Chpt 1 of something yet untitled and unedited

Muffled sounds coming from her moms tiny room woke Ellis. She wasn’t a heavy sleeper to begin with, so even the slightest of noises have a tendency to rouse her. Glowing orange, the digital clock let her know it was 3:14 am. She grabbed her pack of Parliment Lights and her lucky Betty Boop Zippo and walked toward the front door.

Wrapping herself in a ratty, oversized sweatshirt, she propped herself on the railing of what masqueraded as a front porch and lit her cigarette. Ellis was sure that the noises her mom was making, which, inside the trailer were barely softened by the tiny bit of insulation, were surely reverberating throughout the Pink Flamingo Trailer Park, home of drag queens, hookers, lost souls and a combination thereof. Some of them, somehow, were raising kids here, too.

Ellis was one of them. An innocent by-product of a life gone wrong, like the rest of the kids that lived in a trailer park. She was, according to the rich kids at the high school she had just graduated from, no better than the woman who birthed her. God knows if her father was even better, she’d never met him and she’d be willing to bet that her mother only knew him for an hour and fifty dollars.

She sucked the smoke in deeply and held the cigarette at attention for the next drag. Briefly she thought of giving up this nasty habit but what would trailer trash be without chain smoking? If she was going to be it, she might as well do it right.

The sex noises coming from her mothers room were deafening to Ellis, even in the dark quietness of the surroundings. “Mom, shut your freaking window.” she yelled through the open screen, which was by her perch.

“Wha? Shut the fuck up and go back to bed you worthless sack of shit. I’ve told you not to bother me when I’m working.” shouted her mom who immediately went back to making her animal sounds.

“Ugh, looks who is calling who worthless.”

Ellis knew she had to get out of this dump. Somehow. Trapped here in this hell with her mom and thrown into a school of mostly wealthy kids, she felt lost and out of her element. School was never her thing, neither was being the daughter of a whore. She lived with a constant sense of unfulfilled desperation.

Writing her songs and singing. That was her life. Her calling. She knew she was destined for greatness, but then again, didn’t everyone think that of themselves? What she wouldn’t give to get there. She’d sell her soul, without second thought.

“If there was a devil, I’d give you a giant trade. I’d whore my soul to get my star.” quietly, the words escaped, hung in the air and flew off into the night.

The trailer got quite, obviously the deed was done and the guy would throw some wadded up money at her mom and vacate shortly. Ellie wondered, for a moment, who the flavor of the hour was that her mother was doing. Probably the manager of the park, he’d been coming around a lot lately, even leering at her and making crude comments. Ellie made him very aware that she was nothing like her mother. NOTHING like her.

Ellis stubbed out the bit of cigarette that was left and flicked it toward the street lamp where it hit with a soft twang and lay smoldering in the grass. The smoke curling into the thick air gave off an eerie appearance. Ellis glanced over to make sure she hadn’t started a fire, although nothing could destroy this trailer park, except maybe a tornado. In the haze, she saw the shadowy figure of a large man walking toward her trailer.

“Probably another paying customer;” Ellis harumphed. Mom was a busy little worker bee, apparently. This dude better get out before the next one went in. Literally.

Ellis yawned and decided to light another cigarette before going back into the hell-hole house of ill-repute. Man, how did she get such an unlucky lot in life, she wondered, trying to get the Zippo to catch.

“Damn!” she cursed out loud and shook the lighter in frustration.

“That stuff will kill ya anyways.” A deep male voice announced. Without looking up, she assumed the sexy voice belonged to the shadowy figure she had noticed.

“If you’re here for my mom, she’ll be with you soon. She’s just, um, finishing up some work stuff.”

“For your mom? No, I’m here because you called me.”

Ellis looked up from inspecting her unlit cigarette and gave the stranger a hard stare.

“Called you? I don’t even know who you are!”

Ellis looked him up and down with a sneer. She couldn’t help but notice how incredibly beautiful he was. Thick black hair, light eyes, large frame. He looked like an action hero movie star, what was he doing in a trailer park in the midwest? All she knew was suddenly her mind filled with lascivious acts and, despite the cool air, she felt warm.

“Yes Ellis, you called me. Ah, you don’t recall. Allow me to introduce myself, my name is Luc and I’m here to discuss a little deal you wanted to strike with me.”

The Devil?

All Ellis could do was open and close her mouth. Oh, and gape. First of all, she did not expect that the Devil would be so freaking gorgeous and second, she did not expect the Devil, at all.

Luc gave Ellis a charming smile that indicated to her that he, most likely, could read her mind and was enjoying doing so.

“So Ellis, what do you have in mind?”

The man who emanated all the hotness in hell looked at her with a cocked brow, waiting on her answer.

Ellis met his gaze, masked by the haze of the early morning.

She wanted to do more than sell her soul to this guy.

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