a place we know| ✓

thirty nine

"And find a place where every single thing you see tells you to stay."
S E E K E R
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January 10th
8:56 PM
New York
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Audrey's instincts told her something was wrong even before she pushed her key into the lock and turned it, listening for the click and proceeding to push the front door open.

She came across the cozy apartment and nothing appeared to be out of place. The window was open, letting a current of cool air into the living area, the beer bottles that she had seen on her way out were still sitting on the coffee table beside an empty ashtray, and it smelt like smoke as per usual, but staler; it was fading and another hadn't been lit since she left.

"Gunner?" She closed the door and twisted the lock, awaiting his response over the quietude. "Baby, are you home?"

Tossing her keys onto the coffee table, she walked further into the apartment, and her stomach spumed with concern for Gunner and her daughter. Her limbs felt numb as she moved towards the bedrooms, calling out Gunner's name, waiting for him to walk out of their room or perhaps out of the bathroom with a cigarette dangling between his lips.

He never came.

Foreboding rushed in like bursts of nervous energy, gathering in the pit of her stomach where she felt the burden of her unborn child draw all her strength, and set a fire burning from the ground up.

"Leah?" Her knuckles desperately fell against the bedroom door. "Open up, sweetheart. It's me. It's mommy. I'm home."

The pitter-patter of tiny footsteps behind the divide sent her heart lurching into her throat, and she experienced the dread like that of a wave which towered over her head, moments away from immersing her in panic where she stood.

Her attention was drawn, her eyes pinpointing her new center of focus. She couldn't hold a thought when it seemed her mind danced with more questions than she had answers to. The door opened and her daughter warily glanced and blinked up at Audrey's concern. There was no hint of sorrow in Leah's eyes, but her ruddy cheeks, stained with dry tears, was evidence of the gloom her little heart harbored. She looked surprised, even, that someone had come knocking at her door.

"Sweetheart, what happened?" Audrey dropped her knees in front of Leah and watched sadness well in her eyes before it cascaded in slow trickles down her flushed skin. "Where's daddy?"

She opened her mouth to form words and instead choked on the strangled cry she sputtered. That was all it took for her legs to give way. Audrey caught her in her arms, pulling her up to her chest as a sob wracked through her petite body.

"D-Daddy left me h-here alone. He's been g-gone for so long and...I-I thought no one was coming b-back."

Audrey wanted to shelter her daughter away from the world, she wanted to pour her affections and make golden promises about better days ahead, she wanted to mend her innocent heart and keep her in a place no terror could touch her. Life was unfair and it was punishing the wrong people.

"I'm home now, sweetheart," Audrey whispered; there was a numbing loss inside of her. "I'm here."

She kissed her forehead repeatedly. "Are you okay? Did you eat anything?"

"Not yet," Leah said. "But where did daddy go? Why didn't he want to stay home with me? Did I do something wrong? Does he hate me?"

"Of course not, baby. He doesn't hate you. He loves you."