Chapter 1 – A New Home
July 16th – Thursday
Joey noticed the onlookers from the surrounding houses with unease, so she just scurried towards her new apartment with renewed vigor. She unlocked the door on the first try – much to her relief – and closed it behind her, breathing in some relief, at last in her new home. She was supposed to be sharing the house with another person, but she was informed that they changed their mind at the last moment and she was going to be the only tenant for the time being.
The front room she closed herself in was dark, so Joey quickly found the light switch. The illumination revealed a small entrance space, with just enough room for shoe shelves, a plain wall mirror on one side and some coat hangers on the other. The decor was minimal and matching, likely bought at the same store. She proceeded to put her black tennis shoes with orange stripes on the vacant wooden shelf, somehow complementing it in color. She took out some dark green slippers from her suitcase and already felt like she claimed the whole house. Standing up she took a moment to observe her own reflection in the mirror.
Her black sleek hair were like a waterfall onto her shoulders, despite the brisk walk who’d previously disturbed them. She also sported some orderly bangs covering her forehead down to her eyebrows. The rest of her facial features were telling entirely different story. Her gleaming blue eyes were adjusting to the light. Her cheeks were ever so slightly blushed completing her expression to match that of a startled child. To top it off, her small silver nose ring stood defiantly as ever. As if this was the first time ever Joey Arlington was able to see herself, she smiled nervously and blinked which only added to the discombobulated appearance.
Due to the warm weather she was wearing a black polo shirt that essentially rendered her chest flat, down to the top part of her dark gray flannel pants. The badly lit small space was a stark difference from the bright sun outside and she could barely tell the difference in color between her shirt and her pants.
“Hello, me, welcome home,” she thought as she cast one final glance at herself and ventured through the wooden doors to the interior of the house, Valor’s Circle #3.
Compared to the small space she found herself in at first, the next room she entered was ampler and batter lit. On her immediate right a marble kitchen counter was separating the cooking area from the living room. She quickly glanced into the kitchen to spot a stove, dishwasher, microwave, refrigerator and a nice clean deep sink. Satisfied that there were no nasty surprises that she couldn’t have seen on the pictures online she turned her attention to the living room.
There was a comfortable looking couch in front of her of a similar shade to her pants that in her estimate could sit at least four people. Right above it, a small window covered by curtains and presumably facing the alley outside of Valor’s Circle. Sitting down and testing the comfort level which turned to be above expectations, she continued observing the room. On the opposite wall, now in front of her, the one facing the courtyard – there was a much bigger window with blinds open enough to let plenty of daylight in. Joey entertained the idea to look out for a moment and realized that was probably exactly how the neighborly onlooking starts.
Her vision was then drawn to the big flat TV screen, nested in the corner between the window and the entrance hall she just came from. She guessed a good 50 inches, decent brand. Besides that, the living room had laminate flooring and two chairs that appeared somewhat lost in there. Whoever rented the house previously must have either been extremely clean, “OCD levels of clean,” popped in her mind. Alternatively, the landlord has entirely thoroughly cleansed or renovated it. In fact, upon closer inspection of the floors it looked like they were brand with no traces of scratches, scars or general use. Like the chairs and couch were just carefully popped in, like delicate icing on a cake.
That perked up her curiosity. Was there a reason to all this cleanliness? Were the previous tenants able to mess it up so badly that the house number 3 needed a makeover? It was just odd, almost unnatural. Standing up and dragging her luggage through the room she could smell the faint remnants of cleaning supplies.
Opposite to the kitchen area, to the right of the couch she just left, there was a plain metallic staircase leading to the sleeping quarters, as well as the secondary bathroom. Opening the door to peek in, she saw a beautiful pattern of swirly light blue lines on deep blue tiles which reminded her of a turbulent sea. It contained a toilet, a sink with a cabinet underneath and a moderately sized mirror on top. At least for the bathroom Joey was 100% content with the sterile like cleanliness. Stealing one last glance at it, she noticed her face and expression were more of her usual self.
Shutting the door to the bathroom, she picked up her suitcase and proceeded upstairs. The steps were quite steep, packed close together and in a spiral in order to minimize the space they were occupying. Carefully advancing, she arrived on the upper floor, where she was met with the same level of tidiness. There was a corridor leading from the staircase to the balcony, splitting the floor plan in two parts. The balcony exit was a door with a white frame – distinctly different from the all other wooden doors – and blinds semi-open. Even what light was coming in pointed to the summer heat outside.
Placed in the same corner as the floor below, there was a much larger bathroom, while on the other side of the corridor there were two bedrooms (positioned above the entrance, kitchen and part of the living area below). The room in front of her had an empty red tag on it, while the one closer to the balcony had a “Joey Arlington” printed on golden letters that she could read upon approaching.
