METANOIA

CLEANSING

Barry didn't have anywhere to go. Seth still hadn't shown up. He didn't know what to do. He went to the only place he thought he would be welcome.
As he approached Taylor's house, he noticed her backyard had a container large enough to block the view of his car in case his plates were made. He approached the back door and knocked. The backdoor had become the front entrance for her. He knocked four times and rang the doorbell twice.

Taylor's massive black cat was staring at him from shoulder height. Buddy was hissing at him, but the cat seemed oblivious to it. Barry wanted to shoot it as well, but thankfully he had left the gun in the car. The cat probably sensed his intent and disappeared.

Barry twisted the handle, and the door opened. It was unlocked. Taylor needs to be more careful, he mused.

Barry made his way through the massive kitchen and grabbed one of the donuts from an old batch Taylor had made. The house was quiet. As he gnawed on his donut, he stared at the massive oven, which looked like an industrial furnace. It must have come with the house. In fact, it felt like the entire kitchen was built around it. The donut, like everything else Taylor made, was divine.

Lucy was talking mostly to himself, "You could cremate someone in that thing; I'm just saying."

Barry entered the house through the odd steel door in the kitchen, careful to close it behind him. He hastily made his way to the shower. Taylor was nowhere to be seen. Perhaps she was at work, he thought to himself. He was somewhat relieved she wasn't there to see him in his state.

He took off his blood and urine-stained shorts. Then filled the sink with water and shampoo and washed them. He noticed, for the first time, his T-shirt said, "I love my girlfriend." Something in his chest twisted into a knot.

A shower to wash away the shame, and perhaps the blood and GSR. There is nothing more rewarding than a long shower to wash away some of the shame. A symbolic act perhaps, but it didn't matter. He no longer cared that his minions were staring at him.

He stepped into the shower and turned it up hot.

The water burned his charred thigh, but he didn't care. The pain was only a part of the process. It was an extension of his rebirth. He was to rise from his ashes. Yet nothing about it felt right.

The shower was always an escape for him. His childhood was a blur between trying to win the attention of his ever-absent parents and long hot showers. As he got older, the long showers turned into long sessions of self-love.

As a young kid, Barry discovered masturbation and, to this day, never skipped a day.

He grabbed his needle dick and started waxing his carrot. Melinda's ghostly memory was making love to Taylor's inside his hazy mind. The dirty deed was done in under a minute. His swab of jizz joined the pink cloud of blood.

He stepped out of the shower and stared at the mirror. Buddy and Lucy had somehow disappeared from beside him and appeared only in the reflection, which made it even more confusing for Barry to tell which side of the mirror he was on.

He looked at his naked reflection. Despite the age and the freckles, his skin was healthy. A life without smoking or alcohol had gotten it to this stage. But the last two days seemed to have aged him at least a decade. It was mostly in his fiery eyes. Normally soft and calm, his eyes were bloodshot with bags underneath them. They crazily darted as he struggled to keep focused. His nose looked slightly more crooked, and the bruises had been changing color.
Once he was out, he washed his shorts and dried them with a blow drier. There were numerous stains on them, but they would have to do. He put them back on.

Taylor still hadn't shown up. Surprised and a little worried, he texted her.

"Sup?"

Taylor replied almost instantly.

"I just got out of work; I'm going to a barbecue in a bit to meet some of my old friends. You should come, they're awesome."

"Can you send me the location?" Barry replied.

"It's close to my house," flashed on his screen, followed by a map pin.

Party time...

Barry did a line of coke, and he chewed on some meth before he left the house. He had to Google how to do it. Barry helped himself to some more of the drugs from Taylor's stash before he left the house on foot.