering closed.

The lively hum of the dimly lit club buzzed in her ears, and Scarlet's gaze flicked over those gathered once she opened her eyes, raising her glass to the new barkeep in thanks. The stage over yonder seemed empty, the new face would perhaps, become the new body of the place. She would dance again. It would be as it always was, only this time, she was in control.

The visit from the lovely Serafim had left her in a higher mood than usual, though it sent shivers down the poor boy's spine. He was handsome enough, his charm kept the patrons flowing in when she wasn't around. Though she had to ask the question, why was he here? A former guard, a respectable position in this city. Ionel had something to hide, and she was going to find out what.

[Boots]

The disturbing noises came from the kitchen well into the afternoon, and Scarlet's red lips clamped around the cigarette, taking a deep drag. Ash fell to the floor at her red booted feet, and she smiled, the smile turning into a laugh, throwing back her head of lush crimson hair as the noise echoed, bouncing off the walls.

"We're not so different, you and I."

[Boots]

UGLY

WHORE

OLD COW

He's not dead.. 

He can't die..

He's fooled you again..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Sk78uP9m-E

[Boots]

I am the bad one,
Distant and cruel one,
I am the dream,
That keeps you running down..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IaZMST-vHfM

[Boots]

"And here I am again, alone with my regrets in a room that smells of nothing but pity and my namesake."

"Wake up. Please.. wake up."

"Who are you, really?"

Scarlet watched down the hallway, playing with the idea of simply.. walking away.

Of course, running away never solved anything; did it now?

She was now faced with her deepest, darkest demon.

Not that she minded.

Scarlet lazily opened her eyes and stared at the ceiling, not very interested in moving her neck at the pain she knew was going to seep through her very pores the moment she did. A half smoked cigarette burned it's way down to the stub on the table beside her, her hair splayed wildly across the cushions, she hadn't been bothered with her appearance after the last few days. "I want to trust him. He's the only one who knows, I mean.. really knows what happened. He doesn't think I'm insane. As insane as we may have sounded when we tried to explain."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Ejga4kJUts

[Boots]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4sZNDLKk-s

"Once more I found myself in a situation I'd rather not be in. Some might call it stupidity, others, dumb luck. Me? I call it fate. Something crunched beneath our unconscious bodies, and when I awoke I found myself staring upwards into absolute blackness. I could still feel her beside me, still warm, still breathing. At least this much I knew.."

"She croaked out to me, to find some light. I struggled to find my matches, finally striking one and blinking as my eyes adjusted to the faint illumination, drawing a choked scream from my throat as I realised I was now staring into the lifeless eyesockets of some poor nameless soul.."

"The master found us and for a time, we spoke. I hated him the moment I laid eyes on him yet.. something captivated me. Some strange, unnatural beauty and intelligence in his creations, the trouble he'd gone to alone, to keep us here, filled me with an unwelcome sense of self pride. It had come down to a choice. Me, or her. I would never again let one of my sisters fall when I could change it. After realising I could not get out of this, I backed away, closed my eyes and thought of his face, -would he even care?- and lit what I thought would be my final cigarette."

"Those things will kill you, you know."

"I am very aware."

"I don't know why I fought. Perhaps I truly don't wish to die. I've got things left to do, I need to see that blasted Borcan smile at least one more time before I go. Maybe even give up smoking, do the things I never could before. But for whatever reason, I found my sword crashing across her head, knocking her unconscious to the floor, only to be carried to her freedom as I watched in shock. Perhaps I knew she would make it out alright.."

"The bones moved beneath my feet, pulling me down with their fleshless fingers, it made my skin crawl. I was trapped, too weakened from her slicing with that scalpel to break their hold. The master looked down at me with a wicked grin, as the sound of a drum filled my ears, along with the unsettling rumbling of the roof above.."

"I.. don't remember what happened next. I blacked out. When my eyes opened, I was alone, and the place was falling apart around me. I managed to force myself up, gods know how- and escape. I only hope she forgives me for what I must have done under his influence. She looked so .. bruised. Our blood, together, stained the sands, and I couldn't even look at it."