Aaron woke up scared to see the the countryside through the car window. The car had left the city and was speeding on the country road.
“It shouldn’t take more than 20 minutes.” Aaron thought to himself. He tried calling Lucy again with no success. He dozed off once more and had a terrible dream about having brain surgery conducted on him by an anthropomorphic hyena with a huge human grin.
When he came to it again he could see his house in the distance. All traces of the dream were gone. Just an unsettling sensation was left. He felt dirty again.
“There, go to that house there.” he told the cabby.
“Sure thing buddy.”
The cab parked in front of the house. Aaron looked at it and everything seemed normal, unchanged. The feeling of dirtiness hadn’t left him, more so it now extended to the house as well.
“Here you go. Keep the change.” said Aaron while pushing the money towards the cabby.
“Thanks buddy. Nice house you got there.”
“Yeah, thank you. Goodbye.” said Aaron halfway out of the cab.
He rushed to the front door and fumbled in his pockets for the keys. His hands were shaky from the adrenaline and alcohol. After trying several times to insert the key in the lock and dropping them on the floor once he finally managed to open the door. It was curious to Aaron that Pepper hadn’t jumped on him already but he didn’t give it much thought.
The floor was still caked with mud and some grass debris just like he left it the other day. The air was stale and smelled of earth.
“LUCY! PEPPER!” yelled Aaron at the top of his lungs. There was no answer.
He went upstairs where a smell of urine and mold hit him. It reminded him of the bathroom of an underground pub. This threw him off mostly because Lucy had always taken great care of this aspect. She loved the smell of bubblegum and the house always smelt like fresh bubblegum.
The second floor was empty as well. He tried calling Lucy again, no answer. He called her mother.
“Hello dear!” a calm voice said from the other side
“Hi, hello. Sorry for calling.” he said out of breath “Is Lucy still there?”
“Why, no darling. Haven’t heard from her this week.”
...to be continued...
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