Chapter 4 - Parent
AN: This is a continuation of the events of January 3, 2021 found in the previous chapter. If you missed it, what are you even doing here? Who skips chapters when reading a story?
Anyway, hope you enjoy this chapter.
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4:27 PM
To the wind,
So, the kinda old restaurant food we had for lunch was a breath of fresh air from my cooking... if you could even call what I was doing cooking.
As of now, I'm just resting with nothing to do but write down something.
I guess I should work out a bit. I was getting a bit chubby due to all the intense sitting I was doing for the entirety of the quarantine and the workload for the entrance exam preparations I had to go through made sure that I didn't have much time for anything else.
Other than that I've got a few things I gotta do as well.
On another note, sometimes I wonder why this happened... like what actually went down for this apocalypse thing to occur. Maybe we'll find out soon enough. This is kinda relaxing though... excluding the fact that I have to take care of a kid.
I don't think I can be completely relaxed while I have to take care of her.
Still, it isn't all that hard. For better or for worse, she tends to avoid me. No clue why. Sure, she talks to me, but I'm the one who starts the conversations and she's always trying to end them. She's probably just shy...
So she's the same type of child as I was when I was her age...
Alr-
(AN: Here, the ink kind of continues from there in a squiggle. I'll assume that's him getting spooked by the sound of someone barging through the door. That's the hyphen. Can't really mimic writing here, can I? How do I know it's because someone barged through the door? Next line ya dummy.)
Someone just barged through the door.
Be back in a minute.
Joseph
- (AN: This is still just spacing. Also, the text after this is in a slightly different handwriting so I'll just inform that before the text starts)
He's imposing, the intruder.
Built like a brick wall and covered in blood, I really don't want to deal with this now. I'm not much of a fighter...
Actually, no, I'm not anywhere close to being a fighter. I'm weaker than most of the girls from my class. I am, in no way, shape or form, cut out to fight someone like this...
It's like David v Goliath, except David's a shut in (relative) midget with nothing in terms of muscles facing Goliath, who's twice his height, probably got a grip like Kaoru Hanayama, and could probably punch me through a wall... or maybe that's the adrenaline speaking and over exaggerating this shit.
(AN: Not sure if it's safe for me to write the name of an anime character here but, eh, Baki reference. For those that don't know Baki, just look up Hanayama grip on YouTube. You'll know what he meant there)
Still, I pick up the nearest weapon, which ends up being a pipe that I found. At least I have a somewhat decent weapon to protect myself with. Still, not sure how much it's worth when it's just me against that dude.
May bursts outta her room and freezes on seeing the man.
She's probably scared shitless seeing this person at the door...
And then... she runs straight for him?
What the hell does she think she's doing?! The dude could probably hit her hard enough to kill her!
The man pushes me aside knocking me down on me ass making a beeline for the little girl.
And...
They hug each other?
Could this be her dad?
- (AN: Back to normal handwriting)
To the wind,
Who wrote that bit?
Is there someone inside the house other than the three of us? And why would their first priority be to help me write my diary with the events copied down in real time?
Anyway, as it's already written, May's dad came back. He said his name was Jake. For some reason though, he made me feel uneasy... I can't put my finger on it, just something about him that struck me as really odd.
Wait, he was the one that gave May her symbol. He'll probably know something about this, right?
I gotta ask him right away.
Be right back,
Joseph
-
To the wind,
So I asked him what it was... and got nothing from him. All it did was just made me a bit more suspicious of him.
Anyway, the conversation went something like this, I asked him what the symbol in the book he gave his daughter. He just looked at me like I was crazy, but there was something in his eyes that told me that he knew more than he was letting on.
Why was he hiding information though?
Or maybe it's just me being paranoid again.
By the way, he's making dinner so... yay? It's probably gonna be better than mine no matter how bad he is at cooking, so that's good.
Well, later then,
Joseph
-
To the wind,
And the food was so much better than anything that I could manage with my skill level. He gave me a few tips on cooking and wrote down a couple simple, and I mean simple, recipes as well. He said that it was meant as a thank you for taking care of his daughter.
To be honest, he doesn't seem like a bad person really. Man, I was way too quick to judge the dude based on his looks.
Apparently, he was hit by a few rocks and falling rubble from a partially degraded on the way here which was why he was bleeding when he got here. He said he's fine but, frankly, that's still concerning enough to warrant some form of medical attention.
Anyway, it's his choice, not mine. Not like I can patch him up if he doesn't want it.
He also said that he only came here for his daughter and plans to leave for a safe place that he knows. He offered to let me join them but I just felt like I'd be a burden to them... Anyway, I still wanna try out these recipes. Maybe I'll whip up something decent... probably not.
That's when May asked where her mother was.
A deathly silence enveloped the room like a blanket.
Her father was caught off guard by the question.
The air was heavy in that room... I could feel the weight of what was unsaid despite not having too much of a connection to them.
May just stood there with a smile on her face expecting an answer from her father.
Her father could only look at her, unsure of what to say. What could he say here? That her mother was gone? Right to her face?
The pain was visible on his face.
A feeling of helplessness... that's what I saw in him. He didn't know what to do, watching something happen, unable to do anything about it.
"She's at the settlement," he lied, finally breaking the silence.
I can imagine that it hurts to tell a lie like that.
That's when I decided to call it a day. I really didn't want to intrude their little father daughter moment, even more so because of the awkward atmosphere that's there.
They're leaving first thing in the morning. It'll be my turn to make breakfast and the head chef of the building will have to test me before he leaves it to me... I'm talking about Jake... he's the head chef in this analogy.
That, and he was actually a head chef of a restaurant before the world went to hell.
Anyway, I think it's time for me to finally go to sleep now.
See ya tomorrow,
Joseph
- (AN: The handwriting is not Joseph's. For simplicity's sake, let's call it Mini J. From now on, when it's Joseph, it's J, when it's the other handwriting, it's Mini J.)
Go with them. Don't leave the kid. Leave with them. The girl is in danger. Protect the girl. Protect her. Protect her. Protect her. Protect her. Protect her. Protect her. Protect her. Protect her. Protect her. Protect her. Protect her. Protect her. Protect her. Protect her. Protect her. Protect her. Protect her. Protect her. Protect her. Protect her. Protect her. Protect her. Protect her. Protect her. Protect her. Protect her. Protect her. Protect her. Protect her. Protect her. Protect her. Protect her. Protect her. Protect her. Protect her. Protect her. Protect her. Protect her. Protect her. Protect her. Protect her. Protect her. Protect her. Protect her. Protect her. Protect her. Protect her. Protect her.
(AN: This goes on for the next few pages... this book is kinda bigger on the inside. Odd. That's not supposed to be possible... what even is this book? What's it made out of? Are the pages just really really thin? No, just regular size... anyway, I'll just keep going. Then this was written by Mini J.)
Protect her. You may want to run away but both you and me know that that isn't an option for you. You were waiting for a call to action. Enjoy! I know that I, for one, will.
The party has just begun after all.