A/N: And I'm back with my newest creation. Time for a new direction! And here it is: Contemporary Bygone

Purgatory.

That was the state she was currently in. Purgatory, to her knowledge, meant a place of temporary punishment, and suffering. And so be it.

The plane ride had been fairly short, as she had slept for a solid portion of it, but she couldn't shake the feeling of impending chaos creeping up on her. And as she got off the aircraft, nodding to the tall, blonde, busty stewardess with the big teeth and the rouge lipstick, a nervousness settled in the bottom of her stomach.

The makeshift hallway leading from the door of the plane, to the inside of the airport was moving sluggishly, compact with people in business suits, talking on their cell phones, and folding the paper under their armpit as they shouldered their carryon luggage. Everyone was in a varying shade of black, gray, or navy. A muted tone that seemed to personify their mundane existence; only mirrored by their deadpan expressions. She couldn't help but feel as if she stood out terribly. Like a sore thumb.

Like an elephant on the subway…

She twirled a thick chunk of magenta hair as her left front tooth tugged gently on her painted bottom lip. She stepped out of the hallway, and into the terminal with the rest of the commuters. The whole lot of them continued over to the baggage claim.

She waited, watching as the conveyor belt on the base began clunking along, making a pained hum as it did so. Bags started tumbling down the long ramp and onto the belt. Every bag that tumbled down was, again, very much the same color. They were all black, and beige, and green. How could these people tell them all apart? Whose was whose? Which was which? How could you know? She certainly couldn't see the difference.

The pocket of nervousness in her stomach swelled. What if her own bag was lost somewhere? What if it wasn't here? Just as her panic started to expand greatly within her being, a big yellow bag slid down the ramp and onto the conveyor belt. Grinning she picked it up immediately, dropping it next to her feet. She waited for the next one. The same color, but a different size. A smaller bag. It followed. And then the other. And then the other.

Glad that she had thought to grab one of the little trolleys, she started to load her bags up onto the stiff metal frame.

"There you are!" A voice cried from behind her. She straightened and looked over towards the embodiment of the sound. "Oh, Delilah, look at how…different you are since we last saw you!" Her aunt Lottie was attempting to sound delighted, though her faux jubilation did not go unnoticed.

"How was the flight?" Her uncle Jeb asked, peering at her through his thin glasses.

"It was fine," Delilah mumbled. That sensation of impending chaos was returning.

There was a long, uncomfortable pause.

"Well, let's get your things in the car. I'm sure you want to get settled." Lottie smiled, her plum lined lips cracking slightly. She was a pretty woman, truly, albeit a try-hard. Lottie was of average build, with her brown hair perpetually pulled back from her face in a complicated design Delilah had always found oddly fascinating. Jed was heavyset, and gruff looking. His eyebrows were furrowed constantly, with no motivation, and his mouth was always in a hard line.

Delilah nodded as the two ushered her towards the entrance where they had parked. Lottie was speaking quickly, but the words slipped away from Delilah's comprehension. She wasn't really listening. Jeb heaved her things into the back of their Buick, which was probably older than she was, as she clambered into the backseat.

The band of three started off down the highway.

"You'll be sleeping in the guestroom," Lottie smiled, peering at her through the rear view mirror. "I just washed the sheets, so its ready and waiting."

She nodded at her, but stayed otherwise silent.

The dense discomfort was back. She knew it was her fault. "Thank you," She added after a moment. Lottie smiled brightly, as if touched by her simple gesture.

"Well of course." She grinned. Jeb stayed completely silent. "And there's a bathroom attached, so you get your own." She nodded, forcing a smile onto her face. "Oh, and Delilah," Lottie was promptly cut off.

"Dee," She corrected.

"I'm sorry?" Lottie asked, twisting around to look at her curiously.

"Everyone calls me Dee…" She mumbled, looking at her aunt cautiously. Jeb finally made his presence known.

"What ever for?" He grunted. "Delilah is a perfectly fine name."

"I prefer Dee…" She said slowly.

"Now Jeb," Lottie whispered, as if Dee could no longer hear them. "If that's what she wants, well, we can live with that." Her volume increased as she grinned over at her. Dee nodded her head, forcing her lips up at the corners.

Her mother's sister was a lovely woman, truly, but Dee wasn't sure how much of her she could take at a time. She was going to be living with these people. Seeing them every day. Talking to them all the time.

She suddenly missed home.

Glancing out the window, the frown on her face deepened. Where on earth had she agreed to stay? All the houses they passed had the same Home and Garden, country fields kind of appeal to them. Wagon wheels, and flower gardens, and gnomes, and tire swings. It was a foreign concept to her to make your house look old. Where she was from everyone was desperately trying to keep up-to-date with the newest trends, and latest designs. Here, people seemed to wish for regression. These people wanted to live in the woods, and her people wanted to live on the moon.

Could they be any less similar?

"The school is within walking distance of the house, and many of the neighbours have kids around your age." Lottie continued. Dee nodded, not even trying to smile anymore. She just stared out the window idly. The car was silent then, and she hoped it stayed that way as she pushed her buds into her ears and turned on her Mp3.

