Broken Pieces: A Punisher Fanfiction

Slight Progress

Chapter 3

I blew out a breath as I stood in front of the door to his apartment. A letter addressed to him was in my hand. At last, I finally learned his real name: Frank Castle. Not a bad name, I thought, looking down at the letter.

For a while, I stood outside, replaying every possible scenario in my head of how this exchange will go. It'd been a few months now since I moved in across the hall and my attempts at trying to befriend my neighbor have all been rejected. From my point of view, that is. I know I should have given up but I couldn't help it.

"Hey, Frank," I said softly to myself, pacing the hallway. "I was just wondering if—No, that's not it..." I shook my head, sighing heavily. "I hope you don't mind if I hung out on the rooftop with you. I mean we're sharing a hallway, why not share the rooftop, huh?" I chuckled. "Yeah, no, that's not gonna work." My shoulders slumped in defeat as I glanced at the door.

I wonder if anyone's home, I wondered, staring at the door. I couldn't hear any activity from the other side so I guess not. But then, I never dealt with any noise coming from across the hallway. During my time in the building, I heard the occasional couple spat downstairs and rowdy kids jumping on walls. Frank's apartment, however, was unusually quiet.

Soon enough, my curiosity got the best of me and before I knew it, my ear was pressing against his door. As expected, his apartment was dead silent.

After a long moment, a voice cleared their throat, startling me. "WHOA!" I jumped, tumbling backwards. Before I could take a nasty fall, I landed into a pair of strong arms.

When I looked up, I found myself face to face with Frank, who was staring down at me curiously. "Hi," I said with an awkward smile.

He gently released me, allowing me to turn and face him. "Is there any reason, you're outside my door?" he asked, cocking an eyebrow.

I chuckled nervously, picking up the letter with his name and address from the floor. "Uh, yeah..." I began, handing the envelope over to him. "They sent me your mail by accident and I thought I'd give it to you personally." I glanced at his door. "I just wanted to see if you were home."

He chuckled. I think that was the first time I've seen him chuckle. And from the look in his eyes, he seemed pretty amused.

"Well, I appreciate the effort, miss," he said, reaching over to take the envelope from my hand. "But I think the smarter thing to do was to simply knock. Or since I wasn't home, you could just, you know, slip it under the door." He stated matter-of-factly.

I could feel the heat rushing to my face as I turned away. "Right," I chuckled nervously. "Sorry."

He returned with an amused grin. "No, no," he shook his head. "There's no need for an apology." He made his way to his door. Looking over his shoulder, he held up the envelope briefly, "Thanks, by the way."

I stared back at him blankly. The words caught in my throat. "You're—" the sound of the door slamming echoed throughout the hallway, prompting me to jump slightly, "—welcome." I finished.

Slumping my shoulders in defeat, I sighed heavily as I went back into my apartment.

Later that night, I grew restless and could not bring myself to fall asleep. Instead, I lie in bed, staring up at the ceiling. My restlessness had been a common occurrence when I first moved to Hell's Kitchen. There has been a lot on my mind as of late. I found myself wondering if moving to Hell's Kitchen was the right decision.

Initially, I decided to move here for law school but dropped out when I realized it wasn't for me. My deceased grandfather was probably looking down at me, shaking his head in disappointment. I'm sorry, Grandpa, I thought, this was my decision. I want to do what makes me happy. I hope you understand. The money he left for me after his death was supposed to go towards law school. Well, it did not work out that way.