#lena storiez!

[lena-artz]

ODYSEY OF RECOLLECTION Pt-2

Pt-1

–Memory is a monster;

Reading that book was the stupidest idea Marlene ever had, she was sure it was all fake... But, even if she was sure, she still felt like she needed to read it. And that’s what she did, and to be honest, she spends nights reading it, she was almost obsessed... She needed to know the end of it.

While reading, she was utterly fascinated by it. Even if it was all a fraud, she could almost feel the story, it was just so sad and they all seemed doomed by the narrative. Marlene even cried because of it one night...

Honestly, even at work she wouldn’t stop think about the book, there was a weird connection between her and the story. She couldn’t stop Reading it either, but even if she wouldn’t stop, it still felt like she was far away from finishing it....

-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-

“So... The book, huh?” Lucy asks while gazing the book in Marlene’s table.

Marlene scoffs while she keeps writing on the keyboard. “I was just curious, it’s nothing...”

Evergreen chuckles. “Oh yeah, nothing. Is it good?”

“It’s... Interesting, I guess. But also a fraud, of course.”

“Of course.” The blonde says with a smirk.

“Shouldn’t you be working too?” Marlene asks, finally turning around to face her friend.

“What? Can’t I come have a little chat with my bestfriend?” This makes Marlene laugh a bit. “And I wanted to ask if you could do me a favor...”

And that makes Marlene’s smile immediately go away. “What favor?”

“It’s... something like a double date... And you can’t say no because I already said you’d come! Sorry!”

“Oh, I can’t fucking believe it! I’ve told you a million times I wouldn’t go to any dates!” Marlene almost yelled in annoyance, she hated double dates, she hated blind dates, she hated any kind of dates honestly.

“Please! You need to go out more! You can’t just work and sleep everyday! Isn’t it boring?”

“No, it isn’t! And you know I hate when you chose things for me! It’s my life, Lucy!”

“I know I said I’d stop, but just hear me for a second!... I got you a good news to work with.”

“Oh, it better be REALLY good.”

“It’s about that rockstar.” Lucy said, almost whispering, hoping Marlene woud like it.

The brunette stayed silent for a second. “You mean Lestat?...”

“Yeah...”

“Fine, I’ll go... Damnit.” She said, muttering the last bit, annoyed that she was tricked so easilly.

“YES! Thank you so much!” Lucy said, almost jumping at her friend for a hug. “You’re na angel!” She sai, kissing the other’s cheek.

“Okay, okay, stop it! I don’t like hugs!”

The blonde finally releases her. “Oh, sorry! Anyway, I’ll text you about the date later. Bye, Lene!” She says finally walking away.

Marlene is left there, annoyed, and feeling slightly bad. She would much more rather stay at home, eating ice cream and reading that stupid book, but now she already agreed... At least she’ll finally have a more interesting thing to work on.

-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-

Now she was standing in front of the restaurant, in heels and a dress(something unusual for Marlene), wondering if this was really worth it... And the answer was no, definitly no.

“Hey girl!” Lucy finally arived. She looked stuning, but honestly, it was hard for the blonde not to look good, at least that was how Marlene saw it. She also looked so happy... This made Marlene smile a bit, she liked to help her friend, if it was anyone else she wouldn’t do it. Lucy was the only exception.

“Hey...” Marlene said, only with a nod, not being excited at all.

“Come on.” Evergreen grabbed her arm to walk in with her. “The boys are already inside!” She said happily, pulling Marlene inside.

The place was fancy, a bit too fancy for Marlene’s taste, but still in an oddly cozy way... There was a table with four chairs in a corner, two of the chairs being already occupied by two men. One of then was tall, dark skin and messy black hair, this one was Lucy’s, Marlene didn’t knew his name, nor cared at all. The other one was small, olive skined, blue eyes and brown hair... it looked like he was trambling in fear just two look at the two women, it would be fun to mess with him, Marlene thought.

The two women sat down, Lucy already starting an excited chat with her date, meanwhile Marlene only stared at the man in front of her, making the poor boy obviously nervous, this would be fun.

“What’s your name?” She asked.

“Patrick, you must be Marlene...”

“Who’s Marlene?”

“Oh, I-I’m sorr-”

“I’m kidding.” She said with a blank expression, without any hint that it was really a joke.

“Hah, that’s-“

“You know, I’m a journalist... I just accepted to be here because my friend over there” Marlene said pointing to the blonde, who was way too distracted by her own date. “Gave me something good to work with, you know that rockstar? Lestat? Yeah, well, you better be worth my time, so tell me about you, or maybe I can go first?”

“Yeah, you can go first-”

“I’m a fucking orphan, born and raised here in this damned city.”

“An orphan, really?”

“Yeah, my shitty parents didn’t want me.”

“I’m sorry-”

Marlene interrupted him again, third time she was doing that. “Don’t say you’re fucking sorry, what are you even sorry about? It’s not like YOU abandoned me. People should stop saying they’re sorry.”

“That’s a strong opinion, you really think that?”

