WHO: @royceunderwood WHERE: Empty lot where his childhood home was/near Gabe’s mom’s house.
Gabe looked at the Grandfather clock standing in the living room near the fireplace, noticing the needles were not moving. He wasn’t too surprised, it seemed like the house was nearly abandoned. He glanced again at the fireplace, which had probably not been used in years, if not decades. There were remains of old ashes, paired with spiderwebs – or was it only dust, he could not tell – in it, a sad reminder that someone else used to live here at some point, before his mother. He sighed, grabbing the bottle of cheap vodka stolen in the woman’s minibar, and took a long chug, grimacing at the atrocious taste. It would do the job, he guessed, at least for now.
Picking up the box cutter, he opened another treasure chest as he decided to call them, mostly out of irony, because there was no treasure in the old boxes packed in his mother’s room. Old pictures, surprisingly some of him, even. Some others of his stepfather, family pictures, but nothing really interesting. Not that he was expecting to find some answer about his past, maybe, like who his real father was – he was fairly certain she didn’t know herself, anyway. Most of the ‘memories went into the trash, and he only kept a few pictures, out of nostalgia. Before things went really wrong, even if they were not necessarily ideal. Taking another long chug of vodka, he picked up the box next to him containing mostly trash and headed outside to toss them in the garbage bin. It was dark outside, but he noticed a shadow roaming on the empty lot nearby. From what he heard, the house burned down years ago and nobody built anything on it yet. He squinted his eyes, wondering if he was not hallucinating, until he noticed the man tripping on the grass. Curious, and a bit drunk himself, Gabe rushed inside to pick up his bottle of vodka and closed the house’s door before walking in the stranger’s direction. “I wonder if they’re gonna rebuild or just leave it like this.” He said, addressing the man, before taking a chug of vodka. It was really disgusting. “Are you lost or something?”