Alone
Quick footsteps were making their way up a flight of stairs of a dingy apartment complex in the middle of the downtown. However in the flurry of getting up said steps, the owner of those footsteps tripped over the top stair and landed on the ground with a thump and her belongings scattered across the floor.
"Ow…" she grumbled.
The girl scrambled to get up and hastily picked up her books and valuables with a distant look in her eyes, focusing on something else more important in the back of her mind. Jamming her key into the door and twisting the knob, the door to her rental apartment swung open. Her backpack and belongings; the same ones she was clumsily retrieving from the floor moments ago, was carelessly thrown aside and forgotten as the girl plopped herself on the couch, musing on the day's events.
"How am I going to break the news to Mom…" Fionna mumbled to herself as she dropped her head into her hands.
She had failed the semester, dropping her dangerously close to being dismissed from her course by the University for poor results. While her fellow classmates and friends were out together celebrating the results of their year of hard work, she had declined their offer to join them and was now here – moping on her couch alone.
"Mom didn't work hard all her life to send me to school to fail…" She mused on as she pulled out her , contemplating on how to break the news to her mother. Her mother had been working hard and juggling jobs ever since Fionna's father lost his battle with cancer and passed away, leaving only her Mom to pay the bills and care for Fionna herself. How was she to break the news that all her mother's effort and all her hard work was to be in vain if the school ultimately decides to drop her?
"She'll definitely be disappointed in me, there's just no way out of this..." She admitted dejectedly, finger hovering over the dial button. Before she could even decide to tap the dreaded dial button, her phone lit up and started vibrating.
Unknown Caller ID – it said. Confused at who would be calling her, Fionna wearily tapped the answer key and brought the phone closer to her ear.
"Hello? Yes, this is Fionna Mertens." She answered. She didn't recognize the voice on the other side of the line but the more they spoke, the more her look started to drop.
Thud.
The phone was thrown across the couch without hanging up. Fionna brought her knees up and hugged them tightly, tears welling up in her eyes. As if the day's events wasn't already enough to crumble her walls, a single call had just brought her world crashing down. She sobbed quietly as her despair echoed through the dark, empty apartment around her.
"Mom…" She sniffed.
"Mom's dead." She cried quietly.
"You're going to be alright by yourself, right?" Catherine questioned wearily.
"I'll be fine Cake, why you got to be such a worrywart?" Fionna reassured her best friend.
"You know, finding your best friend passed out alone in her apartment after she doesn't answer her phone for a whole week tends to make you one. And stop calling me Cake. My name is Catherine!" Catherine bantered back jokingly. Deep down inside however, Catherine was dead worried about leaving Fionna alone. She didn't know what the other girl would do to herself if left alone again.
'She hasn't been the same since her mother passed away.' Catherine thought to herself. The once cheery demeanor Fionna had always radiated was now gone and replaced with stoic eyes longing to return to better days. Catherine had been making a point to visit the girl at least once a day to checkup on her – hopefully she wouldn't do anything stupid to herself when Catherine wasn't looking.
"Don't forget to take your medicine, okay? " Catherine reminded, before remembering more and deciding to add on more and more reminders. "Also, don't forget the doctor said not to do too much work or the medicine won't be effective. And try to get some rest too."
"Wow that sure is a long list of things for me to do. Who are you, my mom?" Fionna jokingly poked. Catherine's heart dropped as her face fell flat. How was she supposed to reply to this? Afraid of stirring up any more negative emotions in her friend, Catherine hastily clobbered up a good reply in her head.
"No, I'm your best friend." Catherine retorted, satisfied with her quick-witted reply to avert a crisis.
Fionna however did not reply this time, just flashing a goodbye smile at her friend as she usher her out of her apartment. Settling down on her kitchen barstool, she grabbed a bottle out of her bag and inspected the label.
Alprazolam– Take two pills twice a day. Take one to relieve anxiety attacks. , it read. She tipped out two pills as per the instructions and downed them with a glass of water. Setting the bottle on the counter, Fionna notice something in the corner of her eyes . Catherine had forgotten her phone when she left.
"Argh, what a careless girl." She grumbled as she grabbed the phone and headed out to look for her friend.
With quick steps, Fionna trotted down the hallway quickly. When she was about to turn the corner and head down the stairs, a tall figure emerged from behind the corner causing her to collide with the stranger before collapsing on the ground.
