Chapter 161

My heart sinks as that age-old knowing fear takes a grip of my throat and I know my apartment will see a second break in before sunrise. I am too tired for this.

This city is full of people with no scruples, and I am an easy target, especially in this state. I don’t have the energy to fight off two teens, even with my baseball bat and mace, not while I’m sick and messed up and close to falling down with fatigue. I have no one around here that would intervene in any way and the sad fact is … I have nothing worthy of protecting except myself.

I don’t hesitate. I shove everything I own into my two holdalls, not that I have much to pack, then pull on some sweatpants and trainers and a hoody over my lighter pyjamas. I’m not waiting around for a second assault in my own home, and as the place already looks like Armageddon swept through, it’s not going to make much difference to me. They can come see for themselves it’s all gone and I won’t be here to be the second choice. I make for the door, weighed down with two bags and a steel grit of getting the heck out of dodge.

Something in me pulls me back, and despite myself, I walk back to that darn couch and yank out the box and lift Mico’s card hurriedly. I stuff it into the open zip of the bag hanging on my shoulder before I exit the apartment and make my way outside onto the street.

The teens watch me go. I walk fast, keep my head down, and avoid a couple more randoms up at this hour in the dank hallways as I get down the stairs to the ground floor and into the street. It’s dark, cold and misty from incoming bad weather and the air around me smells like factory smoke and dirty air that hurts my already fragile throat. I pull up my hood to shield me from the biting elements and as I walk away I glance back and up at my second-floor windows. From outside, I can already see shadows across the window of my apartment as they check it out, snooping for remains of the spoils. I can’t believe the nerve of them but then again, it’s hardly a shock that this shit happens to me all the time.

I swear I am cursed.

Good luck boys, you won’t find anything of value and I won’t be back until I can find someone willing to help me fix my door.