Suffocating

Enfold; II

"I know you want to, I want to, too, Aditya, but we barely can protect ourselves, much less someone else. Keeping her here isn't going to change anything. If they find her, they find her.That's it. We can't do anything about it."

A gruff sigh, bordering a growl. "We can't leave her for them to chew her up, either."

There was a pause, where perhaps Katrina agreed to his words. "Maybe you can convince her to delete-"

"It won't change a thing. Plus, she's taken all the necessary precautions-"

A bitter laugh, so unlike Katrina's cheerful persona. "Like that actually helps. You know they have a way of knowing things, Adit, the same way you know things, the same way Roxanne knows more than she should!"

"I tried to warn her-"

"And you did such a good job."

The sarcasm seemed to hurt him because, when he spoke again, his voice was lower and less soft - sounding less like the well-adjusted man he wanted the world to see, and more of the tired, old man he truly was. "There was nothing stopping that young girl. It was only a matter of time before she knew. I just didn't expect her to..." The voice trailed into a sigh of an old man who had the weight of the world on his shoulders.

That was when Roxanne decided she had enough, pushing herself off of the maroon-colored door, letting her back pulled itself into the lemon yellow wall next to it. Eavesdropping; a skill necessary for any reporter, but one that, if used incorrectly, could lead to a series of pain.

Like right now.

Good job. You fucked up everything, Roxanne, just as always, the nagging voice taunted, making her headache worse.

Before she knew it, she was sitting against the wall, knees pulled up and hugged, head hung low, eyes finding peace at the darkness that her shadow granted her, as opposed to the piercing, warm light of the setting sun.

It had been three days. Three days since Grover and Katrina had basically adopted her - Roxanne laughed, why was it that she was now adopted, when she was legally an adult, as opposed to when she actually could've been adopted - like the helpless stray that she was. Three days since she broke things off with Claire, having a fight more heartbreaking and intense than any of their other fights. Three days since, well... everything, she supposed.

Three days. That was how long it took for Roxanne to realize she couldn't stay here, not if she wanted to overstay her welcome and keep eating their food and drink and leach off of them like the worthless parasyte that she was.

Roxanne blinked, slowly tilting her head up, not really to see anything, but to immerse in anything but the darkness.

She needed to leave.

So she did, with only a small purse in tow.

Leaving out of the house was as frightening as it was chilling. Roxanne couldn't handle it, not since... she couldn't handle it.

Everywhere, there were eyes, watching, waiting, knowing, judging, determining whether she was allowed to live after the horrendous crime she'd committed.

Only some of her tension were erased when she spotted the building of her apartment.

More of the tension went away as she neared the door to her home.

But all of that tension, added by a couple of more, hit her like a baseball bat - one with, like, spikes - when she safely secured herself in her home, only to find Claire there as well, holding the teddy bear, looking as surprised as she felt.