What Was Your Name?

Mother Once, Pour Twice

Roa's POV

She wasn't herself, yet she wasn't as far gone as she is now. The leading cause was how drunk she was that night, but maybe add a pinch of paranoia. Autumn was crying at the kitchen island again, glass tipped over. I was consoling her as always, trying to soothe her. But tonight she was weeping for a reason I had never heard from her before.

"The monster killed her. He killed my only child. He ruined my life, that bastard." She sobbed, hiccupping throughout the whole sentence. I couldn't stop myself from asking. "Who?"

"Blackout. Justin Blackout. He accused me of alcoholism and child molestation. By three days without my custody over the child, she was dead. In an urn," Autumn scowled at the air, nose pointed high. "Check my phone, in Voice Memos. The argument is still there. I never let it go."

I did as instructed, unlocking her phone and scrolling through the ocean of apps she had. I was at the bottom of her audio recordings when I read the title "PLAY NIGHTLY". I clicked, despite all the screaming in my mind telling me not to. Screaming was right. It reminded me of Lilo and Stitch in such a sad way, Autumn screaming at this Justin at the top of her lungs. Her desperation was suffocating, with sirens in the background.

"My girl was taken by that maniac! You felt it was a good idea and now look at her- lifeless in the arms of that, that thing!"

"Ma'am, you need to calm down."

"You don't get to tell me to calm down! Your stupid court decided that he gets to take my little girl, and Yvette has to die because of his immaturity and selfishness!"

"Ma'am, please-"

"NO! Get him out of my sight! Get him away from me!"

Electrical buzzing, a thud, soft weeping from Autumn.

"My baby girl...my sweet, sweet Yvette."

"My little girl."

...

...

Silence.

The recording was dated 12-09-2009, so I began examinations for news writing. It didn't require a very detailed search. I put in the date and "dead minor" and the first thing I see is a headline with all caps screaming just as loud as she was in the recording. "WOMAN TASERED WITH DEAD CHILD IN ARMS, BOYFRIEND NEGATES ACKNOWLEDGMENT EITHER OF THEM."

A near relative or pal accomplished the recording, but she also could've placed her phone in her satchel after pressing "Record"

I kept reading the article and noted how the child wasn't either of theirs, but instead a child of Autumn's deceased best friend. How she and her boyfriend were left to care for the girl as she grew up. After the ex decided that he wanted sole custody of the girl-- Yvette, it says her name was, he chose to accuse her of alcoholism and molestation. A man of high influence, the police turned to him to falsify receipts and use mugshots from when Autumn lived in her hometown on Saturn's Rings. Documentation that she was told were minor offences and wouldn't matter when she hopped planets.

It wasn't fair. Looking up Justin on FlickScroll, I noticed he had been quite similar before and after dating Autumn. It was only after they broke up that his photos focused on his daughter and his family. Just like she said, after half of the week, the first picture on Thursday was of him receiving an urn. It's as if my love was solely a friend who grew apart, and their child was just an inconvenience.

It wasn't fair. It just isn't fair.

I called Ben-- I remember everything so clearly. Everything before I smoked that blunt. It went a bit fuzzy after that, but I remember waking up the next day with blood on my clothes. Autumn never knew, and she never will know. I can't let her, I refuse to let her.

(A/N) Sorry about the slow updates, but my school's been a pain in the ass. I'll be trying to publish more frequent chapters. This one was a bit more filler than anything, so just know that although there won't be too much plot relevance here, some will show up eventually.