Grab N' Go [Robin Arellano]

19: Bloody Knuckles, Broken Glass, and a Bruised Boyfriend

The chapter you've all been waiting for 🌚

Since 7am this morning, Valentina has been searching every house she possibly could. Nearly 50 houses are crossed off in her journal now. However, now, nearing 2:30pm, she is beginning to feel hopeless and exhausted.

10 pages full of addresses, and not a single one was even slightly out of the ordinary thus far.

In defeat, she decides to take a break and eat something to fuel her for more searching. So, she returns home and prepares a simple microwave dinner.

Surprisingly, her appetite is almost nonexistent despite not having ate anything all day. She skipped breakfast this morning, so she should at least be a tad hungry, but really she's not. Instead, she's intensely focused on her missing companion. Although she feels like she's wasting precious time, she forces herself to scarf down at least half of her food.

After all, she didn't wanna end up drained early on and waste even more time she could be spending looking for Robin.

Once satisfied, she quickly rushed out of her house to continue her search for the next 7 hours. In the end, she came up with nothing. For the first time in ages, she fell asleep crying again.

She mourned Vance. She mourned Robin. It was unclear whether she felt more anger or sadness over the whole situation. Why did this keep happening to her? Was she being targeted, or did the universe just hate her?

She fell asleep for maybe around 3 hours, waking up at 12am in a cold sweat and trying to catch her breath. In a haze, she sat up looking to her digital clock for the time. After registering how late, or rather early, it was, she began to decide whether or not to return to her slumber. On one hand, she was exhausted from all the crying and lack of sleep. On the other, she would seriously consider sneaking out right now to look for Robin.

Then, she remembers her mother.

Quietly, she arises from her mattress and tiptoes down the hall to have a peak into her old bedroom, aka her mothers room. Sure enough, Alma is laid peacefully sleeping, still in her uniform from work. It seems she's had a long day.

With a frown, she decides that she'll stay home out of respect for her mother. After all, the last thing that poor woman needed was to wake up and find her daughter missing at the ass crack of dawn.

Reluctantly, she returns to her bed. She tosses and turns for what feels like hours, but is only a few minutes, until, finally, she falls back to sleep.

This time she dreams a strange dream. It's Vance, standing in a dark room. She can't tell what he's saying, only that he's yelling. There's no sound. Just him yelling and yelling at someone sat in the corner, who simply cannot hear him either.

The second time she wakes up, she can't shake the dream, feeling extremely upset about it.

When she sloppily gets dressed, she enters her kitchen expecting to see her mother gone. Except, she's sat at the small dining table with a stern look.

"Toma asiento, Valentina," she states calmly, keeping her hands crossed over each other and placed on the table.

(Translation: Take a seat, Valentina.)

Nervously, she does as she's told, staring down at her hands.

"¿Dónde estuviste ayer?" She asks in a neutral tone.

(Translation: where were you yesterday?)

Valentina nervously tenses up, "La escuela."

(Translation: School.)