Chapter 3:

  Alicia walked into her home and looked around. Now that she was thinking a bit more clearly she realized the place looked and felt so empty. She knew the place was too big and without her dad there it would feel even more empty. She walked through the various rooms looking over them.

  She paused as she saw the ghosts of the past playing out in each room. A sad smile crossed her face as she watched images in her mind of growing up. Playing with her dad. Helping him out in the garage turned Blacksmith shop under the apartment. She smiled wistfully as she moved.

  She also noticed as she wandered around.Though she slept here every night that she didn’t spend in jail, she really stopped paying attention to the house and it was showing. Now she looked around and only one thought she could only utter one truth.

  “This place looks like shit!”

  With that thought she started to clean. She liked cleaning, and always did. To her it was kind of therapeutic, but at this moment with fresh emotional wounds she was finding it difficult. Her hands shook as she worked and she had to sit down several times as those ghosts still seemed to be there when she turned around. It took her a while to refocus herself and it worked for a bit, More than once she wanted a drink. She couldn’t get drunk but strong enough and often enough she could get numb and sometimes that was all she had. She felt the pull of the bottle until finally she went for the stash.

  Hidden under her dads bed was his spare booze. He admitted to liking a drink once in a while, though he never over indulged. She dragged out the case and looked at it.

  She picked up one of the bottles and felt its weight in her hand.This was it. Pop open a bottle and take a healthy swig. Let the contents burn down her throat. One bottle after another, after another and she could be numb again. She looked at it, swirling the contents of the bottle, even taking the cap off to smell the liquid inside. Her hands shook as she held it. The desire to drink weighed on her shoulders. One sip would be all it took.

  Stolen story; please report.

  Suddenly she felt a hand touch her shoulder, giving her a sense of calm, a moment of clarity snapping her out of that desire to drink. Only one person could have that effect with a single touch.

  “Rose.”

  She sighed as she leaned back against the bed. She knew Rose wasn’t here and she had to keep reminding herself of that, but just the thought of it. The memory of the touch, brought her back to reality.

  With a deep breath she got to her feet and walked to the back window and dumped the contents of the bottle to the ground, followed by every other bottle of hooch in the house.

  Once every bottle was drained Alicia threw out the empties. A new sense of resolution crossed her mind. She has not yet lost a fight and she would be damned if she was losing this one now.

  While it was difficult to get back into the cleaning, she figured keeping things spick and span would help focus her mind, and to be honest she was not sure where it came from, as it was obviously a departure from her character most days.She thought about it for maybe a half second before shrugging and returning to it.

  After a while everything was clean and she sat and looked around. It still felt and looked empty, but at least it looked better. She sat down and gathered some food, or at least tried to. Looking around she realized the food was moldy enough to be a science experiment, and definitely not fit for human consumption or even a mutant like hers. There was also no water for her to drink. Which was odd because she knew there was supposed to be a cistern on top of the house for rain water. She went up to the device and checked it. Alicia was surprised to find it had been clogged and since the water wasn’t flowing it was collecting mold. Shaking her head she began to clear out the blockage. How long had she been like this? Did she really fall this far?

  Coming back downstairs she looked around. She was definitely hungry but again there was no food.She sighed as she gathered up whatever currency she had, put Wyatt at her hip and headed for the saloon, Unaware that she was being watched.