DOOM WINDOW

Keuren wandered from place to place. Her long hair flowing despite the grime. 

Asheville-pyrite

Keuren was a sex worker and a hostess. She worked at the casino during the day, and did solo work at night. This was the only way she could afford the medicine for her sister. The only way they could eat. The casino wasn’t paying much anymore and they were starting to push her out by cutting her hours. The older girls were starting to get jealous of the younger ones, and the men were starting to fight each other. The structure was falling apart. It was a decent enough place though, modern with arcades and drinks, antiquated with wooden hotels and shopping areas. Keuren stayed in a empty conference room with the other women to rest and change, some stayed there longer. Keuren could never fall asleep unless she knew she would wake up safely or until at least her eyes gave out on her. At times in the middle of the night she could hear a raffle going on next door. The casino would give away unclaimed prizes that built up. Keuren wanted anything she could get her hands on that was worth something so she got up and joined. All of the workers and guards were inside the room cheering and ranting about the items they wanted. Keuren pushed her way in but kept to herself. She waited until the very end for her name to be called, but she didn't win anything so she left.

The next day at the casino Keuren ran into a Drag queen and another girlfriend that she knew. They invited her to their private room in the casino hotel, Keuren was grateful for the scenery change and accepted. It was across the dreary concrete street and up a floor on the cargo elevator. The concrete was almost blue under the half-fading moon, chipped from wear and tear. When they got to the top Keuren was surprised by how plain the rooms were. They went into a friend's room name Elyse, a naturally thin but beautiful dark girl with Fulani braids staying comfortably in her messy room. She had a large bed that took up most of the space and all of her things were pushed under a large dresser that a tv sat on. Keuren entered and said hello. The girl jumped up and addressed the Queen,

"Bianca~Love!"

Elyse said she was off today and was just relaxing watching tv. “I don’t smoke though y’all. Just letting you know. I let people smoke in here sometimes though.”

Bianca, with all her elegance, pulled out a pen and they all started to smoke and talk with their minds relaxing. Elyse got a buzz from the hotel management about unverified guests in her room and responded to them politely. Keuren was sick of this. Every move they made was monitored. She could hear a train passing and could see tracks from the barred window. She left the room and decided the train would be more interesting to explore. 

When she got to the locomotive, it had very few cars linked, and the boxcars were open. She stepped inside one of the cars closer to the front and there was a stubby old man setting up the gears and preparing the train. 

“Where are you going?” Keuren said

“Oh!" The mans head spun around, as if he was expecting her

"Across the whole country! We’ll be stopping a few miles down the road in the next town first.”

He looked Keuren up and down. Tall, thin with high cheeks and wide narrow eyes. He could tell her skin was dark from living in the sun. Goddess

She curtly interrupted his thoughts, “When are you leaving?”

His face turned to curiosity, 

“Not for some time. In two days time. Gotta gather enough fuel for the train.”

"Coal?" 

"No, Pyrite."

Keuren knew around her casino there was Pyrite in one of the caves. She decided to go look for herself to speed the process up. Up behind the casino and a few miles out there was a mountain line that she would walk and climb through when she was feeling lost in her thoughts. The morning air was cold, perfect. She looked everywhere but couldn’t find the Pyrite. She would have to be patient. 

She went back to the train a day later and went directly to the engine room. There was a different man shoveling Pyrite,

“Maybe you could use some more? I thought you may need more. I couldn’t find any around here…”

“Oh! No need! There’s tons here!” The man wiped his sweat with a rag and approached Keuren

He placed two huge chunks of Pyrite in her hands. Keuren imagined pouring the hot pyrite on him and stealing the train. 

“Where did you find it?” She asked instead

In Asheville, north of where I live there’s mountains and caves with as much as we’ll ever need.

“I’ll be back.”

Keuren left and went to work at the Casino. She dealt with the fake grins and the unnecessary remarks incessantly advancing on her. 

She fell asleep for a few hours afterwards on the conference room floor where some women were getting up ready for their shift. That night they had another raffle give away for next door. Keuren went to challenge her luck again, and won one of three handheld monitors. It came in a textured box and inside of a slick plastic case. Satisfied, she left as soon as she won. When she got back to the conference room, she put her things away under her head and laid down. After some time, she could feel the room shaking, muffled screams and thuds reverberated loudly from next door. Then Silence– Not a single soul responded to the noise, everyone had their own stress they needed fall asleep to. The next morning she took a peak inside the raffle room on her way out. An older black guard, built with a fresh haircut called her over,

“Look at this.” His thumb was bent in the wrong direction and wrapped up. “They started fighting after the giveaway. Somebody said they should’ve won.”

Keuren was glad she missed it. Before she went to work she went back into the conference room and grabbed the few belongings she had and headed to the train. She wouldn’t be going back to the Casino. 

She rode until she got to the next town. Angelito. 

It was dirty and crime ridden, but there was a man-made outlet for the ocean with an almost-beach. This place was perfect. 

She found a job immediately at a place called Jezebels. She was a sex worker there and a bartender. She traded her monitor for an old bike and room behind the a kitchen down the road. The bike’s wheels had DOOM and WINDOW very masterfully spelled out inside of the metal spokes.

