The Hex Files

5

July 13th, 6:47 PM

Apartment 113

He wasn't sure how long he'd been standing in the doorway to his apartment.

The sheets on the bed had been left down halfway.One of the windows was open, curtain fluttering in the nighttime breeze. From far below, the sounds of the city wafted up, the hum of passing cars and distant sirens floating into the empty apartment.

He wasn't going to be able to sleep here tonight.

July 13th, 7: 25 PM

Old Marley Place

The office door opened to him without resistance.

Yellow caution tape had been plastered over everything, but he hadn't run into anybody on his way up- it seemed as though the police had finished their investigation for the time being. By now, the rubble in the corridors had been cleared away.

He deposited his satchel by the door and flicked on the lights. 

He knew what he ought to be doing. Now was the time to comb the building, to looking for evidence, start the hunt.

And yet.

Something about the whole affair seemed too cruel to intellectualize. She wasn't just a name on a report- not a puzzle to be solved, or a clue to be deciphered.

She was Val, and he had loved her, and she was gone.

At long last, the wave building at the back of his mind finally broke. Sol sank down int the deep leather couch. 

There, alone in the empty office, he put his head in his hands and cried.

***

It was the first anniversary of the trial. 

In hindsight, it had been easy enough to see the path he was on. He'd been out a little too late, drinking a little too much a little too often. And why not? His nights were like little spots of light in the otherwise permeating gloom.

How she'd gotten him back to the office, he wasn't sure. Only that he woke up slouched against the wall in yesterday's clothes with a blinding headache.

"Wheere does this stop, Sol?"

He squinted- she stood over him, arms crossed. The light bleeding through the cracks behind her made his head throb.

"I had no intention of letting it interfere-"

"Interfere?" she said. "If I hadn't found you, you'd still be in some godforsaken alley somewhere."

"Technically I still arrived on time"

"Don't get mouthy with me."

She tossed her head, long dark hair falling over her shoulder. It was one of the few times he had ever seen her angry.

"You're right," he said. "I'm sorry."

"You need to get it together. I don't know what it is that's got you so hung up, but whatever it is, you have got to try and get over it."

"I am trying."

"Really? Because from here, that's not what it looks like."

"You wouldn't understand."

The minute he said it, he knew he'd made a mistake.

"I wouldn't understand?" she said. "What? You think you're the only person who ever got screwed? You think I'm not angry?"