"Oh, gee! I'm so sorry! I..." Fionna apologetically stammered before looking up and locking eyes with the still standing stranger, distracting her from finishing her sentence.
"It's fine, it's my fault too. I didn't see where I was going. Here." The stranger offered his hand to Fionna to help her off the ground, she accepted it and he hoisted her up back to a standing position.
"Marshall." The stranger said.
"Huh?" Fionna blurted in confusion.
"My name, Marshall. What's yours?" he repeated.
"Oh! I'm Fionna! You're a new tenant here?" Fionna asked curiously.
"No not really." Marshall replied, a small smile forming on his face.
"Oh…visiting a friend?" Fionna asked while patting dust off herself, not exactly paying much attention to the stranger who hasn't budge an inch since she bumped into him.
"I guess you could say that." He replied nonchalantly.
Fionna perked her head in confusion, she was quite intrigued by his strange and vague manner of speaking.
"You don't seem to be sure at anything you say, huh?" She stated. She couldn't tell if it would be frustrating or interesting to hold a conversation with this Marshall guy.
"Well, at least I'm sure of one thing, you're quite the pretty lady." He once again replied nonchalantly. Fionna's face immediately blushed to the shade of a tomato when his comment reached her ears.
'What's with this guy!? Why would he suddenly bring up a comment like that!' she thought. This guy was pretty weird, but it would be a lie to say she wasn't flattered by his oddly timed compliment.
"FIONNA! I FORGOT MY PHONE!" a voice yelled from the bottom of the stairwell interrupting Fionna's train of thoughts and catching her attention. Marshall's attention was seemingly caught too as he turned his head towards the source of the sound.
"Well I have to get going, but it was nice meeting you Fionna." Marshall casually said, as he turned around and walked away, not facing Fionna as he spoke. Before she got a chance to reply, he had already disappeared from her sight up the stairwell.
"What a weird guy." Fionna mused to herself as Catherine popped up the stairwell to retrieve her forgotten phone from her friend.
"How is this supposed to help me again?" Fionna questioned while staring at the sky.
"It helps you clear your mind. Just give it a while okay?" Catherine replied with a persuasive tone. The pair was sitting on a bench on one of the University building's roof, since Catherine had suggested they relax and watch clouds.
"We've been here for a whole hour already, and I'm getting really hungry!" Fionna whined.
"Okay fine, how about I go down and get us some food? You relax here and wait." Catherine suggested.
"Wait, why can't I go with you?" Fionna questioned back.
"'Because you need to relax. Now stay here and look at the clouds, okay? Catherine replied, as she stood up and disappeared down the roof access stairs.
"Argh!" Fionna exclaimed as she fell back into the bench. Her phone suddenly lit up and vibrated with a notification.
12PM Medicine Time, next at 8PM – the notification read. Following her schedule, Fionna took out her pill bottle from her messenger bag. Quickly popping two pills in her mouth and downing them with water, she let out a face of disgust at the aftertaste.
"Yuck! I hate pills." She said to no one in particular. Folding her arms and slouching back into the bench, Fionna stared up into the sky and let her thoughts flow free. Seemingly lost in her thoughts for an unknown amount of time, Fionna's daydreams were interrupted when another person sat down on the other side of the bench uninvited.
"Hello again." Marshall greeted. Fionna's head snapped towards him with a look of disbelief.
"You go to school here?" She questioned in surprise.
"Probably. What are you up to?" He replied in his signature nonchalant manner.
"Watching clouds to clear my mind and relax, my friend told me it helps but I don't feel it." Fionna grumbled.
"Weird." Marshall replied.
"Tell me about it! I told her we should just go chill at a bar or something but she insists we try this." Fionna ranted. She didn't know why, but she felt compelled to talk with Marshall even though his manner of conversation would make any sane person frustrated with him.
"Trying to relieve some exam stress?" Marshall asked.
"Something like that…" Fionna replied dejectedly.
"I'm on the verge of getting expelled from school, my parents are dead and I have no real friends other than my one best friend. Doctor suggests I try and do things to clear my mind and my friend keep suggesting all these weird things to do!" she blurted out. Why was she confessing all of this to a complete stranger she has only met once in her life she didn't know, but she knew that she needed someone to vent all her pent up feelings to.
