Her fingers clawed at the earth around her. The dirt filled her screaming mouth and cut off her voice as she raged inside of the confines of her grave. All at once her fingers, groping and clawing for the freedom above her; broke through the hard-crusted soil followed by an explosive burst of dirt and detritus as she heaved herself out of the chest high pit.

She knelt on the ground after crawling from her doom and screamed until the dirt had finished pouring from her lungs. She screamed until the daylight faded into darkness and sobbed until it returned. Finally as the dawn broke she quieted, her large silver eyes turning to the sky as it became a pallet of pastels above her.

"I will burn them all!" Her voice was little more than a hiss as she rasped, "I will burn everything they hold dear. I will become the ruin they feared, made by their own damn hands!" she punched her fists into the dirt. Though so thin her hands seemed more bone than skin, the force of her hit sunk them deep into the ground below her. Then taking a deep breath to steady herself, she pushed her lanky dirty gray hair back out of her face and pushed herself onto her feet. Her clothing had long ago decayed around her in her grave, and so Enora walked naked into the dark forest which had been her tomb.

~

Stoned. Stoned in his bed with the sunlight clinging to whatever body warmed the spot next to him. That is where he wanted to be. Rui adjusted the thin black wool socks that trapped his leg hair in his boots and rubbed them against the back of each calve. How he had gotten suckered into leaving his sanctuary to travel into the city was beyond him.

Not so much beyond me, maybe. he thought to himself as he walked across the expanse of cement that was the parking of LOT INC.

But I was written off a decade ago. None of this has anything to do with me other than to highlight the correctness of our, "family" with the attendance of the prodigal outcast. A cool smirk tilted his thin lips up at the corner giving his stoic features touch of something feral.

After checking in with the guards; none of whom had once seen the tall broad-shouldered youth with his wild auburn curls and bright green eyes enter the building before, he made his way to the "antique" elevator lift in the central building of the expansive complex. Encased in thick glass and adorned with rose gold accents the lift was indeed something beautiful and the only part of what had once been a historical building that was saved during the renovations of his Father's time. The company had outgrown the statuesque "Banker's Prison" as the surrounding town called it. It hadn't been with much remorse that his father had upon realizing this bought up and scared off the other property owners in order to expand from that single building into a compound of 10 buildings sprawling over the five miles of land and memories they had bulldozed into the ground. He handed his entrance paperwork to the lift operator and within moments they were rising steadily above the ground level and up to the executive suites.

Rui did not even pause after he got off the lift. He sauntered down the elaborate glass walkway that led to one of three offices on the upper floor and before the attendee could ask for paperwork he wrested the brass handles of the French doors and flung them open with a resounding thud. The office was dark, with the red light blocking curtains pulled over the windows and only one small desk lamp on to illuminate the room.

"Daddy Dearest!" he called in a mockingly childish voice while self consciously adjusting the dark green flannel he wore loose and open over his black t-shirt.

"Father mine! You rang. Loudly. Repeatedly. Now I am here and what…you're having a nap or something?" He shook his head as his hands ran over the large black desk which was accompanied by a single black round table surrounded with gray padded chairs as the only furniture in the room.

A sound between a growl and a grunt emitted from the back of the office and Rui made his way over the silk and wool carpet that matched the furniture toward the noise. Sunk to the floor nearly out of sight in the darkness of the office lay his father. The once strong and proud man clutched his throat as blood oozed out thick and arterial around his fingers. He sputtered and choked, his free hand reaching for Rui. Kneeling, shocked and at a loss for words Rui fumbled for his father's blood-soaked hand and held it tight.

"Father, what happened? GUARD!" he bellowed the last part which caused the guard to scurry in.

"CALL THE AMBULANCE YOU DAFT BASTARD" Rui screamed at him, eliciting a yelp from the guard as he fumbled for his radio to call for help.

"Ss…Son" the man gasped as blood splattered his thin pale lips. "Son…There is so much. To tell…to do…" Rui hushed him as he helped his father's weakening grip to staunch the flow of blood from his neck.

"It'll be alright, father. Help is…"

"I HATE YOU. Your….Insolence…lazy…worthless. Shoot a dog if it were so lazy…" his father's words were clipped as he pulled away from the comforting hand Rui had placed over his and grabbed his son's hair just behind his ear pulling him close as he wheezed.

"Fate has come, Rui. Fate has come and my blood…you are pathetic…I have failed…" The man's last breath hissed between his lips as he finished and the light drained from his eyes as he slumped back to the ground, as dead as dead gets.

As Rui sat listening to the shouts of the approaching guards and medical team; covered in the blood of his father and reeling mentally from the shock of it all, the world began to fade out around him. He felt as though he were falling into himself. Just before the world settled into thick darkness he heard his father's voice one last time.

"You are pathetic."