I Won't Let Him

Three Days Left

THREE DAYS LEFT...

MARI woke up with a sudden start.

Blinking for a few seconds, she tiredly rubbed her eyes before looking at the digital clock by her bed.

3 AM.

Ugh... She woke up way too early. On one of the rare nights where she wasn't having any dreams or nightmares too...

That's unfortunate...

She slowly shook her head, before noticing a blinking light right beside the clock. Her house phone, flashing to notify her that she had a voicemail.

It was probably her dad again. Used to be her phone would only get voicemails from both Dad and HERO during the beginning of her slump since SUNNY- ... since SUNNY went to the hospital. She doesn't get voicemails from HERO anymore since she blocked his number though. So it definitely had to be Dad.

She contemplated whether it would be worth it to stand up and walk over just to listen to it. She felt rather sluggish, and would really rather stay in bed.

Sigh... No, the least she could do was hear his message. It might be important, like he was sending another check again to pay her expenses and last her for another month. Or it could be him warning her that his business trip was going to take longer than usual, so she won't be able to see him visiting anytime soon.

Hopefully he won't remind her to go outside more often or to take up a hobby... She wasn't really in the mood to listen to another long nagging voicemail about her mental health.

With a groan, she brought herself out of bed and trudged towards the phone. Pressing on the button, she listened to the voicemail left for her.

"... Hey sweetie! It's your father. I hope I didn't call you while you were sleeping. Time zones here are different and I forgot if the clocks over here are too fast or too slow... Anyway, I won't keep you for long. I just wanted to tell you that my business trip will be taking longer than expected, so I won't be able to come home anytime soon. I'm really sorry about this 'hun, but I promise I'll bring back souvenirs so that you can decorate your room! I'm sure SUNNY would appreciate seeing some new stuff if he ever wakes- ... I mean, when he eventually wakes up."

MARI couldn't help but give another tired sigh.

"To make it up to you though, I've already sent you a check that should give you about three months worth for food, water, and electricity. That should be more than enough time to last you before I can come back home. Be responsible, don't spend it all in willy-nilly, okay? Be back home soon sweetie, I love you!"

BEEP.

Guess she'll need to be on the lookout for another check in the mail then.

...

Sigh...

If it wasn't for the pictures decorated all around the house, she wasn't sure if she'd be able to even remember her dad's face anymore with how often he left her alone.

She certainly couldn't remember what her mother looked like anymore. Unable to handle the grief over SUNNY, she suddenly had the urge to go visit her relatives one day and decided to never come back. Dad says that she was just grieving, but MARI honestly couldn't care less.

Sludging her feet back towards the bed, she fell over with a thump and covered herself in her blanket.

With one tired eye open, she looked over to see the other empty bed sitting just a few feet away from her own. The blanket was tucked in and the pillows were fluffed every single day. MARI made a point to always clean and wash the blankets or pillows if they ever collected too much dust. But no one ever slept in that bed anymore.