As Bizarre as It Gets

I woke up the following morning unaware of where I was exactly. It was a messy room with clothes and accessories scattered all over the floor. Most of those things were golden or flashy. Oh, yeah. Strify's room.

Oh, that's right. The laryngitis and promising a new beginning to Yu regardless of what Strify blurted out later last night. It was all coming back to me.

I got out of bed and wandered the empty apartment for a minute to make sure it was really empty. When I came back to the kitchen, I saw the note the boys had left for me: ''Having a meeting. Will bring lunch so don't go nowhere. Kiro says have his cereal for breakfast.''

How nice of them. I smiled but decided to skip breakfast. Instead I went to Kiro's room, lay on his bed and lit a cigarette. He was the only one who had an ashtray in his room. I was absent-mindedly staring at the ceiling when it occured to me it was Sunday! What the hell were boys doing on a meeting on Sunday? It probably had something to do with the Grand Prix and Strrify's ruined voice.Meeting on a Sunday. Eh. German discipline. But Sunday also meant my aunt and uncle would be home.

I pressed the buzzer three times and nothing. Aunt and uncle apparently weren't home either. I still had the key to their apartment and contemplated waiting for them but decided against it. I strawled lazily away from the building and headed towards the boys' apartment. They probably weren't home yet because they would have called me already.

I wasn't a long way from Rondell Street when I realized five girls were folowing me. They looked like punk kids and they couldn't have been a day over sixteen. They kept about four meters away from me and I stopped by some random shop window just so they would pass me by but they stopped also. One of them was pretending to tie her shoe. Damnit. This wasn't looking too good.

I sped up and took a turn around the corner but they followed. One of them shouted: ''Hey! Hey, du!''

I took a deep breath and turned around. They walked over to me and looked at me with intimidating amout of curiosity.

The girl who had shouted took one more step towards me and said: ''Carly? Bist du Carly Graves?''

''Nein,'' I said and shook my head.

I turned to leave but before I knew what what was going on, I was lying on the sidewalk. Sure they were children but there were five of them. I curled into as ball while they were kicking and punching me, calling me every bad name there is. I cannot explain why I didn't scream. Suddenly they stopped. I moved my arms away from my face to see them standing over me, grinning and breathing heavily. One of them, the petite long-haired blonde, slowly took something out of her pocket. At first I couldn't tell what it was. It was a piece of metal glistening in the spring sunlight. My stomach did a backflip for at the same time the other four girls jumped on me and pinned me down, I saw what the item was. A pair of scissors.

The girl kneeled next to me and wrapped one strand of my hair around her finger, playing with it before she cut it off. All of them laughed hysterically while she was cutting my hair off strand by strand. There was nobody there to help me.

She shoved the last strand in my mouth and as if it all wasn't enough, she hit me across the face with the scissors multiple times. My cheeks and temples were throbbing with pain and I could taste blood in my mouth.

I didn't remember clearly what was going on on next. I knew they were gone, I was getting up and trying not to scream with pain. Then I was in the bathroom of my aunt and uncle's apartment, splashing cold water on my face with trembling hands. My mouth was filling with blood from the cut on my lip and I would spit occasionally.

I was leaning on the sink, trying to find the courage to look into the mirror, afraid of what I would see. My lower lip was swollen up from the cut on the inside of it. There was a dark scab forming on my left eyebrow but at least it had stopped bleeding. There was a red swelling on my cheekbone, only a hint of what would become a bruise. And my purple shoulder-length hair was gone. I had about an inch of hair on my head. Less in some places.

I slowly sat down on the floor, grimacing with pain. My arms and legs were sore but my ribs and the back were the worst. It hurt too much to touch and I hoped nothing was broken. I lay down and curled into a ball once more. I must have fallen asleep because the next thing I remembered was my aunt's scream.

''Oh, my God! Oh, my... Scarlet?! What... What are... Oh, my God! Child, what happened to you?'' she shouted.

I tried to sit up and and attempted to explain: ''I-I came yesterday to stay with my boyfriend and today I wanted to see you and-'' I couldn't talk anymore because I suddenly bursted into tears.

''Did that boy did this to you?! Did he?!'' she asked with a rush of panic in her voice but I couldn't force out a single word between the sobs.

''Take her to the guest room,'' she said and I felt uncle pick me up. He put me on the bed and I fell asleep the moment my head touched the pillow.

I was woken up hours later by some commotion that went on in the living room. Soon the commotion turned into a full-blown fight. I didn't speak much German but I understood what the fight was about.

''You have no business being here. You won't see her again,'' my aunt explained sternly.

''I'm not leaving until you let me see her!'' Yu shouted.

''You heard what what she said. It's time to go, boys. Leave the girl alone,'' my uncle was doing his best holding back his rage.

''Please, sir. If we could just see her for a minute-'' Strify desperately tried to reason with my uncle but he cut him off.

''How dare you come here after what you scum did to her?!!'' uncle finally lost his temper.

There was no more conversation. Only doors slamming. A few seconds later my aunt came into my room.

''You're awake. I'm sorry you had to hear all that. Don't worry, he won't be able to hurt you anymore,'' she said with a painful expression on her face.

I slowly pulled myself up into a sitting position. I bit back the scream that had been building up in my chest. Every inch of my body was hurting.

''I have to explain. You don't understand,'' I said and winced when the cut on my lip stung. ''They didn't hurt me.''

''Than who did?! And who cut all that beautiful hair off?''

I felt tears prickling at the corners of my eyes and reached with shaky hands to touch my scalp but I didn't reach it. It was all too humiliating.

''Who did this to you?'' she said quietly.

I paused because I still had to process in my mind what had happened. Then I tried my best to say it the way I remembered it: ''I came here and when I saw you weren't home, I headed back to towards the boys' place. There were some teenage girls who recognized me and asked me if I was Carly. Then they knocked me down and...''

''But how could they recognize you? Your work wasn't published here in Germany.''

''I know. I don't understand it either,'' I said and thought hard about it. The whole incident made no sense.

''Oh, dear. We must apologize to the boys,'' she said and covered her face with her hand.

''You were tough.''

''We instantly assumed they had done this to you. They didn't even get a chance to speak.''

''Don't worry about it. They'll understand.''

And that was when it dawned on me. I would have to face Yu and the boys looking like this. All bruised and with my hair cut off.

''Are you hungry? Can I get you anything?'' she interrupted my upsetting thoughts.

''Where is my cell phone?'' I finally remembered to ask.

''On the kitchen table. I turned it off. I'll bring it to you,'' she explained and left the room.

After she'd left me alone with the cell, I typed a message to Yu: ''I'm sorry I haven't replied to your messages. Please, don't be upset with what my family said to you, it was a big misunderstanding. Is there any way you could come back here tomorrow afternoon? I'll explain everything then.''

Two seconds after I'd got the delivery report he tried to call me. I panicked and turned the phone off. Oh, gods. How could I find the courage to face him like this?