Dollface [Chapter One]

She slammed the door behind her, I was in a fury and didn't notice until I heard the car scream out of the driveway. I ran to the door not looking and fell. In my downward fall I reached out for the door handle but-SLAM!
My body hit the wooden floor hard, I looked up and saw my fingers holding onto the gold painted handle. The goo-like texture of my fingers pulled closer to the floor, splattering on the floor boards, like mud.
She was gone now and I knew things would never again be alright between us. Defeated I let my head fall to the floor and my body ooze through the cracks in the wood, landing on the dirt below the house.

"Pull yourself together." A rat told me, underneath the house. He was holding a large crumb of something. "This isn't the kind of place you want to end up."
I tried talking, but only made bubbles in the puddle I'd become.
"Here." He told me, handing me what he was holding. "Take these crumbs, they'll make you feel better." He placed it in the center of my puddle and hurried off. I tried to chew them, and for a long while just managed to do nothing more than make them soggy. But at long last, I chewed them fully.
I crawled out covered in dirt, got to my feet and patted myself off. I walked around the house, to the front yard, the driveway was empty-she had taken the car, our car, her car. I stopped for a moment, and watched as the skid marks on the street saw me and slithered away. I guess they didn't want me knowing where she went.
I ran after one, chasing it for a few blocks before finally getting close enough to slam my foot down onto it's tail. It screamed, writhing in agony. The screams sounded too much like the screeching of tires, it hurt my ears.
"Where's Aribella!?" I asked the skid mark as I pulled its face towards mine, it squirming the whole time.
"She-she, she went to her mother's!!" It said finally, I let it and it slithered off into the distance. I stood in the middle of the street for a while thinking.
"Her mother has always hated me," I thought to myself. "and she lives in the center of Pompey City, fuck, I can't go there." I walked onto the sidewalk to my right, and headed towards Pompey, the city of all that could have been. I pulled a cigarette out of my inner coat pocket and a lighter out of my left pant pocket. I lit it and inhaled deeply. I exhaled, and let my shoulders slump down. I was really doing this, I was really trying to get her back, I'm such a fool.
Pompey was dangerous, take the wrong corner and you'll never find your way out. Just thinking about the horrible city made my hands shake. I took another hit of the cigarette to calm them.
The sun was setting, it was that time when the street lights hummed to life. They spoke to each other cheerfully asking the other how their day had been. I listened to take my mind off of my impending doom.
"How's life?" One of them asked me, I looked up at him.
"Dull." I said.
"That's a shame," He replied. "life is too short to spend it in the dull. Life should be bright, it should make your eyes hurt!" He joked, I heard others laugh. I smiled, they were right. But seven still, I couldn't help but feel dull every time I thought of Pompey.
"That dull look is still weighing your flowers down." Another street light said to me as I neared it. "Where's the funeral?"
"Pompey." I said with a dead smile, trying to play along with their jokes. But as the words escaped my lips, all the lights gasped and flickered, they each got a little dull after hearing it.
"Why would you ever go to a place like that?" She asked me as I was directly under her.
"I've got to get Aribella back."
"Couldn't you just call her?" A different light, a few feet forward asked me.
"I'm sure I could," I called out to it. "but I didn't pay the phone bill."
"Ohhh!" The light nodded a few times. "Its the phone spiders you're avoiding?"
"Yup, yup." I agreed.
"I once knew a guy," The light began. "who's house was so filled with their web of bills, that it eventually pulled his house under ground with their weight! He's still down there with a shovel and a machete trying to get out! Can you believe it?!"
"Its a horrible thing." I said, still walking.
"Well, why not use a pay phone?" He called out to me, I was now crossing an intersection.
"That's a good idea, I think I might!" I called back waving. He flickered, their way of waving. This made me smile, and cheered me up. I held onto the feeling and put it in my jacket pocket, knowing I wasn't going to find too much of it these days.
