𝐏𝐞𝐞𝐫𝐥𝐞𝐬𝐬 (marvel fanfic)

Prologue

She was in a foul mood. The tilt of lips seemed to be caught by gravity these days. Everything around her darkened her thoughts.

The slightest noise left her with a desire for murder. The voices she normally ignored with ease, seemed to etch themselves in her head playing like a broken record. The children, whose energy she usually enjoyed, just annoyed her to no end.

Now wasn't a time to bother her. The first one to talk to her would be the victim of her pent up stress. If the sour face and guarded posture didn't give her bad mood out, the curt and strained answers should.

Sarah didn't like attention. She truly didn't. The feeling of those eyes scrutinizing her, the less than proper gazes and the whispered comments, a constant feeling of being watched, judged and analyzed. She hated it. She wanted nothing more than to gauge out their eyes. If they weren't able to control their gazes, she shouldn't have to control herself either.

Her face didn't make it easy for her. As her sister often told her. 'You look like a prostitute. Your looks are too seductive. You could dress in a trash bag and people would still drool over you.'  Their lack of respect forced her to hide her body under layers upon layers of clothes.

Now, the reason for her particularly bad mood? Her boyfriend broke up with her. She wasn't desperately in love with him but she still thought that after all these years they came to be each other's pillars. They were friends since they went to university. They were best friends. But it seemed like she was the only one who thought that. The only one who thought that their night-long conversations were worth anything.

She found a safe haven in him, with him, she was ... happy. Not the euphoria kind of happy, but the at peace kind of happy. The one which made her smile without reason, forget about her troubles and just enjoy the nothingness of the moment. After a long week of work, going to see him, sit beside him in silence and just stare into space, this was what gave her, her happiness. Apparently, it wasn't the same for him. All those years and that 'I'm happy you're here' of his was just a lie? All a f*cking lie?!

Biting her lips in anger recalling their conversation, she walked even faster to get back to her home. She saw red, her eyes were hurting, her nose felt hot and her stomach was twisted a thousand ways. She felt sick.

'I'm not happy with you. I want to find true love. Forgive me.' What a joke! For 5 years they were together and he never once mentioned this true love of his. What did he think she was? A friend he slept with to wait for his destined one? A sleepover friend? A joke? A doll he could just use and discard?

Did he think she didn't notice the hickey on his neck; she didn't see him for a week and he already couldn't control himself?

Just thinking of the years she lost with that trash made her red with anger. The person she thought she knew the most, the one she thought knew her the most, just like that, gone in a second.

All but throwing herself on her bed, she sighed heavily. He tired her out. On a weekend. Her only days of peace. Like smoke her happiness was gone, evaporated.

Glancing at the thin and barely noticeable letter on her messy desk, she sighed heavily. She was late again to pay for her bills. She could still hear her tenant's warnings. How long could she live under that stress before she broke down? Long enough to finish reading her series of books, she chuckled.

How miserable her life was. Her happiness relied on fictional characters. She supposed at least she should be happy with having a place to sleep in and food to eat. Even if she guessed she would have to cut down on eating too much to get by the end of the month.

Shaking her head, she slapped her cheeks and looked out of her windows in hope of distracting herself. The city, as usual, was more alive by night than by day. A life she wasn't keen on living. Going out by night just wasn't her thing. She preferred staying in her safe zone.

Unlocking her phone, she connected it with the cheap speaker in her room-apartment.

The first notes already brought a smile to her face. Music was, together with her books, her only solace in this meaningless life. Getting up, she danced gently to the rhythm, everything else already forgotten. Instead, the lyrics to the song flew by her dry lips, her focus entirely on moving through the mess that littered the floor while singing.

She was happy with that. She already finished the documents due for the next week so she had a full day to herself.

A few hours later, she got out of her short shower, dressed in comfy clothes.

Sliding tiredly to her hard bed, she sighed contentedly once on it and started reading on her phone. Not the best for her eyes but she didn't care. She didn't plan on living long anyway. Being old and unable to move while rotting in a hospital didn't really tempt her... just like watching her society and planet die. The sooner she was gone, the less stress for her. She wouldn't try to make it happen earlier, but she would eagerly wait for it.

Immersed in her story, all sorts of emotions were displayed on her face. She loved going on adventures with these characters, she loved seeing their diverse personality come into life. She loved watching over them like their guardian angel, unable to act but still fully supporting those flawed characters.

Turning off her phone and closing her eyes, she let sleep drape over her, unaware of what was to come.

That night, she had a strange dream.

"I can't keep on living. I'm too tired for that. Please take my place."

And the next thing she knew, she woke up, starved, cold and in a frigid blood-stained cell.