SOLOMON {Book Two in the Heroes Cassettes Series}

Chapter Three: Manilla Letter

11/15/19 - Ty Lee Geun's Household

October wakes up that morning sore with her side aching. She stares up at her blank ceiling, once covered in thick fraying string that hung little Polaroids above October's head, kind of like stars.

But the ceiling was blank, as was most of her walls. The important stuff was in the inner wall of her closet or behind the panels of the back wall.

Grunting, October managed to roll off her bed, her leg going over a bump beneath the blankets and there was an angry meow following.

"Sorry, Sept," October said, her voice slurring, stuck in sleep as October shuffled over to her closet. Her Gotham attire poked out of her secret compartment and she stuffed it back in. She was bone weary last night and even the effort of getting undressed sent her falling asleep. She only stayed up long enough to crawl into her bed because the pain in her side would flare up and cause her to hiss through her teeth.

She got dressed, sliding on black pants and searching for her Gotham Academy blouse to no avail. She grumbled. She must have left it at her dad's house and she was stuck with an itchy wool sweater they give out for winter.

Her sneakers squeezed against the polished floor of the hall. It felt larger to October, more empty but she was getting used to it. The walls were bare of the few and far between picture frames that once sat there, leaving patches of paleness on the paint.

Voices flowed out from the kitchen, one annoyed and tense while the other was older and high-pitched like a broken violin. October's slumped into herself.

She walks into the kitchen where her mother sat at the kitchen table, eating a large breakfast of eggs, white toast, bacon, strawberry butter, and a little bowl of untouched kiwis. Ty Lee was sitting back in her chair, her lips pursed tightly at the older woman across from her with one hand on her protruding gut.

"You can't go outside like that in this place! People walk around with knives in their pockets and a hand grabbing their crotch! You can't go out there, not with that baby in your belly, girlie!"

Ty Lee Geun, once Ty Lee Solomon, is eight months pregnant. Her parents have been officially divorced for three months.

Her father had his vasectomy about two years ago when Ty Lee decided she didn't want any more kids after October, a real stab to the heart to October's father. The baby was another one.

"What is that cloth? Sheep?" Jomo asked, her head twisting around her skinny neck like an owl to stare her beady little eyes over October's outfit.

"Clothes," October answered blankly.

Jomo scoffed and spun back around in her chair.

October took her grandmother's dismissal as a chance to leave and walked toward the door, not stopping when her mother said over her shoulder, "Have a nice day at school. Are you going to your dad's tonight?"

Every week or so, October had been switching between houses, especially during the summer, but her father had moved to the other side of the city and the walk to Gotham Academy took forever over there. Most of her time, sadly, has been spent in Ty Lee's house. October much preferred her father's place but he was working constantly but didn't like her being home alone.

As if that's not how I grew up.

Instead, October usually spent a lot of nights in Wayne Manor in one of the empty guest rooms she basically claimed as her own to get away from both of her parents, who loved to talk shit about each other to her.