shades of cool

michaela everett + 28

[michaelaeverett-blog]

“Paris was incredible, as always. I brought presents. A couple of handbags and some watches. Would you like to see?”

[thx]

Visit Original Link

cranes in the sky // solange

[deliriousmistakcs-blog]

“Well, I’m sorry, but you see the state my apartment is in.” he gestured with his hand around the wrecked place “I’m not exactly the best company, nor am I inclined to trust strangers walking into my apartment. How do I know you didn’t do all of this?” he didn’t ask the question in a serious tone, he was trying to make up for being an ass, he hasn’t slept in over 40 hours and Mila was in the hospital and his clothes were covered in blood and his apartment got robbed. Peachy situation, worthy of a peachy attitude.

[michaelaeverett-blog]

Michaela rolled her eyes once more, canting her head to the side. "Because I have better things to do than ruin some strange man's apartment," she said, narrowing her eyes. She didn't dare step forward. She didn't know if the guy was unstable or not. "Anyway. You should get the hallway camera's looked at. It might help you find the perpetrator. Although, I wouldn't take it personally. From what I've heard, everyone's apartment looks like this."

[deliriousmistakcs-blog]

His muscles tensed and his first instinct was to react to the stranger’s voice, but he decided against it. Enough damage had been done “Bad idea!” Salvatore mused with a quick shake of his head, his body turning to face Michaela. She had some balls, walking into a stranger’s apartment like that, maybe he was a serial killer, she didn’t seem too worried about that, considering what just happened “Who’re you and what are you doing in my apartment.

[michaelaeverett-blog]

Immediately, the brunette folded her arms and rolled her eyes. The man had no manners! "I was walking to see a friend when I saw the door open and heard something break. I would be more grateful, because most people wouldn't even bother stopping," she said, tone of voice more high pitched than typically. 

[deliriousmistakcs-blog]

Sal had finally found the time to get to his apartment to change. Walking around in a shirt covered in blood was bound to raise suspicion and questions sooner or later, and the law enforcements were the last thing he wanted to deal with right now, after what he’d done the other night. He was going to deal with that, but later. Now his family was more important. Mila was more important.

When he got to his apartment however, he found the door wide open and everything trashed inside. His blood pressure went wait past the limits, and he knocked a lamp the thieves seemed to have forgotten to trash right on the ground, watching it as it shattered to pieces “Merda!” he put his hands on his head, exhaling deeply before he did anything rash, unaware of the other person’s presence.

[michaelaeverett-blog]

Michaela was on her way to visit a friend, handbag clutched close to her body. She'd had several scary run ins with some less than respectable people during the blackout. Despite the city's effort to reestablish order, she was still paranoid.

She was walking down the hallway of an apartment complex when she noticed that a door was open. She heard a crash not long after. Despite the more rational side of her that insisting that she keep on going, Michaela gently pushed the door open.

"You should call the cops.”

[milenakuragina-blog]

“Must you be so loud?” Mila muttered, her voice a dry rasp. She fidgeted in the hospital bed with discomfort. She despised feeling weak. The last forty-eight or so hours had been nothing but that feeling. She swallowed thickly and gestured with her good hand for her old friend to come closer.

How or why Michaela was in Chicago, Mila didn’t know. She hadn’t received word of it. Hadn’t even gotten the opportunity to invite the girl out for drinks so that she could lament the woes of her to-be-marriage. And now this. She knew that she looked nothing at all like the Mila Kuragina her friend had met in Europe, the girl who had everyone she’d ever met wrapped around her little finger. 

“I was attacked,” she added, the lie was seamless. Perfect. “I don’t remember much else.”

[michaelaeverett-blog]

Michaela canted her head to the side. Even when she was laid up in bed, severely injured, Mila Kuragina was still as demanding as ever. She laughed, shaking her head. "I'm not being loud," she said, rolling her eyes as she walked over to the counter where all the flowers and balloons sat. She shoved the ugly ones towards the back, placing the beautiful white orchids in the center.

"I'm assuming the police are involved...?" Michaela asked, finally taking a seat next to her friend. "Oh, I almost forgot," she said, digging through her purse. "Turkish delight. Just for you."

