Chapter 6 – (changed) Routines.
Chris ended up working an extra long shift the following day, in part because he had called in sick on Thursday, and so it wasn’t until after 1pm when he finally left work. The events from the last few days ran jumbled through his mind, and he wasn’t quite sure what his plan of attack was. Where he would go, and what he’d do. He had remembered to buy some more bodywash. A couple of bottles in the end. It was fortunate that his store actually sold it, and he’d said that he needed to buy it for a flatmate when the checkout girl had given him a curious look. A half truth. He wasn’t sure exactly what he was going to do with it though. He’d probably need to come clean with Rachael, if she hadn’t already guessed.
He’d gathered that the others had been up quite late, probably having only just gone to bed not too long before he had left for work, character sheets, dice, and empty cans and glasses strewn all over the table. Damian had also still been there, snoring away on the sofa, one of the old blankets thrown over him. He’d almost overslept, even though he’d gone to bed quite early, but he wouldn’t have been able to have breakfast with Damian there anyways. At least he’d been able to get to the bus stop in plenty of time. He appreciated that the city had a bus service that ran all night. He was aware that there were many places where that wasn’t the case, and it would have made getting to work a lot more difficult.
He’d spent so many months planning and preparing his dress-up stint, that he actually felt a bit out of sorts now. His usual routines were no more, no longer necessary. It had consumed a lot of his time, and now that time was free again. Well, not so much today, given the overtime, but still, the point was there, demanding his attention. Then there was the voice in the back of his head, telling him to try again, to put them on again. He’d liked it last time, how he’d looked and felt, the rightness of it, but he pushed that thought away, or at least tried to. He didn’t want a repeat of that day. Well, not parts of it anyway. Perhaps he’d get back into reading or other forms of gaming, paint another mini, or maybe he’d pick up running or some other physical activity as well. He wasn’t entirely sure, and he wasn’t ready to decide just yet.
He thought about Rachael as he walked along the bypass towards the bus stop, absently ignoring the cars and trucks rumbling past, and the fresh graffiti along the sides of stock trucks that always seemed to be sitting on side rails in the train yard. All that achieved was that he got quite hot in the face. He kept on seeing the sad soft expression from last night, contrasted with the cheeky smile and alluring form when she had caught him out. It left him confused, and he hurt inside.
No one was at the bus stop this time when he arrived, and checking his phone he realized that he’d just missed the bus, the next one was quarter of an hour away. Served him right for wandering around in a daze. He sat down on the seat of the bus shelter, hugging the side out of habit. At least the sun was out and the day was warm. A good day for walking, though not from here. He glanced down, spotting the days newspaper that someone had left behind, neatly folded over twice. The Elder Times. At least it was a respectable publication.
He picked it up, and glanced through some of the pages. There were the typical local headlines on the front page: “Brett Averets still sits at the top of the polls” (politics, though he was good at his job), “Major alteration have been approved for the southern bypass” (well overdue), “Baymount High wins the national junior rugby championship” (no surprises there), and the like. He flicked over a few pages, to the national section. “Closed Exhibition to be held for Dr Aranei Mordlaw’s Ark project”. That seemed to ring a bell. He’d heard something about some crazy scientist trying to create some self-aware robotic animals. The photo of the one in the paper actually looked quite good, realistic almost, if it wasn’t for its metallic sheen and plated hide. Probably cost a small fortune to create though. “Another household victim to serial killer ‘Blood’”. He could do without knowing about that. The international headline wasn’t much better however. “Entire village found missing, no traces. Third in as many weeks”. That didn’t bode well, but at least it wasn’t close to home. He put the paper back down, folding it as he had found it, and stared blankly off into the distance. The hiss of the buses brakes as it pulled up to the stop alerted Chris to its presence, and he snapped out of his reverie and boarded.
