NOVEMBER 28th, 9:21 AM - ABOUT TWO DAYS BEFORE THE EARTH EXPLODES.
"IT BURNED DOWN?!"
Lady Beatrice was referring to the large demolition pile of black bricks and charred support beams, once a needlessly tall box of an apartment building. It's not hard to imagine what it looked like, just look left or right and study one of the dozen or so neighboring identical buildings. Spots of neon yellow vested volunteers and orange jumsuited prisoners, sifted through the wreckage, looking to find anything with sentimental value, like a lost phone.
"Yep, early this morning," the short, old man's answer was calm, with a hint of playful jest, "I think around four am or so..."
"I hear it was that little bastard kid living on the third floor," the equally elderly lady, slightly shorter than Lady Beatrice, directly addressed her husband as if Beatrice wasn't there, "It wouldn't shock me, remember what happened last year?"
Her shrill, icy voice immediately severed Lady Beatrice, and I as well, I guess, from participating in the conversation.
"I hope you're not implying arson, dear."
Their natural chemistry in the way they spoke to one another was highly prudent, even for someone like me, who is not very good at chemistry. They argued as if they were stuck inside their own little world, it almost felt a little creepy listening in.
"Well, that's exactly what I'm implying," arson? "No teenage boy is responsible to live on their own, much less raise a child."
Raise a child? A teenage boy all by himself?
"Raise a child? Since when?"
"Since two days ago, he came home with a dirty little girl," I'm quite intrigued, "and a great white bitch, too, some kind of retriever, those things can be dangerous you know."
"Really, Nate, a father..."
"A bastard father, I heard he killed his parents and burned down his house when he ran away," then obviously this 'Nate' is the perpetrator, the police force reeks of incompetency, "he must've gotten some poor girl pregnant. My theory, the mother must've went crazy and killed herself, so now he has to be the one to take care of her."
Scandalous!!
"No wonder he went crazy..." The old man stared in perplexed awe, piecing together what she'd just told her...
"Shame, he seemed nice enough, just goes to show, can't judge a book by it's cover."
The couple, fully unaware of our existence, started to walk away.
"That doesn't make any sense," Beatrice, with an air of guilt as if she'd done something wrong, broke through the heavy barrier blocking the two, "sorry, but, do you have any real evidence or are you just making this stuff up?"
Her tone was starkly different to the one she used when she initially questioned the couple, from cutesy airhead to deadpan serious. But she was right, looking back, many of the details seemed quite far-fetched.
"I've been around much longer than you have, I know a lot about how this world works, I'll have you know my speculation is very well founded," the old lady, slightly shorter than Lady Beatrice, spoke as if her head was pointed down, "as I said, it's just speculation, dear."
Beatrice stared at her in perplexed awe, trying to piece together what that explanation explained...
"Did you have anything else you'd like me to clarify? Or did you interrupt only for that?" The lady, despite her upsetting words, had a look of victory plastered on her wrinkly face, as if she'd won some kind of prize.
It's fucking pissing me off!
"Oh, duh, silly me!" Beatrice playfully hit her knuckles to her head, "sorry ma'am, I spoke out of turn, I can be a little dopey sometimes!"
"Oh, um, it's no problem, don't worry about it," the old man said an actual sentence for the first time in a while, "we'd better get on our way then, it was nice meeting you two," his hand lifted up to shake Lady Beatrice's, but was caught by the upsetting old hag's instead.
- That bitch!
Very nearly did those 'well founded' words escape my lips.
As they slowly, slowly, limped away, I could feel the annoyance in me start boiling to a rage. If they weren't old and helpless, I mean, if she wasn't old and helpless, I'd totally confront her!
When the couple 'walked' no further than fifteen feet down the empty sidewalk, she spoke again, "I can tell a slut from a mile away, it's girls like her that leads to tragedies like this," the lady's shrill, infuriating voice cranked my burner to overdrive, and I calmly stepped over to talk to her about it.
"Wait! Stop! Stop!!" Beatrice went to stop me, but some police lady beat her to the punch, "why would you do that?!"
Her short black hair and light blue skirted uniform shook as she spoke, like a cheerleader's outfit. Her badge, which looked to be real, was practically placed on the broad pillows where her chest should be, it read "Police Chief Sarah William."
- Wait... SHE'S THE CHIEF!?!
I mean, it's not impossible, although she's short, my initial impression was that she was an adult woman somewhere in her late twenties, mostly because of her impressive bust and thighs. It's just surprising.
Her outfit matched perfectly with light skin and large light blue eyes, which stark contrasted her black pistol and taser attached to her hip, making them stand out more than she would in a tall person convention.
Very, very, very adorable, even when compared to Lady Beatrice.
But to end my description at that would be disrespectful, to read my intentions so clearly, her intuition must be incredible, inhuman even. Maybe the police aren't fully incompetent...
"Look, lady, I've had a pretty shitty week," she cutely held the half unrolled roll of loose neon orange caution tape to her belly, "so if you could just use your legs and walk away from the section that I'm clearly taping off, that'd be greatly appreciated."
And to play it off so as to not embarrass me in front of my sister!
"So competent..." I quickly stepped out of her way.
"Hey, can you tell us how this building got burned down?"
"Shitty wiring, a doorbell exploded. These government apartment buildings get burned down all the time, people die, and the people who can do anything about it are too busy jerkin' off."
She paused for a second, then looked back at me.
"Don't tell anyone I said that, I could lose my job."
And then kept rolling.
"That's terrible, did anyone get hurt?"
"No, luckily there were firefighters already there responding to a previous fire that happened only like, five minutes before the big one," lucky, I guess that means it saved a bunch of lives, "they were able to get everyone to safety."
"And where are they keeping them now? The residents."
"Um... I think at the-"
NOVEMBER 28th, 9:30 AM - ABOUT TWO DAYS BEFORE THE EARTH EXPLODES.