[milenakuragina-blog]

The first thing Mila noticed when she woke was that she was parched. The world was dark, and the world was painful. She wanted to move, but for the life of her she lacked the strength to do so. Memory was a faded thing. All she knew was the now. And in the now, her eyes were blackened and swollen. Her face bruised, lip split. Her arm was held in a cast and various intravenouses penetrated her flesh. Electricity thrummed; a machine beeped with her pulse.

When she opened her eyes, she saw flowers. Cards. Balloons (how disgusting). And a visitor. She tried to speak, but speech was so painful. So hard. 

“Hello… darling...” she exhaled the words with a wince.

[michaelaeverett-blog]

When Michaela heard through a friend of a friend that Mila was in the hospital, she was completely and totally shocked. And a little frightened, too. Her engagement to Salvatore Galvani practically insured her safety, no? Or perhaps it was her father’s notoriety that did that. Regardless, she learned quickly that the people of Chicago were ruthless.

She pushed through the hallways filled with people coping from the aftermath of 40 hours of violence and darkness. She managed to squeeze into Mila's room, shutting the door behind her.

"I just heard. What the hell happened?"

[the-streetstyle]

[king-castillo-blog]

He barely looked the woman over before he was taking the child in his arms and handing them over to her. The child’s shrieks became piercing and it took everything in Gabriel not to backhand them and demand silence. It was how his father would have done things. Quietly, he had to remind himself that he was not his father. He was better.

“My momma!” The child sobbed. “I want my momma!”

“We’ll find her,” he said to the child, tapping the tip of her nose with his index finger. His kindness could be stronger than his rage. His patience more resilient. He looked to the woman he had handed the child over to with a heavy gaze. The type that only a man like Gabriel Castillo could force into looking both frightening and trustworthy at once.

“Can you come with me? Her leg–” he gestured to where the child’s skin was pushed upward by what he could only assume was broken bone. “– I need help. I need your help.”

[michaelaeverett-blog]

Michaela wasn't maternal by any means, so when the Castillo man handed her a screaming child, it was difficult to mask the obvious face of disgust. 

The little girl was crying for her mother. While Michaela understood how scary things might've been, did she honestly have to shriek so loudly? Especially when two adults were trying to have a conversation. She sighed, patting her awkwardly on the back. "There, there," she said, smoothing the little girl's hair with her other hand.

She glanced down at the child’s leg. She also wasn't a doctor, but that looked like a really nasty break. Regardless, she nodded. "Okay," she agreed, holding the child firmly in her arms. "Where do we go?"

[king-castillo-blog]

“I want my mommy!” the child’s sobs had grown into shrieks now as Gabriel continued down the street, an arm thrown over his head as if to shield him from some unseen light, the child clinging to his shoulders as he kept her on his hip. Downtown Chicago was a mess of darkness. Downed traffic lights left the streets prone to lethal accidents. Gabriel himself had only barely managed to withstand one, a cut having formed on his forehead from his head coming into contact with the window, blood trickling down the side of his face. 

He didn’t notice.

He was busy focusing on other things. 

He’d called the shots. Told his driver and his bodyguards to leave him be, to locate Viviana and ensure her safety. He would be fine. He was Gabriel Castillo, a God among Men, and he would survive this just as he had so many other things. ‘Money isn’t an object now,’ he’d told his men, pragmatic as ever in his decision making. ‘Find the sicarios. Find Viviana. And find some god damned warehouses for us to help these people. They need safe housing. They need protection.’

Protection and defense, granted unto them by only him. The only man who could stand in the thick of this, bleeding and exhausted, and maintain a level-head.

“We’ll find your mother,” Gabriel promised the child. But honestly? He doubted they would. It was only a matter of time before the cops appeared, before everything went completely and totally to shit. And he needed to get away. Grabbing the arm of the person nearest to him, Gabriel’s voice was nothing less than a predacious hiss: “Put out your arms. Now.”

[michaelaeverett-blog]

Thinking that she could navigate the city during such a dangerous time was a mistake. Michaela was terrified, but she hid it well. She held her belongings close to her body, ushering past a crowd of looters without being seen. She was a mess. Her dress was stained and torn, not to mention her heels were on the verge of breaking from all the running she'd just done. She was desperate to get back into her home, even if it meant sitting in the dark for hours on end. At least it meant some sort of shelter from the people on the streets.

The traffic was backed up drastically - a consequence of the street lights being out. She noticed a man - the same one she'd seen on all the papers, the face of Chicago, holding a scared little girl on his hip.

