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Pyromaniac · (This post was last modified: 02-16-2011, 03:16 AM by Pyromaniac.)

Episode 3

This was it. Emma was standing outside Alex's apartment with a pile of empty cardboard boxes. She was supposed to empty it out. It was supposed to be therapeutic. It was supposed to help her get over the fact that he was gone. Right now she wasn't sure it would do anything of the sort.

It had been a few months since Alex flew off in a stolen Eagle and all she'd done is go through a multitude of mental breakdowns. Even the simple task of cleaning out Alex's apartment could cause her to break down again.

She took a deep breath and slowly pushed the door open. It looked exactly as it had when she had last seen it. Apparently to execution of the BPD's search warrant had left the apartment relatively intact.

Everything was pretty much as Alex had left it. His room was a mess, his bed unmade, clothes strewn everywhere'¦ He'd probably been late for his patrol and had rushed out without cleaning'¦

She decided she'd deal with that last and went back out to the living room. It was in perfect order, the books were stacked neatly, as was his meagre movie collection. Her eyes continued across the contents of the living room before finally resting on Alex's maroon guitar.

She remembered the day she found out Alex could play'¦

'Since when do you play guitar?' She asked taking off her dripping coat and flopping down on the couch next to Alex.

'Since always.'

'You never told me you played,'

'You never asked.'

'You never asked.' She mimicked. Alex sighed and continued to tune the guitar.

'I bet you can't even play.' She shot at him.

'I bet you you're wrong.' He replied nonchalantly.

'Then play.'

'I will'¦' Alex twisted one of the keys with finality and strummed the guitar to make sure everything sounded okay. Then he launched into the opening chords of a song she'd never heard before.

She shook her head to dislodge the memory and continued on. She carefully packed the electric guitar into its case along with the amplifier and patch chords. She set it against the wall where it wouldn't spark anymore painful memories.

Emma continued on to the kitchen to pack up Alex's dishes. At least that was easy. There were no memories to be sparked there. Unfortunately Alex didn't have many dishes and so that could only occupy her for so long. Soon enough she closed the last box and set it on the growing stack that had formed around the guitar.
She couldn't avoid the living room any longer and with a deep breath grabbed a box to begin clearing it out. Unfortunately the first thing she came across was Alex's extensive collection antiquated compact discs and by extension the CD player Alex had built to play them. That too sparked a memory.

Alex was sitting working on the CD player. His desk was strewn with a variety of electronics both new and old in order to make it work. She was leaning against the doorway and sighed.

'Why do you even bother building that thing? You could just get all the songs digitally now.' She questioned picking up one of the cases.

'Some would say that digital downloads don't have the same quality as CDs.' Alex replied carefully manoeuvring a chip into place.

'Well then they're idiots.' Emma replied placing the case back on the pile from whence it came.

'Uh-huh,' Emma sighed and examined another of the cases.

'System of a Down, Hypnotize.' She read aloud. 'Where do you even find these things?'

'It's a secret.' Alex replied playfully.

'You're hopeless. All you've done recently is work on that thing. Nobody even makes CDs anymore. Why would you even bother?'

'Because'¦' Alex paused and sighed. 'I work for the army. I spend all day destroying things so every now and then I feel the need to create something. This time it just so happened to be a CD player.'

Alex cursed profusely as he burned himself on his soldering iron. Emma giggled.

'You're an idiot'¦' She muttered.

Emma sighed and carefully lifted the player off the shelf and put it in another box. Next came all the CDs. Luckily the rest of the clean up went off without the surfacing of anymore painful memories. Finally all of Alex's stuff was packed away in boxes.

Emma surveyed the empty space that was once Alex's apartment. She'd spent a lot of time there since she never really had any other friends. She sat down on Alex's couch for what she was sure would be the last time and finally allowed herself to cry.

She didn't know how long she was there for but when she finally got back to her apartment with the stuff she hadn't sold it was dark. She carried in the box of CDs, the CD player, and the guitar which she set down.
She was emotionally and physically exhausted and lay down on her couch pressing her face into the soft cushions.

She would have gone to sleep right then but her stomach groaned in protest. She sighed and pushed herself up. She took Alex's CD player out of the box, set it up, and popped in the first CD she grabbed. She realized it must have been one of Alex's 'mix' CDs since she never heard the same voice twice.
The song cycled to something quite slow and mellow. She sighed, recognizing the song. Alex had played it once. It was called 'Summertime' but she couldn't remember the name of the band. The song helped her to calm down and focus on making something to eat.

Little did she know that a thousand miles away Alex's music player cycled to the same song.

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