"Hmmm... Tell you what, meet me downstairs your apartment tomorrow at 8PM. If your friend doesn't want to bring you to what you want to do, I will." Marshall offered. Fionna considered his offer, brushing aside nagging questions on why a stranger like him would do this for her to the back of her mind. She needed to vent and she wanted some company other than Catherine. However before she could reply, the roof access doors swung open creating a loud bang when it hit the wall, catching her attention.
"You wouldn't believe the queue! Gosh! I had to stand in line for over thirty minutes just to buy us lunch! This school really needs more cafeterias. " Catherine angrily exclaimed as she stormed out of the doorway.
Fionna giggled at her friend's outburst. She then turned back to Marshall to politely ask him to leave so she and Catherine could have their lunch, but he had already left while she wasn't looking.
"Huh. What a weird guy." She said under her breath.
'I probably should have asked him for his number or something, I don't even know if we're actually still meeting.' Fionna thought to herself as she tipped two pills out from the pill bottle onto her hand. Downing the pills with a gulp of water, she glanced at the clock and noticed that it was already 8PM.
'Well I guess I should go down and see if he's actually there, it's not like I have anything else to do anyway' she mused. Making her way down the apartment stairs, her eyes widened as she noticed a figure leaning on the wall near the stair landing.
"You actually showed up." She said in surprise.
"You looked like you needed company." Marshall stated in a manner-of-fact tone. "Let's go."
Hours passed as Fionna and Marshall conversed at a nearby bar. Fionna had continuously ordered drinks and cocktails for herself over the hours, but Marshall passed on ordering anything for himself.
'Catherine would have never let me drink this much if she was with me.' She thought to herself.
While she was drinking, the other patrons of the bar had continuously shot glances and judging stares at the couple seated at the corner booth.
'Those people have probably never seen a girl like me down that many beers before, I guess.' Fionna thought to herself as she gulped down and finished up her umpteen drink that night. She felt like a huge weight has been lifted off her shoulders. The pair's pleasant conversations however, were interrupted when Fionna's phone rang.
"Hey! Where are you? You know how worried I was when I knocked on your door and nobody answered?" Catherine angrily exclaimed over the phone.
"Relax you worrywart, I'm just at the nearby bar!" Fionna playfully replied as she laughed to herself. She was probably drunk at this point with the many drinks she had poured down her throat.
"Stay there! I'm coming to get you." Catherine sternly commanded and hung up.
"Ha ha, I wonder why she's so mad." Fionna giggled to herself as she put away her phone and turned back to Marshall. "Sorry about that what were we talking about again?"
"I have to go." Marshall replied with a small smile. Before Fionna could reply he stood up and casually made his way out the bar door, leaving the tipsy girl sitting alone at the booth in disbelief and confusion. Not long after Marshall had left, Catherine burst through the doors of the bar.
"You have no idea how mad I am at you right now! Come on, let's get you home and washed up for bed..." Catherine angrily scolded Fionna, but her voice softened as she hoisted the drunken girl up by her shoulders and led her out of the bar.
Months pass as Fionna had continuously met Marshall at the bar. Soon, their bar meets turned into Marshall visiting Fionna's house. Fionna smiled to herself as she prepared their dinner for tonight when he came over, as per every night.
'Funny how he never finishes his food. I always have to throw away his left overs.' She thought to herself. Some would say it was a waste of food but she couldn't care less, she felt genuinely happy whenever she was with Marshall as he always listened to her whenever she needed to talk about her problems and struggles.
However she had grown slightly distant from Catherine over the past few weeks. Catherine had gotten a job at a nearby cafe to pay off her school fees and as a result her visits to Fionna had grown less frequent. It wasn't completely bad as Fionna had Marshall to keep her company so she wasn't really any less lonely.
Fionna was excited for tonight as tonight she finally could stop forcing herself to swallow 'yucky pills', as she called them. Her doctor had finally let her off her daily medication, as he had noticed that her condition has improved significantly over the past few months. She had Marshall to thank for that, as talking to him always made her feel better and relaxed and she could not wait to tell Marshall the good news.
Setting the plates of food on the table, Fionna glanced at the clock.
8.34PM.
Strange, Marshall was late today. He was usually never late and always on time at 8PM. Fionna dropped herself down on her couch and pulled out her phone.
