CLOSER | H.S.

52.

“Apocalyptic and insane, my dreams will never change.”

30 Seconds to Mars - Edge of the Earth

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When we arrived home and had to think of the next thing to do, all of my thoughts fell into my head like a waterfall. I was thinking of where we should go, what we should do, what would happen if I get caught, how I can’t go home now, how our lives were at risk if my boss’ thug friends came after us for revenge, how the police would probably be after us too while the murder weapon was sitting comfortably on my couch.

“I’m going to lose my shit”, I rubbed my temples as I paced back and forth in my apartment. Lara said something, but I couldn’t hear her through the buzz inside my head.

She touched my shoulder, trying to console me. How selfish of me. I looked at her and touched her shoulder too. “Unless you want to go to the police and report this, you should take a shower and pack your bags.”

“Yeah, I probably need a shot just in case that bastard was carrying anything”, she turned around and headed to the bathroom. She seemed shaken, poorly trying to hide it.

While she was in the shower, I took a glass of water as an attempt to calm myself and stop shaking, but that wouldn’t happen any time soon. I began packing my bags, taking everything that was important to me: my favorite cactus painting, the cactus Harry gave me and a few photographs. With that, I also took my clothes - that weren’t many, for that matter -, make up and personal hygiene items. I was rushing like crazy, so by the time I was done with my things, Lara hadn’t  finished her shower yet.

We couldn’t just leave out of nowhere for no reason, abandoning basically our entire apartment without raising any suspicion. But we absolutely had to do this, so I wrote a small letter to our landlord, trying to explain an imaginary situation so it wouldn’t seem like we left in a hurry.

“Hello, Mrs. Greene. This is Valerie and Lara, from apartment 20. We’ve been very unhappy with our lives in London. We decided to run away together and seek a better life for ourselves, far from drugs and sin. You can do whatever you wish with the things we leave behind, they no longer have value for us.

We wish you all the best.

Love, Valerie and Lara.”

By the time I finished the letter, Lara had also finished packing her bags. I showed her the letter to get an approval.

“We sound like a lesbian couple”, she smiled and handed the letter back to me. “Which is gross.”

“Why?” I didn’t bother to look offended.

“You’re basically my sister. A hot sister that I would definitely bang if you didn’t mean so much to me”, she smiled again and I couldn’t hold back the tears. We hugged and cried, only then realising that this was a goodbye. “Are you going home?” She dried her cheeks.

“No, I can’t go back there”, I looked down. “I still have a dream to follow, and I’m not getting that in the countryside.”

“You’re a tough one, aren’t you?” She dried my cheeks too. “You still have blood on your face.”

“The blood of my enemies”, I still found the strength to make a joke. We chuckled weakly. “Do you have a safe place to go? You need to disappear, do you hear me?”

“Yeah, I do. But I’m going home, no one knows where I’m from except you.”

I closed the letter and got myself an extra piece of paper, wrote a phone number in there and gave it to her. “When we leave this apartment, you’re going to destroy your phone and credit card, get yourself a new number under a fake name and call this one. This is how you can reach me. Don’t say anything suspicious through the phone or through messages.”