I lay on my bed staring blankly at the white ceiling. A boring town where nothing out of the ordinary ever happens, isn’t that what most shows or animations or even games start of with? I thought in my stream of random thoughts. Wouldn’t it be cool if we had some kind of crime or event that happened? I heard my classmates chatter previously. Like a serial killer or even rapist!

A town where I lived in wasn’t very big. If you walked non-stop for 3 hours, you might reach the beach. Perhaps the word “Town” isn’t very suited for the place where I live in, “City” might be better. It is full of tall, towering buildings and endless roads. Even in the darkest night, the streetlights and road lamps would light the city I live in. The noise of the many cars zooming by is something everyone has to get used to living in this city. No matter where you move to, even if it were somewhere secluded, you’d hear the hum of the cars. The stench in the city is crushing. It reeks of wasted food that these supposedly prosperous people throw away, the overwhelming odor of unwashed human beings; it reeks of the stench of deceitful people, the stench of people who care nothing but themselves. In this city, there’s nothing you can’t buy with money – even happiness, fake happiness that is, temporary happiness. Then again, isn’t that what everyone thrives on? Deceiving themselves that they are happy with those wide screen television sets, with the state-of-the-art surround system, the big cars, the big mansions, the numerous hired maids. This city is called Parodiso, some may know it better as the City of corruption. To me I call it Decadence, probably mainly due to the fact that our long living Mayor is called Dea Caden. – Dea Caden Daelus. Funny name isn’t it? Its supposed to mean something awesome, but in actual fact, a lot of people call her Decadence after a pronunciation mistake by the mass media.

Our mayor is a beautiful woman. A beautiful but frightfully scary when provoked woman. According to the mass media who seem to favor her a lot, she had single handedly raised her son called Meris Daelus, that would be me. Despite the many praises that the mass media often put on Dea Caden it doesn’t erase the single important fact. I was a child born out of wedlock and my mother was never married. My father had ran away like most men seemed to do. A fear of commitment my caretaker labeled my father as. To be honest, I think my father was brave. Brave enough to run away from a person like my mother. As said my mother, Dea, was a frightfully scary person when provoked, she had deep hatred for particular stuff, like me, and she loves revenge. Vengeance and revenge are actually her favorite words despite what the mass media reports.

My classmates know me as Meris Daelus, classmates did I say? I meant the audience of the mass media. My close friends call me Dante after the vampiric killer in one of their blood lust games. If you re-arranged the letters and added a few more words would get “At the end of sanity”. That is how I feel. There is nothing much else I would like to tell you about me. Like every other adolescent we all have our little secrets. Then again, my ‘little’ secret would not be much a small one.

I turned by end, watching the sunset from my window, seeing the silhouette of the tall buildings. No more running away, we said that day at our gathering. Were we simply bored adolescences or was there a deeper meaning in our actions? I asked myself that day as I stared at the white ceiling. Probably neither. I sat up, watching the digital clock flash “19:05”.

Parodiso, the city of happiness, the city of paradise. The city where the streets glitter without the sight of a single trash, where the children who run down the walkways look so happy and carefree. Praodiso, the city of money, the city where with money you can buy anything. The city where the strench is overpowering, where the citizens pray to no one but the one who holds the most money.