Hello, friends. Here's my first foray into Barson life. I'm into it. Prompt is Energy, from this weeks The Barson Daily tumblr. 300 words, on the nose. Enjoy!
The Crane Wife x
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Sometimes, this job is… Hard. Grating. Horrifying. This week has been that, and then some.
Rafael can't shake the case: a 6 year old was raped by his stepfather. There were cigarette burns on his little body, round and red, bubbled over, elastic looking.
Olivia relays the gruesome details, in Rafael's office. He listens to her describe how horrible she thinks it is, how sick she feels. And then he watches her leave, without asking whether she wants to go drink this case away or what's the silver lining in their line of work today? Even though he really wants to.
When he's sure she's gone, he grabs his coat and shrugs it over his shoulders. He turns the lights off, shuts the door, and tries to leave the case locked somewhere in his office.
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He's somewhere between awake and asleep. He can feel his body twitching, his sweat that's soaked through the sheets, his hands that have curled into fists.
Thatlittleboythatlittleboythatlittleboy.
Rafael bolts up right, his heart racing.
He's fully awake now.
That little boy deserved so much better.
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Rafael migrated from the bed to the couch. There's no hope of sleep tonight, which perhaps is why he doesn't feel surprised when his phone rings and the bright, white lettering tells him it's Olivia.
When he answers, he puts the phone to his ear, but doesn't say anything. She allows him this pause, but then says, "Rafael?" and he recognizes the concern in her voice.
He sighs, "How do you have the energy for this? After all this time…"
"We helped him," she answers, reading his mind.
"Did we?" He's incredulous.
Immediately, she says, "Yes! Yes, of course we did. We got him away from his stepdad."
He mulls this over, before he responds, "Not soon enough."