4. Cruel Reality

Hours later Serena stood in a public bathroom, feeling like nothing in the world was real anymore. There was a slight ringing noise in her ears, which was probably shock.

On the wall in front of her was one of those budget mirrors - a piece of sheet metal buffed until it was reflective and bolted in place. Decades were scratched across its face, but it still showed her reflection.

Pale skin, mostly from residual fear. Dark bags under grey eyes, which stare unblinking at everything and nothing. When she closed her eyes, the monster fish was there, ready to tear her apart, so she tried not to close them. Brown hair, messy with sweat, blood and all the struggling earlier. There were nicks and cuts all over the place, so many that only the worst ones had been covered in glaze.

Her hands, arms and legs were no better, looking more like the limbs of a mummy than a real living human. Her singlet top covered more gauze - somehow during her dreadful day she had bruised her ribs badly.

If Serena was not an orphan, and a runaway, perhaps she would be talking to her parents about how scary her day was, or playing games on her phone. But no, she could hardly afford to feed herself and sleep in decent accommodation regularly - how could she buy a phone? Taking high risk, low pay jobs was a bad life strategy - Serena knew that, but she really didn't have much choice in the matter.

She had no school certificate, no references, and no address. If she was willing to sell herself as a prostitute she might be able to live a little better, but her self respect was worth more than her quality of life, so she endured.

She took a loss on the job today. Her life was endangered, she got hurt, and even with the piece of fish monster she took back as proof of everything, the farmer didn't believe her. When he went to see the corpse of the beast, all he found was a broken fence, and a ton of drag marks leading to the pond. What Serena had feared came true - the other thing in the pond ate it up entirely, just like the cows.

The truely scary thing was that the farmer gathered a bunch of people with guns and nets, and emptied that pond entirely. There was nothing found.

Nothing. Absolutely NOTHING WAS FOUND!

It was enough to drive her mad! If she hadn't taken the scales, proving it was a fish, then the farmer would have decided it was a runaway crocodile from the zoo. As it was, because they found no beast, and property damage was done, the farmer refused to pay her.

In fact, he mentioned that she should be glad he didn't make her pay for the repairs to his fence. It was the final straw in a terrible day, and now here Serena is - a public bathroom.

A cold, mouldy public bathroom that gets locked at night, with the water turned off, and it's the best Serena can do for the night because she has no money today, and she got hurt badly so chances are good there will be no money tomorrow or for the rest of the week. If the farmer bad mouths her to his friends then even after she can work again, there will be no job for her.

No money, no work, no house, no food - Serena thought she was used to this. It's been almost a year since she left the last foster home. Looking back at that hell hole, at how they treated her, she didn't regret running.

In fact, if given a choice between spending a day with Ben, the handsy director, or the fish monster, Serena would unquestionably take the fish. At least it looked like a monster as well as acted like one. She didn't have to lie about how she got hurt by the fish.

With a heavy sigh, Serena took her small backpack and found a corner to hide in and hopefully sleep. Looking at her broken knife she sighed again in frustration. That little knife had saved her so many times. She would have to replace it as soon as she could.

Maybe tomorrow she will get lucky. Looking at the iridescent fish scales from her pocket, she could only hope.

Life is not a joke, and everything does not magically work out for the best.

But she still had hope that tomorrow would be better than today.