Out of curiosity she inspected the bathroom on this floor as well. It was more or less same in design than the one below it, except it also contained a washing machine on the outer wall to her left and also a quite spacious bath tub on her right. Impeccable in its presentation as its smaller counterpart.
Despite Joey being a quite well organized person she was getting the impression that somebody was trying too hard here. As if everything was built from scratch and ready to be placed in a magazine or at an exposition. Eventually she did turn around, out of the bathroom and into her sleeping quarters almost directly opposite.
Never in her life had she seen such a sterile room.
There was nothing to even compare it her memory. Even some really nice hotels that she’d been to in her life weren’t like this. Impeccable drywall, three sides painted white and the one in front of her just ever so slightly orange. And an absolutely flawlessly made bed in front of it. The sheets on the bed had vertical red and orange lines and they appeared unnaturally straight. There was a night stand on one side of the bed, with a single elegant lamp on it.
Upon entering, on her left she could see the side of a wooden wardrobe whose orange coat matched the one wall. On her right there was a window similar to the one in the living room, with blinds semi-open. A room straight out of a catalogue – quite beautiful, Joey noted, but at the same time off putting? Unnerving perhaps? Was that a good way to phrase it? Either way, she vowed to herself to quickly make it her own. Transform it into something belonging to an actual human being. She would need to bring in much more stuff than what her simple luggage allowed.
In order to immediately ruin that picture-perfect room, she left her suitcase in the middle of the floor, threw her bag on the bed and jumped on it herself. She bounced slightly and was quickly satisfied with how it felt underneath. Specifically, it wasn’t too soft, which was always her worry with a new mattress. She rolled around to her back and with it, she felt her transition to the new home was complete. But as her mind got adjusted to the new place and the excitement started to wear off, her past came rushing back. Her thoughts of recent life changes hit hard.
About a month ago, when Joey got offered a very well paying position as a back end developer for a local bank, named Union’s First Bank, she had no real intentions of accepting. She was perfectly fine with where she was, dozens of kilometers away, enjoying her quiet life with her boyfriend of several years. Six years and seven months to be precise, she reminded herself. Their life together wasn’t glamorous, but it was enjoyable and she was content. After finishing her masters degree in IT she settled with her partner in his family owned house, which the two of them got all for themselves. He would continue his father and grandfather’s car shop, while she would work for the local government, take care of their servers, secure backup and such. She could’ve easily been more ambitious but at the end of the day, she was doing work she enjoyed and knew her help was much appreciated and needed.
Not everything was perfect however.
As soon as they met all those years ago, Joey was weary of the difference in education between her and her partner at the time, now only referred to as that “possessive asshole”. When their relationship was starting to take off, he assured her he was absolutely fine with her ambitions and strong independent thinking and would support her no matter what, but over the years that statement was put to the test. What finally sealed the deal for her was when he discovered the job offering from Union’s First Bank and lost his mind. He was yelling, insulting her and flailing his arms at her in an accusatory manner.
Joey didn’t even bother explaining that she was planning to turn the offer down. She didn’t try to reason with him or calm him down. That one incident crystalized all of her past doubts and told her all that she needed to know. She packed her bags and went to live with her parents for a while, accepting the job offer and looking for a place to live.
Thinking back, analyzing and second guessing her choices, she began to doubt if it truly was her own decision to not pursue her ambitions more. Had she not met that possessive asshole, would she have settled in a small town somewhere? Were there other decisions she made while being unknowingly influenced by his controlling behavior?
Since the end of that relationship she remembered numerous instances where her partner’s reactions were problematic. But he never yelled at her or threatened her in any way, so she didn’t really see it clearly as it was happening. Piece by piece however, parts of her transformed into a person that she struggled to recognize today. She felt incredibly lucky with the sequence of events that broke that stalemate and led her here.
This of course wasn’t her first time dealing with lots of past baggage, so Joey knew exactly what to do. She sat up to grab her laptop and charger, plug it in and quickly bring up her playlist of mostly alternative rock music. Positioning the device on the drawer she accidentally pushed the lamp off of it, but then caught it at the last second. Ramping up the volume she laid on her back again, letting song lyrics fill her mind instead of heavy thoughts and doubts. “Yeah fuck him,” were the last thoughts she dedicated to her recent past.
Enjoying the melodies she was tapping her fingers on the bed, nodding and humming, with the occasional singing along with the chorus. Several songs into her playlist, her movements became less animated and she slowly drifted asleep.
