Hello. You see that girl over there? The one in high heels and the tight red dress, if it can even be called a dress. The Japanese one. That's me, Caro Lang, and yes, I'm in pain. It's funny, actually, how the world works. My home became unsafe so I had to flee. I didn't know where to go so I 'borrowed' this outfit and started selling myself just so I had enough money to eat. Yeah, it's just a little bit desperate, but c'est la vie.
A few years ago, I was a completely normal girl. Well, at least as normal as someone like me can be. I'm part of something called the Church of the Dakuchenjiringu. I think it translates to 'dark changeling'. Every member has the same tattoo on their chest. Every member is arranged to marry someone else, usually someone with a birthday around the same time. Apparently it makes us 'soul mates'. It's all pretty ridiculous.
Anyway, we're this cult that sort of believes our saviour is a shapeshifter with a tendency to drown people in darkness but it is waging war with vampires, who keep its power dampened. So the basics are kill all vampires, love and emotion is for the weak, as humans we are naught but a commodity, and oh, yes, almost forgot, if you violate laws of the church, to appease the dakuchenjiringu, you get your head lopped off.
Now excuse me, but I don't want to live my life like that. I was arranged to marry some snob named Pete Matthias. I'm sorry, but I didn't want to, and then I fell pregnant. You have to understand how much that made me panic. I was going to be decapitated! Pretty much cried every night. I was so, so scared, I couldn't sleep or eat, the walls were closing in, and I was afraid getting an abortion would just make everything worse. Then things got worse anyway. The father of the baby decided he didn't like me. I don't remember exactly what happened. He was throwing things at me while I was at the park, up a tree, and I lost my balance...and the baby...and he just...laughed...
It still haunts me. That smile on his face when he tore me apart like that, killed my baby, his own unborn child. He used to be so good looking and fun in my eyes, and suddenly he became a monster. And I was there in the middle, with this strange sense of loss. Suddenly I just really, really wanted a baby. I'd do anything to have a baby. I just needed someone willing to have unprotected sex with me.
That's where Caius Mackay came in. An absolutely amazing man, gorgeous, and he liked me. I didn't use him, mind you. I really liked him back. Things went as they did and eventually I fell pregnant once more and this time?
This time I ran. Into the streets, where nobody could find me. Nowhere was safe after that, because undoubtedly my picture would be shown around the church, and running away itself would be enough to sentence me to death, so...yeah.
And really the rest is history. I had no food, I stole some clothes, became a prostitute, got myself a little food, just about enough to sustain myself and the unholy bump, lost weight as quickly as I gained it...in the end I guess the bump made me look healthier. Less skinny and horrible. It helped hold the dress taut. And now I'm stood there in an alleyway in the middle of the night, surrounded by the blankets I sleep in on a cold Autumn evening, but I'm certainly not cold. I'm sweating like a pig, actually. I've been pretty much constantly hungry for the past few months, but I've managed to get myself a little something for my belly until these past three days...these past three I've just been in pain and hiding myself away because the hospitals aren't safe, any one of the people there could have that dreaded cult tattoo. I have to get all my clients to raise their shirts to prove they're not part of it, to prove they're not that dangerous, although I admit I've been beaten and robbed before. Finally I just drop. My legs give up and I end up on my backside. I don't have the energy for this! Caro Lang, dead to the world and lost to heaven. Undeserving of love and pity. I just want to sleep right now. Please just let me sleep. I don't want to have my baby now. I want Caius. I want my boyfriend. I want Caius.
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