Sun Down.

Keuren was thin from always being hungry and her legs bowed out a bit when she rode the bike. Everyday she parked it far away from the bar and far away from the other bikes that were cluttered together. It only took her a second to lock it, but some of the other bikes were rusted and had been there for some time, she didn't want hers to stand out. Before going into the bar she would clean up the bottles cluttered around in the dead earth, hoping to turn them in for change - this was always the start of her new routine.

A month or two in a new girl named Molly started working with her. A brunette, with mousey hair. She was always in the way.

“Why can’t you recycle these? We could probably make some money off of turning them.” Molly had a few empty bar bottles in her hand.

Her petite stature made Keuren feel like she was talking to a child,

“We can’t turn them in. Look at the lids.” Keuren's worn fingers tapped the lid of the broken Tequila bottle to show her.

The bottles were only partially made of glass, the rest was special material that kept the patrons from going too far outside the bar with the bottles with a silent signal sent back to the bar. Only a few could be recycled. They turned the broken bottles and glass into the shop keep. He smiled and said, “Thank you.” Molly couldn't understand what the purpose of turning them back in was, or what the point of rapport was here.

They both strutted past the shop and got into character as more people started straggling in. The funk music was playing loudly, and the men were getting drunk already. Every single one grabbed or pinched Keuren and Molly while they running tables. Keuren eventually snapped and told them all off,

“If that was the case, then we should just sit here naked and wait to be fucked.” 

“Maybe!” One guy yelled out, followed by a barrage of laughter in the bar. 

Some of the staff laughed too, they hated how entitled she could be. Keuren let it go and went to the small bathroom to get changed to leave.

After her shift she went back to the Kitchen down the road to get food and lay down. The volunteers working there took pity and let her eat as often as she liked, but there were some who had a problem with her privilege and made her life hell every time she passed through. Keuren ignored them, unbothered, and continued about her way, that always seemed to kill the noise anyway. In the mornings and afternoons she would tied her thick hair up and go to the ocean and swim. The concrete ocean line wasn’t far from the kitchen at all, and sometimes she would help the lifeguards save drowning victims. It was good practice for her. She loved the feeling of her body getting stronger and the heat of the sun. She relaxed at one of the sandy outlets and watched the children swim in dangerous parts of the water. The lifeguards never fully acknowledged her since she was acting on her own, but they would glance over every once in a while to see if she was there.

The local children would run up to her and talk about the wildlife in the water.

“Sometimes we can see the Orcas!”

“Yes, but they’re dangerous. Stay away from them.” Keuren said coolly.

The next day at Jezebels was emptier than usual. Wednesdays.

Keuren focused on the music and cleaning. She loved funk and the song playing was from an old live band that they had not too long ago.

She left the bar around 4 or so and went to the kitchen for an early dinner. Some of the workers were also eating there and instigated a fight behind her in line. Threatened by her beauty, they told her they didn’t like her and would find her outside. 

“Come get me.” Keuren said back

They stared at her the entire time she ate, waiting for her to leave so they could follow her.

Keuren reflected while she ate and calculated that she shouldn’t be causing trouble here

...I need to ghost them...

She left the kitchen hurriedly and hopped on her bike but the group cut her off in a jeep with no panels and an old grey car before she could even move. A tan man with dark hair, a red shirt and jeans got out of the car. He smiled at her, flaunting himself, wild and young.

…He’s confident, so am I…

One of the chubbier girls chimed in, “Let’s see how much shit you talk now! You can’t beat him!”

They fought hand to hand.

Surprise. Keuren was winning, but he was a strong opponent, just not enough alone. The women started to jump in and overwhelm Keuren, but she was able to pull herself out and climb on her bike and speed away. The man followed her down the almost until the ocean line and and then grabbed her. He had powers, just like her and she knew he acknowledged her as an equal because she started to see his true form.

He was from the water and she could see the spirit of the ocean pulsing through his veins. He was angry with her, it didn’t matter why, it was her or him and she needed to kill him. 

Every blow from him was a force almost overwhelming. 

Keuren knew getting in the water would give him the upper hand. She could see ugly squids eyeing her from the surface and killer whales and seals jumping in and out of the water anticipating a great battle. 

She broke away on her bike again and sped down another path. 

She knew if she could get away from the ocean she would have a chance. But as soon she entered the path, he jumped on her from behind making her crash wildly to the ground. Red shirt was standing right over her. Without thinking she used all the power she had and punched her hand through his chest and out his back. In a blink she watched the man-made ocean disappear. She was in disbelief. She had never seen an ocean floor before. Everything was visible, every stone plant and fish. All of the life in the ocean gasped for air and plummeted straight down to the ocean floor. Red shirt fell backwards in the waterless basin and kept falling until he was a red drop of human on the bottom. Keuren started to hyperventilate as the weight of reality became so clear in her senses. She could see water coming in through the ocean pipes in the bowl of the dirt and small animals flying out and falling straight to their deaths.. 

She went back to the Kitchen and into her bathroom and wailed loudly.