He ended up heading into the CBD, the habit not even close to being broken yet. There was some comfort to the routine, and he spent some time wandering the mainstream shops, staring in through the windows. He went past the book store, and looked at the collection of role-playing manuals that they had recently gotten in. He flicked through one, hoping for some inspiration, but there was none. He put it back down, and continued on. He grabbed a filled roll from one of the convenience stores and ate it as he wandered down the main stretch, aimlessly looking in at their wares. He stopped outside an upmarket clothing store, ‘La Belle Mode’. The men’s clothes on display looked bland and uninteresting, but the dress on display took his breath away, it was absolutely stunning. He wondered what it would be like to wear, the shook his head, trying to clear his mind. It’d cost a small fortune, so he wasn’t even going to go there with his thoughts. At least that was his excuse. After walking another two stores down and finding himself outside a sports shop with mannequins all dressed in exercise gear, he decided that town definitely wasn’t the place for him to be at the moment, and he hurried back to the bus hub, boarding the first bus that was heading in the direction of home.
Half way home he dismounted the bus. The day was still warm, and there was plenty of light left. He needed to clear his mind. Knowing where he was, he headed towards Agerslows, the suburb that bordered Old Town. He’d studied the bus map on his ride home, putting names to the places that he’d ended up walking through yesterday. While Old Town itself wasn’t on the map, it didn’t take him much effort to work out where it actually was. The city really was doing its best to forget its existence. If he was going to go back there, he should at the least familiarize himself with the area. The houses that he walked past initially started off quite wealthy, a recent development area as some of the suburbs started expanding out towards the edges of the city limits, then started to degrade in quality as the buildings got older and as he got closer to Old Town. The streets also got a lot quieter, less people and less vehicles.
It took him about half an hour to walk to the blocks of empty plots that formed the border between Agerslows and Old Town, and he stood there, just staring at the land in front of him. There really wasn’t much left at all of the buildings that had once been, just piles of wood and stone with grass and weeds trying to take over, and a multitude of trees that would have once grown in peoples back yards or marked the corner of a street. It was all rather uniform all things considered, and quite peaceful. He could hear birds singing, and even spotted a rabbit hopping across the street, with absolutely no fear of being run over. Nature was doing a good job of reclaiming it, and standing here, he couldn’t for the life of him work out why everyone was so fearful of the place. There had even been a number of quakes in the years since, but everywhere felt it the same. Perhaps he’d just cursed himself by having ended up in there?
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“Heya.”
Chris almost jumped, startled out of his musings, and turned to find Rachael beside him, drenched in sweat, wearing a loose grey hoodie and a pair of red and black running tights and matching shoes.
“Oh, hey Rachael.” He watched her as she stared out to where he had been looking, catching her breath.
“I thought you usually went to the gym on Fridays?” he asked.
“I needed a change,” Rachael replied. “To try something different. Gym’s been getting too crowded.”
Chris nodded. “Do you usually run this way?”
“Nope. That whole change thing. I was surprised to see you out here though, especially so close that area.” Her breathing had stabilized, and she sounded curious.
“Just trying to clear my head and make sense of everything,” he replied, which was the absolute truth. He got out his water bottle from his bag, and offered it to her, which she took, taking a good drink before handing it back.
“Thanks.” She gave him a smile. “Take care okay. I’ll see you back home.”
Chris nodded, Rachel then turning and resuming her run, heading directly away from Old Town. Her running style was paced and relaxed. Fluid. He wondered if she’d learnt some of that from her P.E. paper.
He went back to staring out into Old Town. He thought that he could just make out his pile of stones on the road, though it seemed like they were a lot further in than he had thought. Mind you, his perceptions at the time had been a little jumbled. He stood, half contemplating going back into the ruins to investigate what it was that he had dropped, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it. Not today, not like this. People avoided it for a reason, and it was his turn to cook tonight too, and he didn’t want to return late. He wasn’t looking forward to that though, having everyone around. He’d make something simple, like chicken wraps, or maybe even just meat, veg and potato. He turned, and started the walk home.