“Of course, if you don’t care then shut up, if you REALLY care then say something more then just ‘I’m sorry’, it’s ridiculous.”

Patrick smiled slightly, like he just had won a prize or whatever, Marlene didn’t even bothered about that, it was just a man being a man after all, at least that’s what she thought at the moment.

They stayed like this for some time, Marlene talking non-stop and the guy listening, she didn’t really cared, but... something really started to bother her, she usually wasn’t that open with people, she was doing it just to scare the guy off, so why wasn’t he running off yet??

“Have you ever thought that you’re so closed off because of how your parentes abandoned you? Like, you don’t feel like you desserve the love and attention...” What the fuck was this guy talking about?...

“I’m sorry, what?”

“Oh, I just said-”

“What do you work with?”

“I... I’m a therapist...”

Wow... THAT was Lucy’s plan then. She turned to Evergreen, who was Looking at her with wide eyes and just muttered a “Sorry...” Marlene didn’t even think twice before getting up and leaving. When she got to the front door, she felt relieved that Lucy wasn’t following her and asking for her to give it a try... She felt so manipulated, and by her own friend.

Okay, maybe she was overreacting a bit, but what friend did something like that??

Marlene sighed then walked to her motorcycle, ready to leave. She didn’t even wanted to come anyway... So why she felt so betrayed?

That didn’t matter, what mattered was that she could go home now and go back to her reading.

-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-

Now, the woman was sitting on her couch while Reading and eating ice cream, she still felt bad about what happened before, but decided to ignore it.

They were talking about Paris, a vampire coven, that’s when she reads the name, Armand.

Marlene’s eyes widened and she felt her body running cold, her heartbeat picking up, sweat starting to roll down her forehead... She saw those memory flashes again.... A house, two, seemingly, happy men (one now she recognized as Armand), a tree, herself when she was younger, sounds of laughter, the smell of blood and something rotting... She started having a panick attack.

“OH FUCK.” Marlene quickly gets up from the couch, she doesn’t even care when the book and the ice cream fall to the ground, making a big mess, she just runs to the bathroom.

She almost fell down to the floor while running to the other room, but once she was there, she gripped the sink’s border with all her strenght until her knuckles went white, looking at herself in the mirror, her breath was too heavy, her heart too fast, her hands shaking... She felt like her heart was trying to jump out of her chest, tears already rolling down her cheeks.

“N-no, no, no, no....” She opens the cabinet on top of the sink and grabs a little orange bottle, she opens it and takes two pills out, immediately throwing them in her mouth and swallowing. Marlene’s heart starts to calm down, she looks at her own reflex in the mirror again, she was sweating. A bunch of thoughts start running through her head, none of them made sense at the moment... But then, finally one of her thoughts seems to make a bit of sense.

“I-I had a family...”

[lena-artz]

ODISSEY OF RECOLLECTION

Pt-2

-Pilot chapter;

It was the same recurring dream once again, the same incomplete dream over and over since she was, what? 14? 15? It was stupid, really, it’s not like it really meant something at all...

The same dream, over and over and over again...

She wakes up, sweating, heavy breath, like if she was drowning and finally could breath again.

“This dream again... Shit- What time is it?” She asks herself, while turning to her bedside table. The clock marks 06:30am in it’s glowing red letters, time to get up.

Marlene gets up slowly, still feeling very sleepy. She walks straight to the bathroom to take a shower, after that she looks at herself in the mirror. The tanned skin, messy hair and the eybags... Where, or better, when did it went wrong?

“Gosh... I look terrible.” Then she walks back to the room to get dressed, after all she needs to go to work, unfortunately.

-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-

“Girl, you look horrible.” The blonde woman says.

“Thanks Lucy, you’re so helpful” Marlene says sarcatically, her mood wasn’t good today and Evergreen knew.

“Same dream again?”

Marlene rubs her tired eyes and then says: “Yeah... Same dream, again.” She sighs, annoyed. “I’m tired of all this shit.”

“Have you tried seeing a-“

“Lucy, if you tell me to see a therapist again...”

“I’m just saying it would help!”

“I don’t need help, I’m fine, now let me get back to work...” Marlene said then looked back at her computer. Honestly, she’s been looking at the screen for so long that the words stopped making sense for her, actually, most of Marlene’s life didn’t make sense. “Seriously, who reads the newspaper nowadays anyway?? That’s so pointless...”

“Why don’t you quit?” Lucy asked, as if it was that easy.

“Why don’t you try to be helpful for once?... Sorry, it’s just- Those news are so boring!”

The blonde chukles, she didn’t even felt bad about how her friend spoke to her anymore. Then, an idea pops in her head “Oh! Maybe you could do like that journalist who got famous again! The one who interviwed a vampire! What was his name again? Daniel Molloy?”

Marlene didn’t knew why, but hearing this name made her feel something weird and see some weird flash of mamory... A young, brunette man...

“Marlene? Are you okay?”

“W-what?... Y-yeah, I’m fine...” She quickly recomposed herself. “And vampires are not real, the guy’s obviously a fraud. He was just desperate for people to talk about him again. What’s next? Interview with a werewolf?” She says sarcasticaly and both the women laugh at the idea.

