Things were always a dark situation for Amelia, her high school woes dragged out into long stories of vampirism and self mutilation, false suicide attempts and sniffing paint thinner. It was adolescence, her parents would tell family. It was schizophrenia, she would tell her classmates.
One's good fortune is always interpreted differently. Nights where she was forbidden to attend raves and keggers (and didn't have the nerve to jump out the window) she would claw up her arms with razor blades to provoke guilt from her father. She couldn't stand the pain, and often times used hemorrhoid cream to numb the flesh first. She'd never tell anyone at school this. To them, it was her severe mental and emotional problems caused by a fabricated abusive childhood.
It wasn't her fault the drama wasn't put on her. Often times she would wish harm upon herself and her home, just so she could reap the benefits of being a disadvantaged child.
"I play in dark alleys," she once said to a man waiting for the bus. He gave her an awkward look, and she was proud of her statement of rebellion.
She crept out her window one night; fell to the ground and the cement brushed her knees. She nursed the wounds even though there was no one around to witness her agony. After allowing herself insufficient time to recover (why not save and savour the pain for an audience later on?), she took to her feet and skulked through the alley behind her house.
In all honestly, Amelia had nowhere to go. She lied to herself and believed it was important. Every time a new idea of where she was going burst, her pace would quicken with the anticipation of getting to her imaginary obligation.
The girl was oblivious to all that was real; she stumbled over a dislodged brick and fell to her face. She managed to sit up, disgusted with her own incompetence and not a soul to see her misfortune! Blood dripped from her mouth, from a bitten tongue and a swollen lip. She brushed the droplets away with a finger before looking up into the face of a surly, young Hispanic man.
They stared blankly at each other for a few seconds; she, stricken with fear at his emotionless gaze. His hand was at his waist. As she rose to her knees, he drew a gun. She laughed.