Luka woke up in a sweat. That nightmare again. He turned the bedside lamp on. He wouldn't be able to fall asleep. Not with those memories still lingering. Luka got up. 'May as well start the day' he thought heading into the kitchen. Sighing, he began making breakfast for himself and his daughter. 'Poor Mika' he thought. She had no idea what had happened. What he'd done. He turned around looking at the clean kitchen. He had made sure to clean up everything. The strange person from yesterday had sent some people around to help. Luckily for him, Mika had fallen asleep in the car and so didn't see the limp body of her mother, laying in the kitchen. Luka shivered and continued making breakfast.
Luka set the bowls of cereal down. He looked at the time. It was 6:57. Mika would be waking up soon. Luka decided to head down the hallway, to see if she had woken early. He peeked his head round the doorway and found Mika still cuddled up on her bed. He sighed and sat down near her feet. Looking at his daughter, he smiled sadly. 'She didn't deserve this' he thought. Before he got too far into his depressing thoughts, Mika started moving. Luka focused his attention onto his daughter as she began waking up. Gently he rested his hand on her back and whispered to her.
"Time to wake up" He let his hand fall onto the bed as she slowly sat up. Hands in fists as she rubbed at her eyes.
Luka placed Mika into the car. He had to head into work today and pretend that everything going on in his life was perfect. Work would hopefully be a chance for him to take a break from the horrors of his private life and immerse himself in the boring task of scanning food or even stacking boxes. He slowed down as he approached the day care and silently parked his car in the parent parking lot. Luckily for him, he had put nursery rhymes on so his daughter wasn't shocked by his silence and was now softly singing the songs to herself. Luka braced himself for human interaction and entered the daycare. He helped Mika put her bag on one of the hooks and followed her into the large room. He waited for the cheery greeting from the young women who worked here. Luckily many of them were busy with the children who had already arrived. Luka quickly said goodbye to his daughter, who by now was already focused on teaching her friends the song she had learnt, and turned to leave.
"Mr Day." Luka turned around to see one of the teachers. 'Miss Yuri', her name tag read.
"Yes?" He hesitantly responded, not feeling up for talking to anyone.
"I was wondering if I could have a discussion with you about Mika's progress when you come to pick her up later this afternoon." Luka just nodded.
"Yeah. I-I can do that." Luka awkwardly smiled at the young woman, hoping that he hadn't given anything away. Miss Yuri just smiled at him and nodded her own head.
"I will see you later then . I wouldn't want to make you late to work." With that she turned around and focused back on the children who were eagerly showing off their pictures. Luka sighed and rushed out the door to the daycare and returned to his car.
Luka decided to skip his usual morning trip to his favourite café. He didn't have the confidence to unnecessarily be in public anymore. He had already used it up, taking Mika to her daycare and interacting with Miss Yuri. Luka dreaded the conversation he had agreed to have after work.
Luka parked his car at the supermarket and went in. He passed by his co-workers and smiled and waved at each of them. He avoided whatever conversation he could but knew there was someone else who was going to force something out of him.
"Is your daughter okay?" There it was. His co-worker Peter. The only one who wouldn't let him get away without talking.
"Ye-yeah, she's good now." Yesterday he had lied and said she was sick so that he couldn't come into work. Peter just nodded and walked back to his station. Luka sighed. Peter was probably mad that he had been called up last minute to head in. Luka walked over to his station and started ringing up customers, dreading the end of his shift.
The daycare car park was empty. Everyone had already left by the time Luka had gotten there. That was 10 minutes ago. Luka got out of his car and walked into the daycare. All he had to do was talk to a teacher about his daughter. He had done it plenty of times before. The only difference now was that he had murdered someone.
Mika rushed him as he walked in. Luka picked his daughter up and gave her a hug, trying to calm his nerves and avoid eye contact with the teachers. Once he was calm he put Mika down.
"I'm just gonna talk to your teacher for a moment, then we can go, Okay?" He asked. Mika just nodded her head and went back to the stuffed animals.
Miss Yuri led Luka into the office. Another teacher was there focused on doing some work on her laptop. Luka paid her no mind and instead sat down opposite Miss Yuri.
"Mr Day, I've asked you to meet with me to have a discussion about Mikaela's progress." Luka just nodded, allowing Miss Yuri to continue.
"She's a gifted young girl. Have you thought about which school you're going to enroll her into yet?" Luka shook his head.
"Not yet, no."
"I won't bore you with the same speech as last time but you should really consider enrolling her soon." Miss Yuri responded. They'd had the talk of school before. It was always the same statement from every teacher.
"Mr Day, you should also really inform us if you are unable to pick your daughter up and have arranged other transport for her."
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