'No worries, I'll call him and check where he is.' She thought as she dialled in his number. Marshall was strangely secretive with his mobile number and told Fionna to never give it to anyone, but in comparison to everything else strange about the man it was no surprise to the girl.
Beep. Beep. Number does not belong to a Telco customer. Please check again before dialing. The automated message played though her phone.
"Huh?" Fionna exclaimed in surprise out loud. She was sure she dialed in the right number.
Beep. Beep. Number does not belong to a Telco customer. Please check again before dialing. The automated message played again when she tried dialing him again. Fionna was slightly worried now. Her calls to him had never failed before.
'Maybe it's just bad connection, I'll just wait for him and he'll still be here for dinner like every day.' Fionna reassured herself. She briefly contemplated on calling Catherine but she figured her friend was busy at work during the dinner rush.
9.30PM.
Close to an hour passed, and Marshall has still yet to show up. He had never been this late before. Fionna was getting very worried about her friend, and she felt an uncomfortable feeling in her chest. She quickly ran to her kitchen and pulled out her medicine bottle from one of the drawers. Although she was off medications already, her doctor suggested she kept some on hand to relieve anxiety attacks if they reemerge. She popped a pill in her mouth and down it quickly with water. A wave of relief washed over her as the medicine quickly took effect.
'He'll show up. He always does.' She reassured herself as she sat back down on her couch. However when more time passed and her friend has still not shown up, Fionna felt the feeling in her chest start to re-emerge. She looked at the bottle of medicine and wandered if she should take one more to help quell the uncomfortable feeling.
'One more wouldn't hurt right?'
"I knew I shouldn't have taken that job. I should have kept an eye on her. I'm such an idiot." Catherine berated herself, choking back tears with her head in her hands.
Catherine had been used to unexpected midnight calls from Fionna by now. Her friend would call her whenever she had a nightmare or had thoughts she could not get out of her head. She would always be ready to rush down to her friend's house to comfort and reassure her everything would be alright. At first, her sleep schedule was severely affected and she could not stay awake properly during the day. Overtime, she had grown accustom to waking up to panicked phone calls from her friend. But nothing could have prepared her for the call she received tonight.
"I'm sorry Fionna. I'm so sorry…" her cries echoed through the room as the nurses finalized the report and clipped it to the bottom of the bed.
FIONNA MERTENS – DECEASED
CAUSE OF DEATH: DRUG OVERDOSE.
TIME OF DEATH: 3.22AM
A week later, Catherine went over to her late friend's rented apartment to pack up her belongings and move them to her own house for safe keeping. Packing up what seemed to be the last box of Fionna's belongings, Catherine noticed in the corner of her eye a strange device at the top of the bookshelf – A hidden camera.
As creepy as it sounds, Catherine was extremely worried about Fionna's condition at first and her paranoia got the best of her. She had installed the camera to remotely monitor Fionna if she couldn't visit her initially, but soon forgot about it as her condition improved. The camera also kept archives of footage recorded that could be watched when needed. Catherine wondered if the camera had recorded her friend's final moments.
It was messed up. She knew it. But morbid curiosity prevailed and Catherine wanted to know what drove her friend to suddenly take one too many pills, as earlier that day the doctor has noted that her condition had improved to the point that she no longer needed daily medicine. Catherine plugged the camera into the TV and clicked the 'play' button. A video of Fionna lying motionless on the ground appeared on the screen. Catherine's gut immediately dropped, and quickly hit the 'rewind' button.
REWINDING 7 DAYS BACK - a notification covered the disturbing video as it skipped backwards.
'Ah, rewinded too much.' Catherine thought. She searched the remote for the correct button to forward to the right time when she finally noticed something strange about the video currently playing on the screen.
"I hope you like what I cooked, Marshall." Fionna in the video said worriedly. She was seated at her dining table with her dinner in front of her, but she had an extra set of food setup at the empty seat opposite of her. To say that Catherine was confused by this would be an understatement.
"I'm glad I met you, you never fail to make my days feel much better!" the Fionna in the video said to no one in particular as she ate her dinner.
Catherine's eyes widened as she stared in horror and disbelief at the moving pictures on the screen after realizing what was going on.
Fionna was talking to herself.
~~~ ** End ** ~~~