Swallow My Lies

Favors

Robert is not a very busy man but he writes well, and when you write well and when people actually read what you write and they even pay to buy a paper because it has something you have written in it then you are wanted by every newspaper anywhere. This has happened to Robert not very recently but not for long either.

Robert worked for a paper called "The Hours". Very popular. Enough money, although money wasn't a concern for Robert anymore anyways, after his wife died in the accident he got all she owned and she came from a wealthy family. A family not fond of Robert at first, but they got used to him. Robert didn't want any of it though. He never did. He didn't even know she was wealthy. He just knew her family had enough to cover everything. If he could give everything back and take her back he would've.

Lately mornings had become the saddest part of the day. Robert didn't want to wake up anymore. He hated everything. Specially his features. He despised it, lately he puts the towel over the mirror in the bathroom so he can hide his face. It's not just his face, he has been noticing the scars on his body and thinking about cutting again. He feels pathetic. 30 years old and thinking about cutting again. Not just thinking. Not just thinking since a week ago. Every day he was thinking about doing it again. He felt pathetic, and all the cell in his brain were directing him to doing it again. It felt as if he was being compelled to do so. As if this was a reunion for his old feelings. his forgotten emotions. But he never forgot them, they were always there, somewhere.

He started this sort of self-harm very young. Not a pleasant household he lived in. He lived in London with his mother and older sister. After his mother died he had to move in with his father. Not a very pleasant man either. His sister was old enough so she left. She always wrote to him. Telling him as soon as she got settled she would come and take him with her. It never happened. He was 14 when he found out she had over dosed on heroin. He felt trapped. The cutting started when he was around 13. About the time his mother got diagnosed with lung cancer and then died shortly after. After that he felt trapped in a world he didn't seem to belong to.

He kept doing it until he was 17. That's when he met Megan. His wife. She was different. And although he started writing right about the time he started cutting, he suddenly became more creative. Having a better perspective of everything and anything.

She was like a voice guiding him through the maze called life. The saving grace of his helpless soul. He knew this very well. And now after the accident he was back to where he once were. He was helpless again.

He had to get out of bed this morning. It was already late and he needed to finish his work and email it to the office but he just couldn't move his feet. He pulled the blanket over his head and decided to stay under it for just another five minutes. But this time his cell phone had other plans.

First he decided not to answer it but then the sound it made, disturbed him even further so he got up and answered it with his sleepy voice.

"Yes?" He said then sat on the bed.

"Excuse me, is this Mr. Fox?" Mia's voice was coming from the other line and even though Robert was sleepy and barely conscious from the lack of sleep he had been having he recognized her voice.

"Yes. Miss Calinsky, how are you?" He said trying to sound less of a sleepy person.

"Thank you. I still am breathing. I have called for a matter of emergency. Do you have time this morning? We must meet." Mia said.

Robert felt the alarm in her voice.

"I can if I try hard enough. What's the emergency?" Robert asked.

"I can't say it in this way. Come to my office please. Oh, also Mr. Peterson wants to see you." Mia said and then hung up.

Then suddenly right after she hung up, Robert received a message.