Joey awoke abruptly to sweat and slight body tremors. Checking the watch on her wrist she saw it marked 17:12. How long was she asleep for? She remembered arriving at Valor’s Circle close to 3 in the afternoon, but that was as accurate as her memory allowed her to be. Her playlist was done and over with, so it must have been less than two hours of her laying in bed or sleeping, so that checked out. Feeling her increased heart rate she tried to remember what startled her so much.
Vague images of her disturbing dreams were lurking just below her awareness. Most of it was just out of reach, but the one thing that remained vivid in her brain was the sense of being latched onto something. Kind of like being tied with an elastic rope a tree and walking in the opposite direction. Close enough as analogies go, though the pull in her dream was invisible, kind of like gravity. And the object wasn’t a tree. Maybe a building? Feeling like she was getting closer to remembering, she continued intentionally slowing her breathing and laying down. She found dreams to be a fascinating glimpse into one’s brain. In which case, what was that dream about? Without anything else to go by, she assumed it might have been her mind processing the pull her ex had on her, that she now finally broke.
Seemingly at a dead end, Joey opened her suitcase to draw out a beige bath towel, as well as a few bottles of shampoo hair conditioner and body wash and made her way out of the room. The hallway was still well lit with the afternoon sun rays peeking through the blinds at just the right angle to making her squint a little. She entered the bathroom and closing the door was very glad there were no windows present. Compared to her previous living experience, she wasn’t used to the sun this late in the afternoon.
While she got undressed in the bathroom, she briefly considered taking a bath but opted for just a shower instead. Adjusting the water temperature to hot, she eagerly stepped in. Despite having just confirmed the temperature being to her liking, once the rest of her body got in contact with it, she shivered. The difference between expected and experienced made her jump out of her skin and scurry away from the water to the opposite edge of the tub, where she uttered in disbelief, “What the hell?”
She observed the water like she had just been betrayed by her best friend. After more hesitation and incredulousness, the water filled part of the tub and her feet felt the pleasant temperature she set. To confirm, she slowly extended her arm to the shower and again, it was perfect. So what just happened? After retreating her arm and then feeling the stream again with both arms and legs alike, she finally gave it another try and her body relaxed.
At this point she started to doubt her sanity, or perhaps the insane stress levels she felt. First that strange sensation while entering Valor’s Circle, then her dreams, and now the water. Surely this wasn’t a sign of her developing bipolar disorder and moving towards a psychotic break? That fear was a constant part of her life as both her mother and grandfather seemed to have been afflicted by it – with her mum at least having been medicated and gone to counseling. In both cases, the worst outburst appeared to have been triggered by a particularly stressful period of their respective lives.
So far Joey pushed a potential genetic mental health issue to the side as she seemed to be perfectly healthy and sane. At the same time, she knew the risk was always there. Asking her phone to set a reminder for her to re-check some signs of bipolar disorder and a psychotic break later on, she then sprayed water everywhere by shaking her head and thoughts all at once. Due to what happened, she forgot to draw the curtain beforehand and so her actions lead to a watery mess on the small bathmat, as well as the tiled floor around it.
Turning off the water, she used the towel to absorb some excess liquid from her hair and then dried the rest of her body off. She moved the bathmat around with her feet to somewhat clean up the floor and then wrapped herself up in the towel. Picking up her clothes she returned to her bedroom where she carelessly dumped them in the middle of it all. Hello chaos, she told herself smiling. She then spent the next half an hour or so sitting cross-legged on the bed and letting her body dry up by itself. While waiting, she was fumbling through her phone and alternating between some mindless fun stuff and looking up signs of a psychotic break. What she found reassured her at least somewhat. It was more likely she was just exhausted and apprehensive in the new environment. By tomorrow she might be laughing at it all.
And then the words Possessive Asshole popped up on the screen as the calls began. She patiently ignored it until the voicemail picked it up and seconds later, another call was coming in. And another. She didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of rejecting the call and letting him know that she’s seeing it. For a downside, she wasn’t really able to use her phone as he obviously wasn’t leaving any voice messages and continuously calling.
After the fifth consecutive call she gave up, “to hell with it”, and got dressed. She pulled her favorite pair of comfortable black underwear and a matching bra from her suitcase. For the rest she decided to re-wear the clothes from earlier. Arranging her still damp hair in a ponytail and double-checking that the calls were still coming in – they were – she tucked her phone in one of her pockets, retraced her steps from earlier, and she was out of the house #3. Locking the door behind her Joey had a good look around.