I was making good progress, walking the streets, until my feet started to ache. I decided to stop off at a liquor store that was coming up.
As I walked in, so did Aribella. I looked at her confused. She looked so happy, looking back at me as she rushed through the aisles to the coolers along the back wall. She was getting us cold drinks. As I reached the coolers I could hear her humming. I recognized the melody but had forgotten the name. She turned to me, handed me the drink: a cold coffee, my favorite.
"Here you are love!" She smiled, her porcelain face giving me butterflies. Her black eyes, were sparkling, the way they used to, when we were together. Then she looked at me disappointed and let her face scrunch up. "Don't just stare at me!" She walked to the check out counter, I followed. The cashier looked at us, her in her doll black dress and me in my black suit.
"Where's the funeral?" He asked pointing to my face., then he laughed. "I haven't seen red poppies in ages!" Aribella looked up at me, she combed her fingers through my flowers like she was combing my hair.
"I love the poppies." She said smiling, her flawless face dazzling. "They bring out the color in his eye." I smiled back.
"I guess you're right." The cashier said. "I ain't never seen them grow outta' someone's left eye before though. What happened?"
"I don't remember." I replied honestly.
"Well, whatever." He said as he hit a few buttons on the cash register. "It'll be four flies for those." He motioned to our drinks. I opened my wallet and four butterflies fluttered out and made their way into the register. "Thanks." He said. "Have a good one." We thanked him and walked out. Aribella was the first to speak.
"Jack?" I lifted an eyebrow as I drank my coffee. "When can we buy a tree?" I shrugged. "I mean x-mas is only a few weeks away and..."
"I hate x-mas trees, and I thought we talked about not getting too committed too fast?" I asked.
"I know we did, but how can we have an x-mas without a tree!? And its only a commitment that lasts a few weeks, its no big deal!" She said as we headed towards Pompey.
"Have you ever talked to an x-mas tree? They're annoying!" I exclaimed.
"No, they are not!" She yelled back, opening her juice finally.
"Yes, they are! All they do is stand there, they're dumb as hell, and molt all over the gifts." I said. "The only thing they have going for them is they look nice."
"Its settled then, we're getting one!" She screamed, her voice squeaking.
"Wait, what?" I asked.
"We're getting one because they look nice and help to put the house in the x-mas spirit, and you know how depressed the house has been lately!" She smiled, looking at me. I couldn't help but smile back. She had the affect on me, I was such a push over when she was around. Her boisterous personality made up for my pacifistic one, we were a perfect balance.
"Jack?" She asked again.
"Yes, Dollface?" I replied.
"Can we visit my mother this x-mas?" Her eyes on the sidewalk ahead of her. "Together I mean?"
"Are you really asking me this, or are you giving me a choice?" I asked.
"Everything begins with a choice, hun. And yes, I'm asking, I said I'd work on my attitude, didn't I?" I nodded, we had agreed to work on the things that pushed the other away, and her forcing me to her mother's was a prime example.
"She's never liked me." I said, coldly.
"But I love you, that should be enough for the both of you!" She was angry now.
"She always compares me to that douche bag you were with before me, and you know I can't tell her what's on my mind!" I said tossing my empty can into the street. It bounced a few times before stopping, then it sat up and screamed out to me.
"Jerk off!" I held my head down and Aribella waved back to him, as he flipped up both off.
"Well, Adam didn't save my life like you did." She said. "He would never have jumped into that lake, and you did, and that's why I love you; you care if I'm alive or dead." I sighed.
"Alright, we can go visit your mother this year." I said. She screamed with joy and smiled. It stretched from ear to ear.
We came to a power line, its roots suck deep into the ground, and its body reaching up and up for forever. The sidewalk wrapped around it like a dress. So naturally, each of us walked around it, me on the left, Aribella on the right. I held my eyes on her and we neared it, and as we passed it, she disappeared the way they do in the old Bugs Bunny cartoons. I looked up at the power lines' face.
"Sorry," She said down to me. "that always happens when memories are close to me." I looked away and kept walking, to Pompey, alone.

-Sir Jestro