Unexpected

Faintly I could make out the yellow street lights, horns blaring, people blurring past me. Head down, hands in the pocket, I picked up one foot after the other; walking through the potholed street. Headlights, streetlights, they all appeared the same to me. My slow pace matched the flow of my tears, one by one. I walked on and on; I was walking, but mentally I was running, running away from everything I'd witnessed. Each tear of mine hit the rewind button in my mind, each new memory played in slow motion. I felt cold, colder than it was, colder than any winter I'd experienced. Everyone always tells you to follow your heart, but you're never quite sure what to do, and nobody mentions the conditions that follow. The conditions that only experience can teach you. I guess that's the point. I'd never have known had I not experienced it.

I turned to return home, home as I'd known for several years now. The same old rustic building, the garden that was never watered, the people who'd turned kinder over the years and ofcourse my apartment where I lived with my family on the top floor. I looked up and noticed how the clouds seemed to glide through the sky, like feathery cotton across a black chart paper. Those rare moments when you could see stars through the pollution, but it was strange how I'd never noticed these things before. These things only seemed to stand out when u had no other reason to be distracted, when you had no one other to spot it out for you.

I sighed and pushed open the old gate that creeked. As usual, jumped on every stone to reach the main gate and flew through the stairs to the fourth floor.

I rang the bell and waited. It went on for a while, so I banged hard on the door.

The door did open finally, but it wasnt my mom or dad, nor was it anyone I knew. My heart stopped and I felt giddy when I finally did have the courage to look him in the eye, with the bloody knife in his hand.