I should’ve handed the lighter over to Rego or the police or whoever cared about my mother’s cause of death more than me. Instead, I’d secretly taken it to the forest with me and fiddled with it at the glade. I decided to lay down even without the sun. In fact, there wasn’t sunshine for the past few days, and I could smell a storm brewing.
Ausmane didn’t show up today either—even if he was here, he didn’t show himself—so I had to keep myself company with listening to these bothersome recordings and playing with the empty lighter. In a way, it was his fault I couldn’t get rid of it, but the fact he could influence me to that degree sparked a baffling realization.
Am I your distraction, Scarlet?
The emptiness of the forest whenever he wasn’t there, the disappointment lapping in my chest