Valor’s Circle was all around her, made up of seven houses looking similar yet not exactly the same. The one outlier was house #1 whose exterior was completely falling apart, almost as if collapsing in real time, making her wonder how bad the inside was. Houses #2, #5 and #7 were old as well, but kept in a much better shape. Before moving here she learned that the city center had to conform to certain standards, one of them being that the older buildings had to retain the same outside look even if renovated. As a result, despite her new home #3, as well as #4 and #6 being bought by the same leasing company, they just had a fresh coat of paint applied but still fitting very much with the rest.
All of the houses in Valor’s Circle were built out of stones with varying degrees of aging showing on the front. Some of the older houses had begun to sprout moss or other vegetation in the crevasses, while the three new ones instead looked completely untouched by nature in comparison. Joey glanced over the windows overlooking the courtyard and to her relief there didn’t seem to be any nosy neighbors there anymore. She didn’t have a problem with curious people, but at the same time she didn’t feel like being the new attraction of the neighborhood.
With the sun slowly moving towards the horizon, the decreasing temperature of the air felt good on her moist skin. For a brief moment in time, she paused and just took it all in. “My new home, I could get used to this pretty quickly,” she thought and proceeded for a leisurely walk around the courtyard. Joey didn’t want to move too close to any of the houses to not spike any unwarranted attention, but she was still very fascinated by this small ecosystem she found herself in. Except for the archway, there was no other entrance to this place, so it could have easily been sealed off into almost a detached unit from the rest of the city. Was that the case in the past? Did the inhabitants here ever have the need to isolate themselves?
Strolling around aimlessly over the stone-paved ground she began to notice that most of the courtyard was an entirely new addition or more likely, recent remodeling. The stone slabs on the ground were in a much better shape than the stones in older houses, showing only a slight amount of use and passage of feet. Furthermore, there were five trees – she guessed oaks, maybe – planted inside circular patches of grass and encircled by a wooden bench. The trees themselves were barely thicker than her two fists combined and so she assumed they must’ve been planted about the time the pavement was renewed. She took note of that to research it online later – a common occurrence in her life. And even though the trees were not yet fully grown, they already provided some nice spots of shade for the benches underneath.
The only part of the courtyard that seemed to have been there the longest was the well at the center of it all. Much like the house #1, the well seemed to be slowly decaying and getting overrun by grass of sorts. There were parts of stones missing or chipped, but the overall shape of it was still there. The top of the well had a metal cover placed over it. She carefully neared its edge and lifted part of the rusty cover which squealed in protest. She took a look inside, but due to the well’s depth, she had trouble seeing clearly. Still, the fading sun rays were reflecting on a liquid surface below, presumably water.
She had to stop her curiosity short once the putrid smell hit her in full force, beckoning away and letting the cover fall with a clunk. Startled by the noise she was responsible for, she again glanced around the windows of the houses hoping nobody overheard it. From one abandoned artifact to another, she proceeded to the house #1 that was falling apart, besides the arced entrance of the courtyard.
Up close she could truly appreciate the state of disarray. The main door was partially missing, as if somebody cut the top part off diagonally. There were wood splinters around the entrance and the view behind the door was obstructed by collapsed parts of the house – stones and wood alike. The vegetation was downright blooming, with even some flowers springing from the creases in the slabs on the house front. Similarly, when Joey tried to look through the cracked window on the bottom floor, there was just a bunch of debris within. All of this made her wonder if there was a fire of some sorts that first damaged the house and then the passage of time did the rest of the work. Regardless, she was fascinated by this abandoned building, in such sharp contrast with the other houses. Why was it this way? Why did nobody fix it up or tear it down and rebuild?
She kept her mind wandering in guesswork until she got tired of questions without answers. Her final destination was the archway itself. It connected the dilapidated building she just finished observing, Valor’s Circle #1 to the other side, Valor’s Circle #7. The archway too was made out of stone slabs of more or less equal sizes stacked on top of each other. There were no windows on the arch itself, but its size suggested there might be some kind of storage space above. Perhaps accessible from either houses #1 or #7, she theorized. Once she stepped beneath the archway and looked up she discovered some kind of rectangular opening. However, even straining her eyes did not help her determine what was inside. As soon as Joey moved underneath the hole, she was in her by now mostly forgotten dream again.
It was as if an invisible force was pulling her back into Valor’s Circle, though it vanished just as quickly as in her dream. It was enough to make her weary, but not enough to properly understand the sensation and commit to memory. So much for a leisurely walk! Frozen in her tracks, she carefully turned around half expecting to see someone or something being off. Instead, with the sun subsiding for the day, the whole courtyard looked absolutely gorgeous bathed in the now orange-turning light. “That stress related change playing tricks on me still?” she wondered. Still, she decided she had enough of her outside excursion and she decided to return back home. Joey’s senses were heightened on her way back, but nothing inexplicable happened.
