BURIED

THIRTEEN

B E L L E

I have no pets, no kids or plants to worry about, and no will to live.

Tucking away enough clothes to last me nine days into my grey duffel bag, I've decided to move into my mum's old place after another long session with Doctor Mikhail.

As I took a final glance around the apartment, it revealed itself to me in a rush. It looked expensive, pretty, and very bright. I promised myself I’d stop buying things I don't need.

On the table by the door sat a photo of a teenage me holding Jenna who looked the same age. We’re both laughing. She has her eyes wide open in surprise, I have mine scrunched shut. I can’t remember the occasion or what we were laughing about. But it always seems to light up my mood every time I see it.

It was a ten-minute drive to my mum's place. The wildflowers that used to be on the lawn were now nowhere to be found. The only colorful thing was the garden gnome deep in the grass, its redhead dulled by the gloomy sky.

I placed my hand on the cold doorknob. I unlocked the door, and I could feel my heart racing while I pushed it, opening the cold scent of old coffee and cinnamon hitting my face. The battered brown sofa was layered with visible dust, and the brown console by my left looked worse. I slid my hand behind the door to turn on the switch, but it didn't work.

Fuck!

I was thinking of paying someone to do the deep cleaning, but I have to fix the whole building because guess what? There was no water.

۵♡۵

After a long day of deep cleaning and having a plumber and an electrician come over, I finally get to shower.

I love showers. It gets my skin buzzing, like someone’s turned on a switch. I turn off the shower after twenty minutes of spraying myself with cold water and singing "Season of the Witch."

The floor was dusty, I could feel my eye twitch. I use my nails to tighten my grip on the towel, making it fall off and touch the wet sandy floor.

What the hell.

I got out. No second towel, so I ran to my bed and hid myself beneath my mum's expensive spongy blanket. Then I drank a cup of warm coffee while I cursed my inability to move.

In the morning, I took expired cereal and a doughnut before heading for work. The temperature going lower, the house was a twenty-minute drive away from the station because it was far from the city. This part of Preyton had houses that belonged to people who didn't even know Preyton would exist. It is ominously flat—miles of un-majestic trees broken only by the thin strip of highway. The same scene repeating itself every few minutes.

It was almost 7:00 am when I arrived at the station, I decided to wake up early because I wanted to get to the station before anyone else. If I try to access any file on the system, Captain Omar will get very suspicious. Yuna's case was my first since getting back, and he won't hesitate to put me on probation if I step out of line. But this is not about Yuna.

The Police Department was quiet and empty, except for Jenna, who seemed really busy doing her paperwork. That's not something you see every day. The young lady never does it, no matter how many times I order her to do so.