She blared her music, trying to drown her own self consciousness until they pulled up onto a cobblestone driveway. Jeb cut the ignition, and the three of them piled out of the car. Dee plucked one of the phones from her ears in case either of them said anything. Lottie walked up into the house while Jeb and Dee unloaded the bags from the trunk. Jeb took the two large ones as Dee took hold of the smallest of them, though she thought it was unnecessary for him to take the greatest of the load. She was perfectly able. She wasn't an invalid.

Turning back to the parchment coloured, two-storey cottage styled house, another pang of unease snagged at her stomach. The two of them filed up the stairs and dumped her things on the floor. Jeb quickly left, allowing her time to settle.

Looking around the room, Dee definitely felt like a stranger. The walls were a muted shade of green. The kind of green you found in moss, and seasonings. The double bed had linens the colour of various sands. The carpet was off-white and thick. The curtains were some sort of doily material; lacy and filmy. In the corner there was a medium wood dresser with authentic looking knots and imperfections. Two doors were to her left. She opened the first, only to reveal a closet she was sure she wouldn't be able to fill in its vastness. The second was the bathroom.

It was just as bad as the bedroom.

Completely and totally twilight zone.

Everything was ivory, from the tiles to the light fixtures. The only thing that wasn't some tone of blinding white were the walls. They were light yellow. The bathroom was small, but it had its own shower, sink, and toilet, so she couldn't complain. Shutting the door to the bathroom, Dee turned back into her new bedroom. Her canary yellow bags with the lime green zippers sat in the middle of the floor. They seemed oddly incongruent with the current setting.

Dee caught her reflection in the full length mirror on the opposite wall. She stared at herself for a moment, as if doing an inventory. Bright pink and purple dreadlocks hung down her back, her swooping bangs blue and pink. Her eyebrows were completely shaven off, and replaced by the thin pink pencil lines she created in the morning. A leopard tank top, and black pants covered in zippers that lead nowhere; tucked into platform boots she deemed necessary if she ever expected to look anyone in the face, instead of the chest. She looked into her own heavily made up eyes and furrowed her brows.

She was just like the bags.

Dee was in an unusual position. She never had to worry about fitting in anywhere in the city. Where there's smoke, there's fire. Where there's one freaky girl, there's bound to be a hundred more. They just had to be found. Here, she wasn't so sure. Here in the middle of the valley…

Dee ran a hand over her spiked bracelet, tapping the metal pieces with her ring clad fingers, and acrylic nails. Tearing her eyes away after a moment, she heaved one of the suitcases on the bed and began to unload, hanging up her clothes, and setting up her laptop on her nightstand (as she had no desk). She attempted to keep herself busy, making up outfits to wear on her first day of school on Monday, and thinking about exploring, hoping to will away the uncomfortable sting settling behind her eyes.

Dinner had been abysmal. Lottie had tittered away like a little bird, going on about all the nice people she would meet, and what kinds of things there were to do here. Dee noted warily that many of the activities she listed were some form of outdoor sports endeavour that she would likely never take part in. She didn't understand why some people were compelled to climb cliffs, or go…white water rafting, or whatever, but they were, for some reason. Adrenaline they would say. Suck on an aerosol cleaner; than gets you pretty jacked up, too. That doesn't mean it's a good fucking idea.

Dee had never been the athletic type. She didn't have much power in her slight physique. Weighing under a hundred pounds, while running with a bunch of butch chicks was a bad idea, in her mind. She was too small to really participate in anything other than required gym courses. And even then, she wasn't all that good at it. She was coordinated enough, but she wasn't fast enough, or strong enough. Also, being nearly a solid foot shorter than most of the girls in her old school was a bit of a complication. She got blocked easily.

Being under five feet sucked sometimes.

But now, as she walked along the sidewalks aimlessly, watching this strange new world spin around her, Dee couldn't help but feel irritated. Even the street names were stupid. They were all named after trees, and flowers. Elm, Birch, Violet, Pine, Daisy, Mahogany, etcetera. How bizarre.

Elm street was suddenly back. She stopped short for a moment. How did that happen? Had she taken a wonky turn somewhere? She was right back at Lottie and Jeb's house. Standing outside the yard. Gritting her teeth, Dee stomped back up the pathway and back into the house.

"How did exploring go?" Lottie asked from the living room, both of them reading.

"Fine," She grumbled softly.

"It didn't take you very long."

"I didn't think it would." And with that note, she ascended the stairs and entered her bedroom. Plugging her Mp3 into its stand, Dee didn't exactly care that Lottie and Jeb may be disturbed by any noise she made while they attempted to gain some literary knowledge.

Dee hopped onto her bed and turned on her laptop, setting it on her crossed legs. It took a moment for the welcome screen to appear, but slowly it did, and she logged on. Opening up her e-mail, she clicked on the first one from: mom. Titled: Just checking in.

