SHATTERED

 "Ugh... Ah! Yes, there...  Harder, faster!" A very familiar voice grunted sultrily from the little made-in apartment where Serena lived with her mother.

 Serena stopped dead in her tracks, quite petrified, and then, quietly she continued into the house, oblivious to the frenzied couple who were pummelling into each other on the couch situated in the living room. It was Serena's best couch, and the sight that met her eyes shattered her heart into many fragments.

 Right there was her mother, sprawled haphazardly under the weight of a man. Serena frowned as she made out the figure of the man.

 "Carmine?" She blurted out.

 Carmine turned to her, still moving like an insatiable stallion on the woman beneath him.

 "Mother!" The word came out in a strangulated voice "What in the world..."

 Serena's voice trailed off as tears blurred her vision without warning. The bags she came in with slipped to the ground from her fingers and she slowly pointed at Carmine who had tossed a shirt on and was slowly coming close to her.

 "Look, babe..." He licked his lip and exhaled "It isn't what you think. I swear it, I can explain..."

"Do not come close to me, Carmine. Stay where you are," She whispered, slightly trembling with disbelief.

Serena would never have believed it if a seer had told her that her boyfriend, whom she trusted with her life, has been sleeping with her mother under her nose. She and Carmine started off as best friends in college, he supported her, nursed her dreams and stood by her as she waded through life difficulties due to circumstances surrounding her family. In no time, the relationship skyrocketed and they started going out on dates. It solidified over the months after Serena's graduation that she was sure that nothing could tear them apart. She was wrong. She had a mother.

 Her mother had been an addict for as long as Serena can remember. She went out with several men and eventually got into trouble with most of them, to Serena's detriment. Serena had to juggle three to four different jobs to pay off debts and bring her mother out of prison whenever she was thrown in. They lived in Sicily where the most hideous and obscure illegal activities ensued, so Serena's heart always went into her mouth whenever she learns that her mother has been captured.

 Little did she know that her boyfriend and mother had been banging behind closed doors while she worked her ass out to liberate them.

"Stop being such a crybaby, Serena." It was her mother. She was standing by the window now with a lit cigar lodged between her fingers, stark naked, "Get out to Vander's Shack and take a bottle of rum- or two. You'll forget this ever...."

 Serena hurried out of the room before the waterfalls released themselves. She was never going to let them see her tears. No. She decided.

 It was dusk, and the night had slowly started to set in when Serena walked out of the house, still dazed. Tears blinded her eyes as she trailed off to nowhere in particular. Painful memories on how she grew under the tutelage of a wayward and alcoholic mother, without a father, stormed her brain.

 For the umpteenth time, Serena wished her father had not left- or died. He must have been strong willed, she thought bitterly, to stay with a woman like mother.

 The scene of betrayal replayed itself a hundred more times in Serena's head that she felt she would go insane. The tears threshold was exhausted for the day as none came down even as her heart wept for her pitiful self.

 She had lost everything, no one wanted her. Her mother and the one she loved the most had betrayed her. She had been so brutally stabbed that she feared a heart attack.

 Serena felt lost, like a hopeless refugee that has been rejected over and over again.

 "I have no place in this world... No place," She muttered as she tightly clutched the railings of the bridge she was standing on.

 It was an enormous bridge, one with a reputation for being the graveyard of several people. People like her, she thought. Serena wondered if her father ended up like how she would end in a few minutes time. She longed to see him, and a heart wrenching smile graced her face as she balanced her footing on the railing, ready to sail to the world beyond.

 "I'll rather be with you, father, than remain in this cold world where I find myself in."

And with that, she let herself go.

                             **********

The pull made her reel forward into the arms of a stranger. Serena stared at the woman in a dazed manner, and only the loud thump of her heart reminded her that she was not dead... Yet. She moved away from the woman as though her touch burned, and wrapped her arms around herself.

 The woman had pulled her in the nick of time. The look on the woman's face made Serena avert her stare to the ground. Why was she staring at her in that manner? Was suicide a new story to her? She wondered.

 "Come, child." The woman told her, sympathy written all over her. She stretched a hand towards the desolate looking girl sitting by one of the pillars of the bridge.

 Serena blinked sadly and without thinking, reached out to her savior.

 "How old are you?" The middle aged looking woman gently asked after bringing Serena to her home, preparing a bath for her and feeding her with some Italian homemade soup. It was night now, but the cottage was flooded with light.

 "23,"

 "You're of American Italian descent, I suppose?" The woman probed, wondering at the delicate and unique characteristics of the lady seated in front of her. She had wild long strands of red hair, caramel eyes that seemed to fluctuate colors, nose that appeared to be in the air, and cherry lips. She reminded her of porcelain utensils even when the skin tone of her skin laid in between caramel and white. In other words, she was dainty and petite.

 Serena hesitated, wondering how it would sound if she told the woman that she did not know where her origin spanned from.

 "Italian." She quietly told her.

 "I see," The woman beamed, "I'm Amelia, and I stay alone. You're free to stay for as long as you like. Could you tell me what happened earlier today?"

 Serena felt the tears well up again, but she swallowed hard and it halted. She took a deep breath before turning to the woman.

 "I'm Serena Marino, and my life has been a tale of..."

 As though hypnotized, Serena slowly recoiled into the seat in a deep sleep.

 "Sleep, child. Sleep." Amelia smiled wistfully, eyes glinting with something much more sinister than Serena could ever imagine.