VIRTUE, frank castle

CHAPTER FIVE

"Sorry, I'm not into short guys."

The following week after Frank something or others dramatic appearance in her life was rather peaceful, calming almost, just going to work and then coming home and then getting drunk on the cheapest bottle of wine available until she'd forget the horrors of her past, it was all so very, very normal. And in other words, it was extremely fucking boring. It was like the big bastard had torn away her sense of normalcy, reminding her of the borderlining chaos of humanity, of what it felt like to be seen by something that wasn't the cockroaches that occasionally festered around her floorboards.

So yes, it was safe to assume that Mallory was quite pissed, furious in fact with the turn of events that were close to ruining her, trying desperately to ignore the desolation of loneliness as it clung to her like a disease, engraved in her flesh for the whole world to look at, bleeding out of her at the seams but always failing, always being reminded of her sudden isolation...because even a painful longing was some form of presence that mocked her.

God, her life was depressing, she'd already knew that of course, but now it just seemed sad on a whole different level. And it didn't exactly help matters that the asshole responsible for her abrupt self awareness was seemingly avoiding her...not that she was seeking him out or anything, but it was still rude. And he was definitely still alive, she knew that much considering during the late hours of the night she could hear him moving around in his apartment, opening and slamming doors, moving around with those big ass feet, walking down the hallway to the stairs to no doubt do whatever thing he did that made him so...well, fucked up.

She'd tried to tell herself that that was a blessing, as rare as they were, and that she most definitely didn't want to be dragged into whatever mess he was getting himself into, that she was perfectly content with her shitty life and shitty job and shitty abilities that made her a monster of her own devastation, that made her a sinner with hands stained with morality and death...but she had always been a pathetic liar, that good old Christian guilt damning her in the eyes of the 'lord' that she didn't even fucking believe in anymore.

And, and she was pissed because the other night she had burned her stupid fucking finger which really wasn't anyone's fault but her own considering she tried to fix her broken stove while she was as drunk as a skunk or whatever that saying was, but she was still shifting the blame onto Frank because she'd eventually remembered in her panicked scramble to the bathroom that she'd left her first aid kit upon his doorstep in the hope's he'd take it because he most definitely needed it more than she did.

Something she really fucking regretted because her finger hurt like a motherfucker and it would be her luck to get some kind of infection from the crappy plaster she'd found tucked away in her cutlery drawer.

But it was when Mallory finally dragged herself to work it was then her day went from bad to worse. First of all, she'd been twenty minutes late because some asshole pigeon seemed to have some sort of vendetta against her and wouldn't let her leave her fucking apartment building, then, of course, that resulted in her getting screamed at by her boss who put her to work on the bar instead of serving duty...in other words where the tips were fucking made...but yet still managing to have the same amount of creeps that didn't understand that smiling politely didn't mean 'take me now'.

Which was actually a problem that she'd faced throughout her whole shift, because naturally, she couldn't have a days peace. There was a man at the bar that followed her every move all day like a shadow, leaning across the table to touch her hair, her gloves, staring directly at her chest instead of her eyes and smiling as if it was charming and not skin-crawling to the point where she wanted to peel her flesh off just to get the phantom regents of his hand off of hers...and there was only a number of times she could say the usual before she got fucking fired for 'disrespecting the customer'.