“Well, he got what he wanted, everyone is talking about this book, it wouldn’t be such a stupid idea.”

“I’m not doing that. Now go, we both need to work.”

“Alright Ms. Bad Temper.” Lucy says and finally walks away.

This whole conversation made Marlene uncomfortable, but why? Why just hearing that guy’s name made her freeze? What was happening in her brain?

During her whole shift, she can’t stop thinking about the name and about the interview, it didn’t mean anything, right?... Maybe Lucy was right and she did need a therapist after all...

-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-

After the shift, Lucy asked if Marlene wanted a ride home, but she refused. Now she was walking alone in the streets of San Francisco, she liked walking alone, watching the people and the streets. Everything looked so familiar, yet so strange for her.

While walking, Marlene suddenly decided to stop, she didn’t even knew why, but when she turned her head to the right, she saw a bookstore, and the book in the showcase... Was Interview With The Vampire, by Daniel Molloy...

She had that weird feeling again, almost like that book, or rather the name, was calling for her, like a magnetic pull, like if it was sending a message right into her brain, saying: “Come to me...” And she did, Marlene walked into the bookstore and bought the damn book.

It was the same recurring dream once again, the same incomplete dream over and over since she was, what? 14? 15? It was stupid, really, it’s not like it really meant something at all...

The same dream... There was blood on the floor, she was there, watching, but she was younger, there was also two men... Who are them? The blood is not from any of the three, she’s not scared... She tries to speak, and she does, but she can’t hear her own words, like always. One of the men answers, he looks young yet old, is it even possible? She can’t hear him either. The other man opens his mouth to speak, but then... She wakes up before he can say anything.

The same dream, over and over and over again...

She wakes up, sweating, heavy breath, like if she was drowning and finally could breath again.

“This dream again... Shit- What time is it?” She asks herself, while turning to her bedside table. The clock marks 06:30am in it’s glowing red letters, time to get up.

Marlene gets up slowly, still feeling very sleepy. She walks straight to the bathroom to take a shower, after that she looks at herself in the mirror. The tanned skin, messy hair and the eybags... Where, or better, when did it went wrong?

“Gosh... I look terrible.” Then she walks back to the room to get dressed, after all she needs to go to work, unfortunately.

-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-

“Girl, you look horrible.” The blonde woman says.

“Thanks Lucy, you’re so helpful” Marlene says sarcatically, her mood wasn’t good today and Evergreen knew.

“Same dream again?”

Marlene rubs her tired eyes and then says: “Yeah... Same dream, again.” She sighs, annoyed. “I’m tired of all this shit.”

“Have you tried seeing a-“

“Lucy, if you tell me to see a therapist again...”

“I’m just saying it would help!”

“I don’t need help, I’m fine, now let me get back to work...” Marlene said then looked back at her computer. Honestly, she’s been looking at the screen for so long that the words stopped making sense for her, actually, most of Marlene’s life didn’t make sense. “Seriously, who reads the newspaper nowadays  anyway?? That’s so pointless...”

“Why don’t you quit?” Lucy asked, as if it was that easy.

“Why don’t you try to be helpful for once?... Sorry, it’s just- Those news are so boring!”

The blonde chukles, she didn’t even felt bad about how her friend spoke to her anymore. Then, an idea pops in her head “Oh! Maybe you could do like that journalist who got famous again! The one who interviwed a vampire! What was his name again? Daniel Molloy?”

Marlene didn’t knew why, but hearing this name made her feel something weird and see some weird flash of mamory... A young, brunette man...

“Marlene? Are you okay?”

“W-what?... Y-yeah, I’m fine...” She quickly recomposed herself. “And vampires are not real, the guy’s obviously a fraud. He was just desperate for people to talk about him again. What’s next? Interview with a werewolf?” She says sarcasticaly and both the women laugh at the idea.

“Well, he got what he wanted, everyone is talking about this book, it wouldn’t be such a stupid idea.”

“I’m not doing that. Now go, we both need to work.”

“Alright Ms. Bad Temper.” Lucy says and finally walks away.

This whole conversation made Marlene uncomfortable, but why? Why just hearing that guy’s name made her freeze? What was happening in her brain?

During her whole shift, she can’t stop thinking about the name and about the interview, it didn’t mean anything, right?... Maybe Lucy was right and she did need a therapist after all...

-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-

After the shift, Lucy asked if Marlene wanted a ride home, but she refused. Now she was walking alone in the streets of San Francisco, she liked walking alone, watching the people and the streets. Everything looked so familiar, yet so strange for her.

While walking, Marlene suddenly decided to stop, she didn’t even knew why, but when she turned her head to the right, she saw a bookstore, and the book in the showcase... Was Interview With The Vampire, by Daniel Molloy...

She had that weird feeling again, almost like that book, or rather the name, was calling for her, like a magnetic pull, like if it was sending a message right into her brain, saying: “Come to me...” And she did, Marlene walked into the bookstore and bought the damn book.