The Roman Project: The Wronged

Chapter 19

Being back in her neighborhood felt strange.

Strange, but good.

About ten minutes of walking down the stone streets with houses and shops on both sides, they stopped in front of a thin two-story house.

Jeen smiled, walking towards the door. She reached out to turn the handle, but when she did it didn't budge.

She breathed out heavily.

"I forgot I locked it before we left. Roman do you mind..." She gestured to the door.

He sighed and walked forward.

With a slight punch, more like a tap really, the glass window on the door cracked. Pushing the glass away, he reached inside and turned the copper lock.

He pushed the door open, waving his arm for everyone to walk in.

Jeen walked in first, ignoring Roman's sarcastic arm-waving, and smiled as she looked around the house.

She breathed in deeply.

Home.

She hurried to the kitchen, her stomach aching from hunger. She pulled open cupboard doors, taking out bags of chips, candy, and other bagged junk food.

The four of them sat on the couch watching the viewer. Empty bags and wrappers lay on the floor and glass table.

Saule held a bowl in her hand full of ice cream. She almost never had had ice cream, Ona was never very fond of it. It was probably one of the unhealthiest meals she'd had in while, but she couldn't care less. She felt so far away that she could barely taste its flavor anyway.

"How do people watch this?" Londen asked in awe.

Saule glanced from her ice cream back to the screen. They were watching The Taylors, a reality show about a rich family in the Opalescent Sector.

She looked over at him, they were sitting side by side. She glanced quickly away, her mind flashing back to old memories.

As she watched the show, the canned laughter blurry to her ears, she stared into space, feeling so distant from the room she was sitting in. She couldn't stop thinking about Ona.

She heard Jeen say, "I honestly don't know," as she picked up the silver remote and clicked over to the news.

She tried to blink, taking a deep breath.

She saw Jeen and Roman stand up from the couch out of her corner of her eye.

"You okay?"

She blinked, the image of Ona covered in blood disappearing as glanced over at Londen, who was looking at her with frown.

"Yeah." She mumbled after a few moments.

As they sat there closely, Saule couldn't help but replay old memories in her head again.

She looked him in the eyes, and he looked at her if he knew what she was going to say.

She opened her mouth to speak, but something from the viewer stopped her.
"Just one hour ago the Minister was found dead in his office. The ministerial family is in mourning, and requests that the cause of his death is not to be released to the public for the time being. The only thing that has been confirmed is that it was not an assassination..." The reporter's voice droned on.

Saule heard someone drop something in the kitchen.

She stared at the news in shock.

***