Prologue

Author's Note: The song used here is called "Fool" by Marie Digby.

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She stared up at the bathroom ceiling, her head cocked sideways as though there were a math equation painted on the titling. Her arms were at her sides and her legs were raised, her bare feet pressed firmly against the door. She had taken her shirt off to use as a pillow beneath her head so that the back of it didn't hurt when she got up. The cool floor felt good against her warm skin. All in all she was fairly content laying there.

She had been laying on the bathroom floor for a little over an hour. It was where she always went whenever she wanted to be alone. It was something that she had done her whole life. Her experience was that people walked into her bedroom without knocking all the time. But nobody had ever walked in on her in the bathroom without knocking. The bathroom was the only place she ever felt like she could go without being bothered.

"'Ay Charlotte!" Henry called from the other side of the door as he knocked. After a moment he knocked again. "'Ay!"

"I don't respond to that name." Zelda murmured, her eyes still on the ceiling.

"What?!"

"I said I don't respond to that name!" She shouted, sitting up.

"You do when I introduce you on that stage Charlotte." Henry chuckled. "Come on girl you're on in five."

"Yeah, yeah fuck off Henry." Zelda answered, roughly pulling her shirt on.

"Same to you…Charlotte." His chuckle faded as he walked away from the bathroom door.

Zelda got up off of the floor. She grabbed up the contact case that was sitting on the edge of the sink and twisted open both ends at once. Once she had blinked in both reddish-brown colored lenses, she opened the door and went directly into her bedroom.

She rummaged through the piles of clothes on the floor, smelling each pair of pants she encountered. Once she located a pair of jeans that smelled clean, she shimmied out of the pair she had on and danced into the clean ones. The last thing she did before leaving the room to head for the bar downstairs was step into the hiking boots that were always by the door.

Downstairs, she could hear the commotion coming from the bar. There was talking and laughing and clapping and stomping. A few weeks ago, the place had been empty. But ever since Zelda had come, more and more people had found their way to The Web.

As she walked through the beads that hung from the doorway leading out into the bar, she grabbed her boater off the peg and tucked her long hair up underneath it as she glided behind the bar.

"Hey there Charlotte." One of the guys at the bar said.

"Yeah." She responded without pausing. "Hey, hey Tom. Tom! Where the fuck is Bruise at? I don't see her anywhere."

"Relax…she's up onstage already." Tom answered, looking away from making his drinks for a moment.

"Goddamnit! I thought I made myself clear that she wasn't to be left up there. Anyone could take her or fuck her up. Come on." Zelda angrily stomped out from behind the bar and up onto the small stage where Henry was introducing her.

"Nuh-uh you can take your seat girlie but don't you start playing 'til I've introduced your ass." Henry said with a shake of his head and a serious look on his face.

"Whatever." Zelda muttered under her breath. She picked up her acoustic guitar and examined it thoroughly, a hand gliding down the neck and then stroking the body. When she was satisfied that it hadn't been damaged, she sat down on the stool.

"Alright, alright…I know you all didn't come here to listen to me talk. So I'd like to introduce, without any further fuckin' ado, the spider of our web, Little Miss Charlotte." Henry took great pleasure in calling Zelda the stage name he had come up with, despite the blatant fact that she hated it.

He hopped off the stage and jogged back to the bar as everyone clapped.

"He only calls me Little Miss Charlotte because he's terribly ashamed of the package he doesn't have." Zelda mumbled into the microphone. She didn't even pause while many of the people laughed. "Yeah…so this one's called 'Fool' and it's not mine."

With that, Zelda began to strum her guitar. She was a completely different person whenever she played and sang. Her voice was clear and stunning. Her range was incredible, especially for her young age.

"It's 3 am as I stumble over to my bed, got a funny premonition that tomorrow's gonna be the same, but all I remember, is how we think I heard you call my name, and your open invitation to come over for a drink or two. And though I knew too well, the true intentions of your secret smile, I couldn't stop, I couldn't tell you no, I hate to say I'm giving in to you.

I wake up next to you, I went through with it, I fell in love with a fool, and I know I'm not the only one, you laid your trap pitifully obvious, but sometimes a good girl falls through, it's true, I'm not the only one, to fall in love with a fool, I fell in love with a fool.

At the end of the hall, in room number 804, lives the devil himself in his dark kept secret hell, and curiosity grew with every single following day, and I would dream, dream that you're here with me, I hate to say I'm giving in to you.

I wake up next to you, I went through with it, I fell in love with a fool, and I know I'm not the only one, you laid your trap pitifully obvious, but sometimes a good girl falls through, it's true, I'm not the only one, to fall in love with a fool, I fell in love with a fool.

I wake up next to you, I went through with it, I fell in love with a fool, and I know I'm not the only one, you laid your trap pitifully obvious, but sometimes a good girl falls through, it's true, I'm not the only one, to fall in love with a fool, I fell in love with a fool."

Zelda commanded everyone's attention when she sang. Each and every patron erupted into applause when she had finished the song. But she wasn't one to drink in the attention she got. She was just there to bring people into the bar. And to scout out the guy she would date until it was time to pick up and move again.

A few songs later, a fight broke out. It was between two men, and, after they were thrown out of the place by both Henry and Tom, most of the patrons went outside to see what would happen. Zelda followed them with Bruise in hand.

She watched as the two men squared off outside the bar. One of them was a full head taller than the other. He had messy, jet black hair that had been pulled into a ponytail at the base of his neck. His face was scruffy. He wore dirty clothes. The other man had short, sandy blonde hair. He looked like he must have just gotten off work before coming to the bar because he had on a business suit. The fight was over in a minute or two when the dark haired guy brought the other guy to his knees with a good punch to the jaw.

"Ding ding ding…we have a winner." Zelda muttered to herself, her eyes on the winner of the fight.