What's This? A New Story?

Presenting: Akin (a story w/ short stories)

My Valentine

            When I first met Lena, it was on an August night. It was the day before school, and I was wandering around town, looking for a place to put my head.

            Yes, I was a teen, male prostitute, who supported himself.

            I left my family, my good life, for a place where I could be myself. I wanted to be something that I wanted to be; not a doctor, like my father.

            Lena was walking around the Seven Eleven, nearby. She had a bag in her hand, and in her other hand, she held a hot coffee.

            When she saw me, crossing the street, looking at her, she smiled. She met me on the other side and handed me her coffee, as if we were merely long time friends.

            “You need it, don’t you?” she asked.

            I immediately accepted it. Yes, I admit, I needed it. I needed anything.

            That had been the beginning of a friendship.

            I saw her at school, alone and by herself. She was a new student, in a different class. I saw her at lunch and she approached me.

            We talked.

            As the weeks passed by, she became my obsession. I didn’t think of anyone else but her; her smiling eyes, her soft voice, her cheerfulness. I had fallen in love with her, without even realizing it.

            It was getting nearer to Valentine’s Day. She was going to be my Valentine. I was going to ask her out, despite our differences.

            She was probably from a good family, had a beautiful and wonderful background, and she probably lived in a white-picket fenced house somewhere in the good part of town.

           

            Three days before Valentine’s Day, I found a good place to lay my head. She was a stressful college student, who so happened to have about a hundred dollars on her.

            She paid for my meal and for the room we shared. She had fifty dollars left, and that was my pay.

            When I left the hotel in the morning, I used the fifty for a bouquet of roses and a box of pretty good chocolates.

            I arrived at school, and she wasn’t there. She didn’t appear until the end of school.

            She gave me chocolates, as well. She was extremely glad to be my Valentine.

            Then she told me, “Alex, let’s run away together. I know where to.”

            “Yes, Lena.”

            The next day, we took the train to the mountains. She said that there was a relative’s house there. It was abandoned. We wandered the thick woods for hours. Before anything, a day went by. But, as night approached, she urged me to continue with her. I passed out.

            The next time I awoke, I was in a house. I got up and instantly felt a different presence. The ceiling was checkered, there were flowers growing on the carpet, and there were butterflies in the room.

            When I came out of the room, the animated stairs spiraled up and down. The stairs spiraling upwards spiraled into the night sky, though it had been morning in the other room.

            I smelled something cooking, and carefully made my way to what was supposed to be the kitchen. There was a woman, in Victorian fashion, fussing over the stove.

            “Excuse me?” I asked.

            Her head turned around. She had a third eye on her forehead. “Good morning!”

            I shook my head, but the image didn’t disappear. This woman was here. Okay, was this some movie set up? “Wh-where’s Lena?”

            “Coming!” Lena’s voice called out. I looked around. The ceiling opened, and she fell down from a door in the ceiling. Her neck and head popped out from her neck, and she merely laughed. “I’m having a bad day.” Her head rolled to my feet.

            “Oh my god!”

            She popped off her arm and reached for her head. “Excuse me, Alex.” She grabbed her head and plopped it back onto her shoulders.

            “I-I-!”

            “Welcome to my home, Alex. Welcome to Akin.”

            “Why-why am I here?”

            Lena’s eyes darkened. “Because…you take things for granted. You do not appreciate things; throwing away your life; using the body you have as if it didn’t belong to you.” She unbuttoned her dress, and her body looked just like a doll’s: plastic and unreal. She stuffed her hand into her chest and pulled out a butcher’s knife. “And, there are people just like me, who need to teach you what it means to cherish everything, especially your body.”

             I was paralyzed. The kitchen lady held me down, as Lena mutilated my arm. The kitchen lady squeezed my eye and my eyeball popped out of its socket. Lena pulled my ears and stitched them to a boy who had appeared out of nowhere; he had no ears to begin with.

            One by one, strangers began to come along, each with a missing body part.

            One of my eyes-my beautiful green eye-went to the forehead of an old man, who had another eye on his tongue. My thumbs went to a little baby. And my beautiful legs-my most cherished body part-went to a lady who had none.

            Lena also stitched other body parts onto me.

            She handed me a mirror and smiled. “I love you, Alex.”

            I had one eye left, which had been stitched to my tongue. I had another pair of lips on my forehead, and a hand on my head. I screamed out of both mouths.

            She kissed me. “Happy Valentine’s Day, Alex. I’m glad to be your Valentine.” She pulled out of her chest another hand, a claw. Her eyes smiled at me, and she brought the claw to my chest, ripping out my only heart. She brought the heart to her lips, and then kissed it. She pushed my heart into her chest and sighed with deep pleasure. “My Valentine, you’ve given me your heart. What more can I ask of you?”

            I felt myself go numb.