When her house was within arms reach, she heard the most awful racket. At first she listened petrified to some kind of melody that was incredibly out of tune. Pretending to be looking for her keys in her pockets, she kept turning her head in the direction of the approaching noise. She went through the motions of patting her pockets several times before finally reaching for their depths and producing the keys. The source of the noise still wasn’t where she could see it and she kept telling herself, “I don’t want people to see me like this. Like a lunatic standing in front of a house and looking around in confusion.”
There didn’t appear to be anybody, either outside or behind the windows, so Joey knew she was just being paranoid. Still, after determining that her charade was going on long enough, eventually she gave up on the wait. There was no sign of whoever was emitting the noise and so she entered her home. But this was just so she could get out of the public view. Putting on her slippers, she immediately entered the living space and positioned herself in front of the courtyard-facing window.
The timing and her position were perfect for her to observe a wobbling figure appear from under the archway, stumbling its way into the courtyard. Right away, it looked like the signature walk of a heavily intoxicated person. Her thoughts were soon confirmed, as the individual stepped towards the nearest tree erratically and fell on the bench. That got her worried enough to open her window and listen for any signs of pain. Se sighed in relief as the terrible medley from earlier now became clearly audible. The person was just fine and that was more that could be said for her own ears.
“Bye, bye, byeee you crazy bitch,” went the singing with a deep voice, influenced by questionable amounts of alcohol.
Joey thought, “Because you’re obviously a perfect picture of sanity.”
As if to confirm that sarcasm, the same verse got repeated three more times, with a different intonation and slightly varied pitch. Even the tempo changed mid sentence.
Apparently the last repetition was deemed good enough, to where the person now picked themselves up from the bench, revealing a gray haired man with a bald spot on top and wearing some kind of deep blue or black suit – hard to tell at dusk. The man then half walked, half danced to house #7, presumably his home. Despite all of his struggles so far, he unlocked the door in a heartbeat and was gone from sight.
“So that’s one of my neighbors. What a winner,” she noted while feeling the back of her still ever so slightly damp hair with her hands. The spectacle was over and with it, she closed the window shut. Before retreating upstairs for the rest of the night, she inspected the kitchen cabinets to find plenty of silverware and some appliances, as well as a generous assortment of spices. Other than that, there was no food of any kind. “Good thing I brought some snacks.”
Joey Arlington then returned to her golden-letter marked room, where she finally checked her phone to see 21 missed calls and 14 messages from her ex. That irritated her so much that she decided to finally block his number. She didn’t do that immediately after the breakup on the off chance they both could be adults about it and maintain some sort of civility. No chance for renewed relationship, but perhaps acquaintances or friends over time. And the possessive asshole seemed to be respectful of her…
Until he wasn’t. She had very little patience for childish games and her blue eyes were glimmering with resentment while thoughts of her past relationship rushed in again. In particular, she wondered if there was a connection between her feeling pulled towards something in her dream and when underneath the archway. Could that have been her mind’s way of moving away from the relationship? Throwing her phone on the bed to relieve her agitation she then picked up her laptop, some crackers and chips from her bag and positioned it all in front of her.
She sat cross-legged, immersing herself into research. First she looked up the trees in the courtyard, confirming them to be oaks. Comparing it with the pictures and a few brief reads she guesstimated they have been growing for somewhere between 15 and 25 years, so that likely coincided with the renovation of the courtyard. Before moving to her new home she also learned that hers was the last one to be acquired and renovated and that happened exactly 15 years ago. So all in all, it seemed like the company who bought the three houses, #3, #4 and #6 was also responsible for reorganizing the courtyard, or maybe convincing the city to do so. She wasn’t able to get a precise answer, or, at least didn’t care enough to spend more time with it. It did make her wonder how the rest of the inhabitants felt about it. Was it a positive and respectful change or a half-assed attempt?
Growing uninterested of her current pursuit, she plugged the charger into an outlet next to her bed and started to relax with one of her favorite pastimes; video games. In particular, she was currently enjoying a small indie game that was essentially a throwback to the ‘90s. “What better way to keep your mind from over-thinking than to immerse myself in some mindless fun?”
The remainder of the evening was uneventful and spent between it snacking, playing and the occasional trip to the toilet. There were no more strange occurrences, helping her to feel more at ease. She ended the night by performing her routine of flossing and brushing her teeth, undressing down to her underwear and sliding into the welcoming bed. Despite her earlier unplanned nap she was still able to fall asleep fairly quickly.
Tomo Umer 