My name is Val - short for Valentina. It’s a stupid name. I hate it. My parents named me after the worst ‘holiday’ of the year. Hands down.I’m sure you can sense the sarcasm in my tone when I say ‘holiday.’ I mean, everyone knows it’s made up. The greeting card industries shacked up with a few loose flower vendors and some tawdry chocolatiers and decided all they had to do was dress it up with some snazzy marketing and the whole thing was going to make them a ton of bucks. It all makes me sick. I avoid it like the plague - or I would have, if I hadn’t run out of cat food.Yes, that’s right, I’m a cat lady. Sneer all you want - I would - but it’s the reason you’re even here, listening to my tale. If I hadn’t run out of Tender Vittles, for my feline companion, I would never have made the terrible choices that led me on this adventurous nightmare, where I had the worst, best night of my life. And you sick voyeurs wouldn’t be sitting there with your eyes glued to my digital paper.In this gritty, fast paced, action packed anti Valentines Day short, one woman’s irrational hatred for all things V-Day will lead her down a treacherous path of poor decision making that lands her in perilous danger.But will this one dark and terrible night also hold the key to her salvation and spell the end of her bitter loneliness?** This is a short story, just under 7K words **