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Chris settled on the chicken wraps, with a side of oven fries. They had all the ingredients, and it wouldn’t take him long to get the prep work done. Everyone was home when he got back, so he shooed them out of the kitchen, placed his bag on the floor, washed his hands and got to work. He checked to make sure there were enough plates, preheated the oven and got the chicken and fries cooking. Then the wraps, salad, dressing, and sauce. Once all that was done, he grabbed his bag, and taking note of the time, headed up to his room. Rachael was just heading into the bathroom for a shower, her running gear still on. He’d assumed she would have done so when she got home earlier, and not left it to now. Catching her attention, he motioned to her as he got one of the bottles of bodywash out, handing it to her.
“Umm... sorry. For you,” he mumbled, going red again.
Rachael smiled, giving a small giggle. “Thanks. You can keep using the other one if you want, I don’t mind,” she then said, and gave him a small wave as she entered the bathroom. “Keep dinner warm for me.”
Chris stood there, flush and unsure what else to say or do. She’d known. Of course she had.
Snapping himself back to his senses, he put his backpack in his room, and went back downstairs. He had a meal to deal with, and the last thing he needed was to screw that up.
By the time he had finished making the meal everyone was down, bar Rachael. Covering her share with foil and leaving it in the warmed oven, they sat down to eat. Like usual, the conversation didn’t cease, even when they were eating, the rest of his flatmates discussing what they would be doing the following day, being the weekend and all. Paul was going to see the new release movie with Damian and a bunch of his other friends, both boys and girls. Apparently Damian was now sleeping with one of them, and Millie joked if it was a girl or a boy, which didn’t go down so well. The movie was some superhero action story set in a future where magic had returned all of a sudden and the status quo had suddenly changed, and there was a lot of hype surrounding it. Bruce surprised them all by stating that he had a job interview in the morning, yes he knew it was a Saturday, and then after that he had an engagement with his family, so he’d be out all day. Millie made noises about going shopping, and that she’d probably drag Rachael along, and Peter apparently was going to the museum to help with an exhibition there, and then was going to the gym after that. When the meal was done, Chris declared that he’d clean up, and gathering everything off the table, he headed back into the kitchen, everyone else migrating elsewhere. Given that it was a Friday night, some of them would probably head out for a social drink as well, well Paul and Bruce at least.
Rachael turned up a few minutes later, looking fresh, dressed in a red close fitting ribbed sweater and a black skirt, smelling strongly of petals. He wasn’t complaining, he liked the smell, but there was no mistaking it. He hadn’t realised how strong it actually was. He got out her food, took off the cover and gave it to her, Rachael proceeding to sit by the kitchen bench and eat it as he continued washing up. The existed in silence for a little bit, before Chris finally gathered up the courage.
“How come no one else noticed?” he queried. He was worried about asking in what was a public space, but the question was vague enough that no one else would be able to work out what he was actually asking about.
“You weren’t around anyone straight away afterwards, and the initial strength fades pretty quickly,” she replied.
True.
“It does linger, but they would have just assumed it was me after that.”
Chris nodded, and finished off the dishes. He then waited, leaning against the bench while Rachael finished off eating. He didn’t know what he wanted to say, so he just stood, and Rachael didn’t complain. It was kind of odd, but also nice. Once she was done, he took her dishes as well, and proceeded to clean them.
“Thanks,” Rachael said as she got up. “I... I’ve got some essays that I should probably give some attention to. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
Chris gave her a genuine smile. “Will do. Enjoy your shopping trip with Millie.”’
“Oh yeah, that.” Rachael gave a sheepish smile back. “Night.”
“Night.”
Once Rachael had gone he dried the dishes, put them all away, tidied up the kitchen, and then went back into the lounge. It was quiet and empty, and he felt at loose ends again, his mind threatening to become a malestorm of thoughts.
Sighing, he headed back up to his room. He had work again in the morning, weekend shifts a staple of the industry, so he may as well try end get in plenty of sleep before he had to get up. He knew that he needed it.
His body agreed, Chris falling into a dreamless sleep as soon as his head had hit the pillow.