Ollie wasn’t a heavy drinker. And every single time he’d drank had been because of June. Their dynamics remained the same. June still ignored him like a plague. She’d been indoors throughout the day. And he couldn’t stop running a loop in his head about how she’d said they would go their separate ways. It was fair since he’d signed the deal and that was when they agreed the contract would come to an end. It was fair that they went their separate ways. But he didn’t want that. After they went their separate ways. He would have no reason to call her. He would have no reason to see her. He would have no reason to be with her. He would have no reason to see her smile. He would have no reason to breathe her air. The thought of it was driving him crazy. He was going insane. He headed to the bar to drown himself in alcohol. He’d spent his days drowning himself in loads of work but it didn’t seem as effective anymore.In a disarrayed state, he staggered out of his study room and traverse

His desperation grew until he contemplated rallying a search party and employing every means possible to locate June, even resorting to tracking her phone’s location.He had been trying June’s number and it wasn’t going through. Just as he was on the brink, the call finally connected. He heaved in relief which was immediately short-lived when an unfamiliar voice pierced into his ear exacerbating the raging inside of him. “Hello,” the voice intoned. He clenched his teeth and maintain a tense silence, as though he were stalling to brace himself for the inevitable tragedy that awaited him on the other end of the line. The unsettling realization settled in that a stranger answering June’s phone could only imply one grim outcome. After agonizing seconds of silence, the unfamiliar voice resumed speaking, its words searing into his ear with each syllable. Drawing every harsh breath out of him. “The owner of the phone has been taken to Careggi Hospital. She’s sustained severe…” The

While spring was the start of something beautiful and warm. To Ollie, it had been the start of unending nightmares and haunting memories. Spring had always been tainted to him. He’d always associated it to the death of his mother. And the beginning of his father infliction of unending painSo while others had a brilliant outlook to the beginning of spring, Ollie did not. Because it came with all it baggage and thorn. And though, all those times of torture had long gone, the memory still stuck to him. The nightmares. The gnawing feelings. The sleepless nights. But today, it changed. For the first time, Ollie slept without memories of the pasts haunting him nor to his demons lurking behind the darkness waiting for him to shut his eyes. He didn’t wake up to a banging headache nor did he had to listen to the tick tock of the clock because he couldn’t sleep. He didn’t have to bury his head in load of works because he couldn’t shut his eyes.It looked like a simple concept, insomnia but

She looked happy and alive. He thought to himself as he stared at the vintage photograph of his mother erected in front of her urn. A part of him was thankful for that. At least, At a stage in her life, she’d been what he described as happy and alive not what he grew up to know. There weren’t any good memories to reminisce on, so Ollie just stood in the mildly hot columbarium, sweat beading on his forehead. Perhaps if his eighteen-year-old self had visited, he would be steaming with deep-seated rage and spite and he would surely have a lot to say. But right now, nothing came to his mind. His mind was blank.He'd stayed away for so many years, and now that he was here, the feeling was neither hot nor cold, just a strange underwhelming emptiness hung in the air. “Well, well, well.” Ollie’s lips thinned disdainfully at the familiar voice. As much as he hated it, he recognized the voice. It used to be a voice that frightened him so much but not anymore. If he was thirteen, maybe it

June woke up with a big smile, mirroring the same one she had on her face nestled against Ollie’s chest after he’d fucked her senseless. The soreness between her thighs a big evidence, the scent of desire and sex still lingering in the air. The scent of Ollie on the crisp bedsheet caressed her nose as June buried her face into the bed. She couldn’t help but inhale deeply. With her eyes closed, she reached out to her side. When her hands couldn’t find him, she peeled her eyelid open. The bed was empty. Knowing just one place he could be in the house, she slipped out of the bed and huddled out of the room. Just like she’d predicted, he was there. In the study room. Ollie was perched behind a polished mahogany desk with a laptop in front of him, the leather chair beneath him creaking gently. She could smell his favorite coffee in the air. He was so focused on what was in front of him, that he didn’t even notice her. June watched him for a bit before saying “God, you’re such a w