Viktoria Jean

{Prologue I} Reina Yamaguchi’s

1999
Nagoya

If you believed that babies are born with no conscious memories – as blank as a paper, then children can be trained to be fearless, or conditioned to fear anything.

Parents often warn their kids by injecting elements of horror. Headless ghouls, the boogeyman, killer clowns and strangers who offer candy in order to steal your soul, lie in wait of unsuspecting children. We grew up victims of the ‘parent scare’. While young kids learnt from embracing the unknown, our inquisitive minds are tamed over time to fear the unknown.

Panic always grips Reina hard when she smells the sickly sweet scent of candy floss, accompanied by chirpy music and vibrant colours of the amusement park. Instead of bringing back joy and fond memories, the wonderland of kids grew to be Reina’s stuff of intense nightmares.

Her fears caused constant piercing migraines like a ricochet of bullets in her brain. She felt each one pierce her skull, as inextricably painfully as a real bullet would. She would remember this day, like this:

She was 6, all smiles as her mother whispered in her ear, instructing her to mount the handsome white horse in the carousel. “Hop on, it’s about to start, we’ll be waiting for you right here when the music stops.”

She was having the best day of her life, wandering the amusement park with her family by her side. Her mother had even bought her a gigantic stick of candy floss in her favourite colour – pink. The carousel was their final stop, and the highlight of their day out in the amusement park. As carousel spun, she was immersed in the rhythm of music to which her mounted horse lifted and lowered her. The intensity of all the sights and sounds were beguiling. She wanted to wave at her family, but could not seem to find them in the sea of faces. Nevertheless, her mother had promised to find her when the music ends.

The ride gradually came to a stop. She saw that the rest of the kids were dismounting by themselves. She waited. The arms that had caught her then were strong, muscular, enveloping as they wrapped round her waist, fiercely protective. Smiling in expectation of her mother or brother’s comforting features, she turned, only to come face to face with a stranger’s smile.

She hadn’t known fear, thus she couldn’t cry. She hadn’t known danger. Her beam lingered, as did her trace of innocence. Her lithe little body knew nothing of fight nor flight; she was physically, emotionally unguarded. What little she knew of fear, was only the tip of the iceberg that she would soon discover.

She was an object of trade carried away while those who were supposed to be there for her at the end of her ride watched from a safe distance, bidding their guiltless goodbyes.

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Scarlet Carousel ©
Think of your lifetime as a long carousel ride. With luck you get to mount on the ride of your choice. Some seats will always be more desired than others. Opportunities to switch may arise. The ups and downs are rhythmical and inevitable. You may choose allies to ride alongside, or choose to face this ride alone. The only way to get off is when your ride ends.

Who gets to dictate the start or the end?

A thug on the run bearing a secret he had sworn to keep from his best friend – a vagabond who built his empire from a great loss. A sidekick who’s always desired to be a hero, and the love of his life who doesn’t know it yet. A girl who is only just coming to grips with the depths of her fears, only to come face to face with her greatest nightmare.

What will unite or tear them apart in this journey, this ride of a lifetime?

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To be continued…
Read Prologue 2 (Pierre’s) – over here.
The full chapter list over here.

Author’s Note: this is a 2020 reboot – some caffeine-boosted late-night attempts at injecting life into my creative soul. All comments welcome.

xoxo
Viktoria Jean