▌│█║▌║▌║Chapter 50║▌║▌║█│▌

I stared in dismay at all the clutter in the room. There were pizza boxes lying all over the ground, and coffee cups on top of books and other clutter on desks and shelves. She walked through the maze of clutter and oddities on the floor, and she went and picked up a postcard sitting on an empty pizza box and said, “Sorry, I like to collect souvenirs to show my family back home. I also have some stuff from my home, so I don’t get homesick.”

I walked over and picked up an empty coffee cup and asked in a sarcastic tone, “Souvenirs huh?”

She bounded determinedly toward me and snatched the coffee cup out of my hand as she commanded, “Shut-up, the cup’s design is unique okay?”

“Mhmm…You’re a classic horder.”

She looked at me and defiantly said, “I am not!”

I went through the apartment, stumbling across the random items here and there, and looked around at the kitchen area that was covered with unfinished meals and dirty dishes, and I nodded and said, “Of course. Well…Where are we going to start cleaning up?”

She looked around the room and let out an exasperated sigh. She pointed at the front door and said, “I guess we should start at the front door then move on throughout the apartment.”

I stumbled back across the apartment, and I told her, “We need to throw some of this stuff away whether you like it or not. Can you go get a trash bag? I will start to gather up trash. You can keep the actual souvenirs, but the coffee cups and uneaten pizza boxes have got to go.”

She turned back to the kitchen to get a bag and defiantly said, “Fine…”

I finished up my coffee, and I started to put the trash in a group off by itself with the energy the coffee gave me. I doubt that Jane would have gotten all of this cleaned up in one day without me. I thought about when I knocked on her door last night. She probably would never have managed to get to the door to open if she even managed to hear the knock through all of this clutter. I shook my head in empathy. I can sort of understand this mess. She has never lived alone or even been in a city before. It’s only natural this much of a mess piles up I suppose.

Jane bounded back to the front door with a trash bag in hand, and a new resolve to clean up this mess. She set the trash bag up and said, “Well…let’s get started.”

A twinge of pain was in her voice, but she helped nonetheless. We were cleaning up the rest of the day and only stopped to eat some pizza for dinner. Over the meal, Jane told me about where she got all of her “souvenirs”, and it was surprisingly interesting how she got some of them.

She got a tea set from an old lady in the poor-low level part of town, and she got a silk scarf on her travel from her home on the countryside to the city. She even managed to find a golden necklace in her bed when she got here. No one has come to pick it up yet, so she has just kept it as her own.

After we finished eating, it was already really late. We had cleaned up from the front door all the way to about halfway through the kitchen. We still have the room to clean up, but we decided to clean it up tomorrow. I’m feeling very weary at the moment. The energy from the coffee is gone now, and I’m feeling the crash from the caffeine. I walked slowly to the front door with the empty pizza box, and I placed it in a trash bag.

There were about ten trash bags set up beside the door full of useless junk and empty food boxes. I let out an exasperated sigh and started to pick one the bags up to put them outside in the garbage. Jane walked next to me and picked up another as she said, “Are we going to take these down to the alleyway, and you’ll burn them to get them out of the way? You surely have enough power to turn them to ash instantly. You can probably turn anything to ash instantly.”

“Again, with the power talk?” I thought to myself.

I looked at her with annoyance as I said, “No…We are taking them down to the trash can in the alleyway and leave them there for the garbage men.”

She laughed at what I said, and she asked, “That’s a joke right?”

I looked back at her with the same annoyance as before, and I told her flatly, “No.”

I guess that could be her social situation unawareness showing by thinking that was a joke, but I have had enough with the power thing today. Every time she brings it up, I think about how my parents wouldn’t be dead right now if only I had a power.

After we finished putting the garbage away, she went into her room to sleep, and I went to bed on the couch. Before she went to her room, she apologized to me saying, “Sorry about the sleeping arrangements. I’ll get an extra mattress later tomorrow.”

I waved her off and calmed her down saying, “It’s fine. I’m just grateful to not be sleeping on the hard floor or outside in the cold and rain.”

I drifted in and out of sleep on the couch. I kept having the same dream as last night about the blue flame engulfing my parents, the terrorists, Max Powers, and protecting my classmates and Mr. Grey. I eventually just ended up laying there in the darkness thinking about school tomorrow. I hope it won’t be anything too extraneous. I don’t think my sore and weary body will be able to take it.

All of a sudden, a loud THUD rang out through the darkness. The sound came from Jane’s room. Is there someone here to kill her now?

▌│█║▌║▌║To be Continued║▌║▌║█│▌