Fragmented

Chapter Two

The days slouched by in the house. Every morning feet trampled on the squeaky old staircase as Agnes' mum made her way to her room to drag her out of bed. This day was no different.

A screech cut through the dusty silence in the room as the mouldy curtains were torn apart, revealing a dirty window covered in spider webs.

Agnes felt her mother's stare, but could not be bothered to open her eyes. She was scared to death by spiders and her mother was very well aware of that.

She uttered an incomprehensible sound and rolled over with her back to the window.

Her mother asked what she wanted for supper, letting her know that she had slept the day away. Agnes wished she could sleep indefinitely. At least until her eighteenth birthday, so she could finally act on her own. 

Her mother left a few minutes later after trying to coax some life into Agnes by informing her that their new neighbours would be joining them for tea after supper, but Agnes did not care. If her parents thought she was just going to accept their decision to practically kidnap her to a foreign country because of a stupid bloke with horrible manners, they were delusional.

Her mother exasperated Agnes to no end. She had no business being in her room, much less telling her what she could and could not do. Agnes had three months until she turned seventeen, and in her opinion, she was old enough to take care of herself. Her mother might as well start getting used to not having the authority over her anymore.

As soon as her mother's footsteps were audible on the squeaky staircase, she jumped out of bed and put the lock on the door. She needed all the privacy she could get. Eighteen could not come soon enough. 

Agnes let her back slide down the door and sat on the cold wooden floor.

What was she doing here?

How did it get this far?

Austria? No one moves to Austria!

Oh right... She did.

If someone had told her a year ago, that she would be leaving her friends and school to live in a dump with no connection to the outside world, she would have laughed in their face. It was absurd. She had been happy. Or, well, she had been good. Things were alright. She loved her friends and though her room had been smaller than this one, at least she had had it all to herself. She was never great at sharing and definitely not with spiders... The thought made her skin crawl and she suddenly became very aware that she had just locked herself in a room with more spider webs than there were flowers on the faded wallpaper.

That really had to go.

Her old room had been clean and inviting. Even with a complete refurbishment and total overhaul in every sense of the word, she doubted this one would ever be able to make her feel at home.

Her eyes fell on one of the many boxes stored opposite the bed. How she was going to fit the content of all of them in this very room with no shelving units, tables or even much of a windowsill, she thought to be impossible. Her father would never let her buy new ones, but insist she should make some herself. He would end up doing it anyway, and she would be grateful, but it was going to be a while before she could really settle in.

She rose to look through some of her stuff, just to get a familiar smile from a homemade frame, or maybe even a whiff of her dog.

She opened a box that said exactly what she hungered for: home.

Just as she had hoped, her best friend's characteristic grin lighted up the entire room, and she could not avoid her eyes glossing over. Agnes missed her so much she ached. She thought of what she might be doing back at home this very instant. Her hands squeezed the frame at the thought of her best friend laughing with Jess, having a fling with the new guy at school who Agens would never know about because, well, she was no longer part of the loop. She felt bile rising in her throat and quickly put the frame back in the box with the picture face down.