Dee Dee, I hope your flight was okay, and your new landlords didn't make you wait too long at the airport. Everything is pretty good over here. Your dad called me today. If you want I can give him Lottie's number. Just say the word, babe. I already miss you. And the apartment looks so empty without all your crap everywhere. Haha. Love you, mom.

After a moment she wrote back.

Mom, the flight was fine, and I think Lottie, and Jeb came a little too quickly. I was still getting my bags when she tried to strangle me with hugs. This place is weird, but I'm sure that opinion is just from jitters about being in a new place, right? And dad can call if he wants. I don't mind. I haven't heard from him in a while. I have a feeling my crap is going to be fairly contained here. I don't think dust can even come into this place. Like it has some sort of force field. Haha. Love you, Dee Dee.

After hitting send she cruised around the net for awhile, checking her usual pages for changes or updates. Music continued to stream out of the speakers on the stand. She suddenly stopped, listening for a moment.

"I fake it so real I am beyond fake," She sang loudly from the speakers. "Someday you will ache like I ache," She was bellowing now. "Someday you will ache like I ache."

Oh Courtney, how right you are…

And maybe that time was now.

Checking her clock, Dee decided it was late enough to turn in for bed. She needed to wake up and go to school the next day, anyways. Better to be well rested.

Kicking off all her clothes, save her panties, and tugging on an old, ratty shirt of an ex-boyfriend's she never gave back, she wandered into her bathroom and started to take off her makeup and brush her teeth. She had laid everything out for herself, like it was her own bathroom at home. But somehow it felt different. Alien.

At her mom's the bathroom was uncomfortably small, and a cheap looking color of gray-blue. The Formica countertop had always had a mysterious slice in it that no one could explain, showing off the deep brown underneath. Both her and her mother would stand in front of the counter, and fight for mirror space. Playfully, of course.

Here, there was plenty of counter space, and there were no imperfections in the surface to be seen. The paint job looked expensive, and professional. The tiling was perfect. Looking at her real face in the mirror, void of any makeup, or colour, Dee frowned. She was ghostly pale. She always had been, no matter how much sun she got. The glaring white of the bathroom seemed to make this all the more obvious. It brought out her pastiness, which made her light honey coloured eyes stand out wildly, as well.

Shutting off the light, she dove into her new bed, and curled into the comforter. It felt new, and stiff. The pillows were full, and the blankets were heavy, like the ones at Holiday Inn's. They smelled like detergent, and softener, though. It was a nice smell. Soon they would have her smell. Hair products, perfume, and lotion. That was a nice smell, too, after all. At least it would help make this place familiar, and comfortable.

Tears tumbled down her cheeks silently. Dee stilled when the door creaked open. She tried to hold her breath inside her chest. A shadowed figure leaned into her room, as if checking on her. The form started to retreat. She tried to stay completely silent. To no avail. A small sob choked out of her form, and her breathing stuttered in her chest. The shadow stilled for a moment, and she saw the complicated design of hair on Lottie's head as she shut the door slowly, and attempted to do it noiselessly.

Closing her eyes tightly, Dee started to let go a little, and cried herself into a state of exhaustion.

Jerking awake, it took a moment for her to remember exactly where she was. It frightened her momentarily. This wasn't her room… And then she remembered that for now this was, indeed, her room.

It was still dark outside, and the room was only obtaining light from the hazy blue glow of the moon beyond her window. Shuffling out of her covers, Dee inched towards the glass panes, and pulled the flimsy doily curtains back to peek out yonder. Everything was being bathed in a mystical-looking blue light. It all seemed very eerie, and surreal. The flowers and plants were all black silhouettes. The sidewalk, and cobblestone driveway shone an almost silver.

Something caught her eye. A shadow.

Dee looked a little closer, squinting her eyes. She gasped softly. A boy was standing on the lawn, staring up at the white moon. She didn't just gasp from the unusualness of it all, as it was just a little bit past three in the morning, but at the sheer impossibility of his looks.

He was beautiful.

There was no other way to describe it. He was an impossible perfection. He was pale like the moonlight, his black hair contrasting shockingly, standing up in a deathawk she never would have expected to see in this town. They were hard to find in the city, even. His jeans were threadbare and faded, tucked into black boots, with two or three studded, and bullet belts hanging around his hips and pelvis. He had a dark tee-shirt on and a denim vest decorated heavily in holes, patches, and studs.

Her eyes were wide, watching him. He should have been cold standing out there in the moonlight with barely a thing on to keep him warm, but he seemed unaffected. The boy began to walk away, and her heart stuttered in her chest for a moment.

Don't go… Was all she could think. Don't leave.

But he walked away. She pressed herself to the glass, straining to see him until he disappeared completely. Dee chewed her bottom lip as she slowly stumbled back into her bed. Laying there silently, she began to fade into sleep. Maybe it was because it was now on her mind, but that night she dreamed of a boy with a strong jaw, as pale as the moonlight. He reached his hand out to her, but every time she attempted to grab onto his outstretched fingers, he would fade further and further away.

But she just kept chasing him until daybreak.

A/N: Review? Let me know what you think?