Drowning Ophelia (Immoral Dracula) by Eva Natsumi

I

    The bus was late. It should have arrived thirty minutes ago. The college semester ended yesterday and with the school’s new policy, all students had to be out of dorms by the end of the day. It was the school’s way of thanking the students for giving them all of their money. Now, she found herself packing for home two days sooner; waiting for the bus two days before usual.  
    When the bus arrived it would take her to a dingy apartment inland of a small lakeshore town. The bathroom tiles would be musty pink. The kitchen walls would be peeling and the linoleum warped by the lake, but she would never see the lake. She would work at a bar, each and every night, while men groped at her ass. She would go home each and every day, stare at the dirty, peeling linoleum and think how alike they were.
      Men would pull up her skirt all summer, make her dirty, but never see what was underneath. Sometimes she wanted to take one home. She pictured bending over just a little bit and letting them see a little more. She felt a desire to pick a fallen napkin and let them all see that she never wore any underwear. When they reached to take what was underneath she would grab their hand, throw them down, stab a fork in their neck and fuck them until the blood ran dry. She figured then she could say she took her own virginity. Instead she swatted their hands away. Instead she smiled. Instead she went home and stared at the peeling linoleum. Picturing herself underneath.
    This happened every night until the beginning of the next school year. If the previous two years proved as any precedence, she would go to class each and every day until the end of that year, when she would find herself at the bus stop.
      Thunder clapped like the big bass intro to a lively jazz song. Ophelia was soaked.
    She wore nothing save a white dress. Once willowy, it clung to her wet and supple skin so that you could see everything. Ophelia looked down, the wet cloth stuck to her peachy, pale breasts. The rain was cold and her nipples pointed through. The cloth hugged her navel and made between her thighs a perfect triangle of smooth, enticing skin… She really should have worn more clothing.  
    Ophelia seated herself on the bus stop bench. She was already soaking, so why not sit in the pooling water? At least it’s warm. The sun was hanging between sky and mountains as if unwilling to leave, and all around the world was a beautiful orange and pink.  
      Raindrops slid down Ophelia’s velvety, luminescent skin; like a moon struggling to be released in a never ending sunset.   Her silvery hair clung to her back like stardust. All around her the night shone as raindrops fell like diamonds falling from the sky.  
    A veil of indigo sheathed the world, night was coming. Ophelia looked to her suitcase, standing alone and erect against the looming dark. She couldn’t stay there all night. Her zero prospects were beginning to weigh. The pouring rain, the night, the student debt, the lack of friends or family—
    Through the worry a pair of headlights came.  

II

    The bus was entirely crowded. Odd, for the bus to a small lakeshore town had never been so crowded before. No one came out to help Ophelia put her things in the cargo as they usually did. When she went inside, the driver was buggish and standoffish. That helped her to understand how the bus had stopped, screeching to a halt, literally. The breaks sounded horrible. It was almost cartoonish the way it stopped. It seemed to skid and lurch forward. It didn’t make her feel all the much better about getting on the thing. Ophelia took one last look outside before the doors closed. The night was wet and pearly. She didn’t exactly like her destination, but… She turned around to find a seat.  
    There was only one seat available. Next to a very gorgeous, very intimidating looking woman. She had cropped, mahogany hair; wide, almond shaped eyes; brilliant white teeth, and height. Her shoulders were carved