Page 39 of The Sins That Bleed
I confess, I’ve redrawn it to stop it disappearing entirely.
I get in, the shower no longer containing traces of Valeska’s gruesome injury after I scrubbed it for over an hour. There’d had been so much dry blood, and I still can’t wrap my head around that night.
Valeska had snuck out of my apartment in the early hours of the morning after I fell asleep. I woke up to an empty bed, and I hate to admit that it pissed me off, as if we could have had some domesticated morning where I made her breakfast in bed to help her recover after she’d beenimpaled.
I scoff at myself as I scrub my face, hair, and skin clean. I’m such a fucking fool and I’ve been wracking my brain trying to understand how I ended up in this position. I’m trying to go with the flow and not think too hard about it, but it doesn’t make sense.
Shedoesn’t make sense.
I’m wrapping myself in a towel as my phone pings. My heart picks up speed in hopes Valeska has messaged me, but it’s Nico so my heartrate stays elevated for a different reason. I pick it upand unlock it, reading the message from my partner asking me to come and stay.
I fire a reply off to him to say I’ll be with him in five minutes, flicking it back on silent and rushing through my nighttime routine. I don’t want to leave him waiting too long. I throw on some grey sweatpants and a T-shirt, slipping on some socks, my grey cardigan with white daisies embroidered over it, and my slippers to head up in.
I grab my phone, the book off my nightstand, and my reading glasses. I have everything I need and leave my apartment. I’m locking it when a thought pops into my head.
I should leave a note for her.
It catches me off guard. Since when did I go from wanting to take all of my hatred out on her, to wanting to leave her a note to explain where I’d gone? Probably somewhere in my shower when my only thought was saving her, not even wanting to think about the melancholy her death would bring.
I wouldn’t have been able to hate her after that.
I shake my head and finish locking up before making my way up the stairs to the floor above. I head to Nico’s apartment door and knock. I hear the deadbolt slide across and the door stretches open. Nico stands before me in his purple boxers and holding his favourite stuffed toy.
“It must be bad if Sniffles had to come with you to answer the door.”
There’s no judgement or mocking in my tone. After the first time Nico introduced me to the bright pink toy shaped like a cloud and he explained why it was so important to him, it would never be something I joked about.
“Yeah, I can’t shake the way they looked; the descriptions of what happened are playing in my mind over and over again every time I close my eyes. Why did this case have to turn into afucking horror movie?” He shivers, not from the cold, but from the creepy turn of events.
“It’s disturbing for sure. Now let’s get you to bed and get you some sleep.”
I usher him back into his own apartment as I shut the door and lock it up. Every single light that he could possibly have on is on and the sound of lo-fi trickles out of his open bedroom door.
His apartment is the complete opposite to mine, where I left mine as it was when I moved in, Nico has decorated his. He’s a maximalist by nature and the room is bursting with colour, furniture, and knick-knacks, some of it serving no purpose other than aesthetic.
It should feel chaotic and messy, but it works. I still wouldn’t have it in my own; thinking about the effort to clean around all of this is enough to put me off. Nico gets around that by hiring a cleaner so it never feels unkept.
“In you get,” I say as I lift the sheets for him to climb under.
He slips in and I take my time tucking him in. He laughs, but deep down he loves it. I like being able to offer him any comfort I can. Not having my own sister to give it to sometimes feels like it’s going to spill over with nowhere to go.
“Will you read to me?” Nico nods his head to the book I left on the nightstand.
“I would love to. Do you need anything before I get in bed? A drink, a snack?”
“No thanks, princess, I’m good,” he says around a yawn.
I move around the bed and climb in next to him, settling in among all of the pillows as I sit upright. I slip my glasses on and pick up my book, opening to my bookmark and start reading from the beginning of the chapter.
I’ve never been able to pause a book mid-chapter.
It only takes twenty minutes or so of me reading and Nico snuggling Sniffles before his light snores fill the room. He lookspeaceful and my heart swells at being able to provide him with enough comfort to fall asleep when he’s scared.
I read for a little longer to myself, making sure he isn’t about to wake up. Once I’m satisfied he’s in a deep enough sleep, I pick up my phone and find a message waiting for me.
Valeska: Roses are red,
Violets are blue,.