"Sir, you're bl-"

"Put out your arms. Now."

Michaela nodded quickly, stretching her arms out as she was told.

[reinaxmorales-blog]

Reina yawned as she made her way down the stairs to the subway, knowing that she would only have a few minutes to catch her train in time. Work had gone long which always put a tiny damper on her day, but after being compensated with a rather large tip, Reina found herself unable to complain too much. The sound of her heels echoed as walked down towards her stop, her foot hit the bottom as the lights flicked off. A confused look came over her face as she pulled out her phone, using the light from it to try and give herself some insight into what might be happening. 

Everyone around her seemed to be just as confused as she was, quietly talking to themselves. The soft muttering quickly turned into angry voices when it became clear that the subway was currently out of commission. Reina, deciding not to allow this to ruin her mood, decided the best option was just to take a taxi. The additional cost of taking a taxi over the subway was never something that she wanted to spend, but today it would have to do. 

The sight that met her eyes when she reached the ground again was something that she had not been expecting. Fire. People were running everywhere. Was that looting? Were people actually looting? She shook her head, pulling out her phone again, this time deciding to call Manny, attempting to figure out what might have been going on. Her finger hovered over the call symbol before she shoved her phone away again, deciding that it was better to leave him to do his job, he had better things to do than deal with her worrying. Slowly she pulled her purse closer to her chest as she looked around, turning to the person closest to her, “Excuse, what’s going on?” 

[michaelaeverett-blog]

Michaela was foolish for believing she'd be able to hail a cab when the city was in ruins. This entire ordeal was giving her a headache. Talk about a not-so-smooth transition to another city.

The frustration that Michaela felt as yet another cab simply drove on by was inexplicable. She was unable to suppress the exhausted shriek that escaped her lips. At that point, she'd have to employ a private driver in the city. Public transportation wasn't really her style. It was dirty and the driver's were creepy.

Michaela caught sight of a young woman standing close to her. "I'm guessing the power's out," she said, a little dryly, as if it were obvious. "I'm not an electrician, so I don't know why, but everyone's going crazy."

[edenmarques-blog]

Just as well as she enjoyed watching the words fill the text box on her phone, Eden loved hearing the electronic clicks of the keyboard. She usually kept in one earbud while she went out, to keep the sounds to herself (and also to discourage any unnecessary greetings). When she did this walking on the sidewalk, she appeared oblivious, like all of her attention and awareness was funneled to her device. 

Because it was.

In a fairly busy part of downtown, she was firing off an onslaught of texts to her nagging brother. The pending reply bubble hadn’t flashed for two seconds before the phone was suddenly ripped from her hands, then the wire from her ear. 

“Th’ fuck–?” She spat in disbelief, looking up to see a man on a bicycle weaving between pedestrians at top speeds. Her voice cracked as she yelled and screamed after him.

“Hey! Hey!! That fucker stole my phone! HEY!” 

As quickly as her high-tops could carry her, her feet pounded the concrete in vain.

[michaelaeverett-blog]

Michaela was still a stranger to Chicago. The city was bustling and she felt like there was still so much to be experienced. The half eaten sandwich she held in her hand was from a local deli that had been raved about to her a number of times back home. So far, she was pleasantly surprised.

Only moments after taking her third or fourth bite of the sandwich, it was knocked out of her hand by a bicyclist. Michaela jumped back out of pure shock. Only seconds later, a brunette woman was chasing after him at full speed. "I don't think he's going to give it back!" Michaela yelled, frowning as she stared down at her splattered sandwich. 

At least it wasn’t on her new shoes.

[michaelaeverett-blog]

Her arrival to Chicago had been somewhat inconvenient. She'd tried booking a flight out of there while the power situation was fixed, but the entire city was shut down. It was late. Walking back to her car alone wasn’t the smartest idea, especially given the current state of things. Half the city was on fire. The other half was out of business indefinitely. Michaela clutched her purse tightly as she rounded a corner.

She was met with the force of a stronger, much bigger figure. Before she could cry out, she was being shoved against a brick wall. The stranger's hand was kept tightly over her mouth. They wanted her money. They snatched at her purse, and the impulsive side of Michaela stomped their foot in return instead of just letting them have it.

[dormanta]

Visit Original Link

“They say I’m too young to love you, they say I’m too dumb to see, they judge me like a picture book, by the colors, like they forgot to read”

[thefashionmansion]