All You Need is Me

Worlds Apart

Mei tentatively grazed her palm over the back of her neck, stifling a groan as she flinched from the pain. Carefully, she began to rub it with her hand, easing the soreness little by little. She shut her eyes, a breathless sigh escaped her lips as she took a moment to adjust, before parting those violet orbs once more.

Her eyes landed on the stove before her. The burners sat on top of it. A moment passed, before Mei took her hand off her neck and reached for the knob below the burners.

With a twist, the knob clicked into place at the same time a small yet powerful gulf of flame bursted from underneath the burner, before it settled into a stable fire.

In a tired motion, she lifted the nearby pan she had set on the side, placing it atop the burner as she let the fire gradually heat up its surface.

The action still proved to be a bit much on her however, her hand instinctively planted onto the kitchen counter for support, her back arched forward as she let out a quiet grunt.

She was exhausted, that much was evident to her. Her sleep, or well, whatever kind of "sleep" you would call passing out completely onto the bed is, wasn't nearly enough to nurse her back to a functional state of mind nor body.

Mei was used to it though. She can't remember the last time she ever slept properly, if she ever did at all; she can't be bothered to care much anymore.

Instead, her mind drifted to something else, one that was the very root cause of her soreness and headaches right now.

Durandal Kaslana...

She recounted that woman's name in her head, her eyes narrowed following that thought.

She hadn't expected a police officer, much less another Kaslana, to seek her out in the night like that; even more so when the woman requested to talk to her. It was a miracle she was able to keep a calm face throughout it all, her body still remembered how fast her heartbeat was from that encounter.

The questioning that followed suit was so much worse however, her mind constantly went off at every slightly specific question thrown at her, screaming for her to do something as if there was anything she could have done in that situation.

It was only until she connected the dots and realized those oddly specific questions were intentional did she manage to regain some bearings, and prevented herself from saying any more than she needed to.

At least, Mei thought so.

Her mind wandered back to the moment she started to cry, the memories of that fateful night replayed in her head once more.

That clerk...

"Mmm."

Mei shook her head, her eyes wandered over to the small oil bottle on the side. She grabbed it, taking the cap off as she let a small trail of oil fall onto the now hot pan, before putting it back to its place.

She already thought and cried about it enough times by now, and this certainly wasn't the time for it.

Thankfully, their conversation ended pretty soon afterwards, which meant that she only needed to focus on everything prior to it. Her mind fought against the exhaustion that gripped at the very edge of her mind, recounting everything in as much detail as possible.

The first was the fact that Durandal went to meet her alone, off-duty at that.

Why is that? If she already had suspicions about Mei, shouldn't she at least have another person to accompany her just for safety? Not to mention the fact that she's doing this off the clock, meaning that this was purely her own choice to dedicate time to this, but why her?