The lights of the office appeared confused, the whole room was in chaos and disorder, there was this sickening smell of vomit and rotten fruits. And there was this sounds of bells, where it came from?

As his senses started returning to her she tried to stand up but couldn’t even turn herself over. Looking around the room, just on the other side of the fallen table, there was a phone ringing. Her phone.

She crawled a bit on the floor, she could just touch the phone with his finger but couldn’t grab it.

“Damn!” She exclaimed frustrated, turning over a sense of despair hit her: dirty floor, old snacks, shoe footprints, a fallen table, towers of unwashed dishes and beers, a lot of beers. If this wasn’t her apartment she could have mistaken it for a crime scene with the corpse, her, at the centre.

The phone ring was breaking his ears, she couldn’t sleep with it.

With much effort, she crawled another few centimetres, that enough to barely managed to grab the phone with his fingers.

“8:30 Alarm clock: Wake up you have to open the store,” the alarm clock said.

“The store…” she murmured to herself “the store!” she glanced at the clock, 8:55, she could still open the store in time. She tried to stand up but couldn’t. The headache from last night “party” was still too strong.

“Ok, I just need to put a paper on the door saying that the store would remain close this morning.”

Barely standing and in a pitiful state, more similar to a rotten carp than any good lady, she left his apartment.

She looked at the little street separating her house from her store. Nobody in sight. Good.

Equipped with sunglasses, a scarf and a lot of perfume she traversed the street.

The store was just a few feet away, she had already grabbed the paper when:

“Lauret aren’t you sleeping a bit too much lately?” a voice from behind her said. It was Geret, an old lady who knew everything going on in the quarter. She was on his balcony looking at the street, as always.

“Oh, eh hmm, Y-”

“Oh don’t worry, I too sometimes pass the night watching some TV well pass sleeping time” she looked “I am right?” the tone was that of a teacher having caught student in some nefarious acts.

“Y-Yes, Geret, you are abso- lutely right!”

“Good. Bye.” she turned her gaze away.

She was just grabbing the paper, already envisioning a relaxing morning at home, when searching his pockets something strange did happen… there were empty.

She panicked, how this could be? Where did she forget them? Are we sure that she grabbed pen and paper, to begin with?

Turn back. Pass the road, again. use the elevator because with your current equilibrium is more probable that a rabbit beats a snake than not slipping and breaking your neck. Open the door. The door was closed. Her pockets were empty.

She was locked out of her apartment.

She stayed there, laying on the staircase for a bit before a lightening of genius didn’t arrive at her. Her landlord should have a key to her house.

She grabbed reached for her left pocket, searching for the phone... right, pockets empty.

“Lauret I was searching for you. Are those your keys” a young man with a black eye and the left lip blocked said

“Oh, oh- thanks-…” she said.

“Don’t worry. Just, if I can give you a piece of advice, buy pants with better pockets.”

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

“Y-You are right.”

He gave the keys to her.

She entered the apartment, or better, what was looking more and more like a dumpster.

Picked pen, papers, phone and keys. She traversed, again, the street, reached for-

There was someone.

“Hi Lauret, how are you? I was wondering could you open the store early this morning? I should buy some things for today launch with my family.”

“S-Sure. For how lo- long would it take?”

“Nah, just five minutes, nothing too long.”

“Then i-is really nothing” she laughed. He didn’t.

“Is everything alright? You don’t look…healthy, I mean your skin at least.” and he was right her skin was bale white, and the perfume was fading away.

A pause followed.

“B-but no… is really nothing. Yesterday I sleep little and today I wake up late.”

“Ah ok, I imagined worse” she forced herself to laugh, he laughed a bit too.

The humid air of the store gave her nausea. At this time the only place comfortable for her would be a large and warm bed maybe in front of a TV. Not a chair on some humid store.

After the transaction was done she finally put that paper on the veranda and returned home. She looked at the clock,10:30, a new record for her.

She took a shower and fell to the bed.

“CaN YoU OpEn EaRLY?!? What you mean can you open early?!! I am always on time!”

She paused and reflected.

For how much she tried to pretend it was not, that this was an exception, a unique case. At that point, it was a habit of hers and everyone knew it.

She abandoned the sleeves and picked a beer from the fridge. Then sat on the chair and was suddenly very depressed… when her life had gone wrong? She took a long sip but things didn’t look better. She took another and another started watching some TV and sing on top of his lungs imitating some singer.

When she opened her eyes again she was in bed and it was 15:00 and her headache had become much worse. Going to the kitchen she felt on something, an old sock, probably left there some weeks ago. Normally this would have been just an incident, an inconvenience. This time was different. This time she realized how big the problem was, her house was more like a dumpster at this point. She went to the kitchen and “cook” some instantaneous food, the kind that you eat while you travel. While the food was cooking she went to the fridge again and, didn’t took another beer, this time was different, she decided, this time she took a good gin.

…

At the end of that horrible day for her, she looked at some photos of her childhood and wondered what went wrong. Not that she wasn’t happy with his life or anything. She actually quite liked it, she was his boss, she managed to reach the end of the month despite her (heavy) shortcomings. People there were nice and friendly. What was lacking in her life? Why she was so depressed. She took another sip but the bottle was empty.

She looked at the TV, the tv wasn’t bright enough to stop hide completely the reflection. She closed it and looked at her image. Who was she at that point? For the first time in her life, the passing thought that maybe, just maybe had problems with alcohol and keeping things in order.

“People don’t drink this much because

of nothing” she murmured herself remembering someone words on something close “there must be

a cause!”

So she started examining her life. From his birth until now.

…

But nothing was wrong! She had beautiful parents, a good education, a nice boyfrien-

Suddenly something that she pushed deep away came scratching at the border of consciousness. An abstract feeling that was beginning to take form. An event. She abandoned everything, drank some cans and went to bed trying to forget everything.

All the sudden she was in some horrible and dark place. There were no walls in sight, the floor was made of stones and blood. There was another person there, not far, he wore a black cloak and an oar. He looked busy.

“E-Ehmm sorry is thi-”

“What you want?” he responded.

“I-I just wan-”

“If this is a dream? Yes, and so?”

“A-ah I w-”

“For God sake can’t you keep your mouth shout I have work to do. This boat doesn’t pass the blood ocean on its own”

“Ar-are you some sort of- of Charon...?”

He turned to her and revealed her face. “Do I look like Charon to you!” showing a youthful face very familiar. It was hers.

“Why you ar-”

“Do you think I know? Why should I know anything, I am just a projection! Look at you! You look like a monster.”

She looked at her reflection on a pound that looked like it just appeared. She was really a monster. Her hair had grown wild, her skin turned yellow, her teeth fallen and her young buddy became a mass of fat and pimples.

“Why I am like this?”

The ferry lady grinned “maybe because of this sacrifice. Maybe, JUST maybe this sacrifice has broken and split your mind.”

“This sacrifice..?”

“Oh don’t play the ignorant card, you remember it. Those aren’t things that you forget, come take a look, take a look at this corpse. I just need a bit more blood before sending making the travel!”

She leaned and looked at the boat, a corpse, or what remained of it, was there, nearly completely immersed in blood.

“Wh- what is this corpse?”

“Don’t you remember? You were so young and arrogant, so full of ambitions, that that event looked like nothing, the adventure of a night.”

She looked better and was very disgusted. A very old memory had come to mind.

“Common I just need a little more blood to make the path, a little more blood to make the deal and the travel. Would you give it to me?”

Lauret was shocked and in horror, that was her daughter, her daughter that she never had. Her daughter that died by her hand before being born.

She collapsed and cried overwhelm by despair, realizing what she had done.

The end.