C sat at the coffee table in stunned silence not really sure of what exactly had happened or gone wrong. She had come to Bristos to meet Trish. Trish was a bubbly church pin up doll who had- to Cs annoyance (and minor delight)- pursued her time and again to "go for tea" but who had also stood her up time and again with a vast array of excuses.
Bristos was quite a quaint and lovely hole in the wall place with grandma like decor and medium foot traffic which worked perfectly for C as she was not a fan of huge crowds. What did not work for her though was the constant ringing sound from the kitchen, everytime she heard it a bolt of nerves flashed across her back.
As if on cue there it came returning her back to her original thoughts which was "why am I seated here alone?" Trish had come, late granted that, but Trish had come. So why did she burst out like that and why did every outburst she'd had in the past few weeks feel seemingly worse and filled with more rage than the previous one.
"No, I've had it!" thought C as she finally persuaded herself to have a conversation she had been meaning to have for weeks. With sheer determination C walked down the steps of thought till she reached the scary barricaded steel doors. As if waiting for her arrival the doors opened and a thin frail figure leaned on her side with her arms crossed- like she was not about to give anything out that easy. "What do you want?" said H with absolute indignation. "We need to talk" C responded as fire lit up her eyes. H immediately rolled her eyes at that statement, retreated her body and began to shut the door, "No, you need to hurry back up before someone notices that you're gone."
C put out her hand to stop the swinging door, “I said we need to talk” she knew that this was going to be a battle of might between the two but she had had enough and was not going to leave H without atleast one answer.
H saw the fire in C’s eyes as she uttered those words, no doubtingly resulting from the frustration of ignorance. H knew for a fact that any conversation between the two them would prove fruitless but she was curious to see how long C’s burning passion could last, she may run after just two steps into the door. With that knowledge H let C continue in conversation.
The Haunted heart
Hh, with arms still crossed ready for war spoke “Okay then, talk.”
C soldiered on before H changed her mind “Could you tell me what happened today? Why did you snap at her so easily? All she did was a minor thing; your response doesn't make any sense.”
“You don't know what you’re talking about, get a clue and then ask me that same question.” Said H.
“Huh? Was there actually something bigger that happened?”
“You wouldn't know, you forget so easily. But do you know where all your ‘forgotten’ memories are stored? In me, I have to pile them up and you don't even step down in here often enough to know the actual state of affairs.” H knew where this conversation was going, and was by all means prepared to take it there.
C, however, was slightly stunned by this response.
“Wait, you mean all that stuff is still in there? I thought because I didn't think about the event anymore that it had been dealt with.”
A scoffing noise was quickly produced from H’s mouth “What nonsense is that? The event is only one thing, the feelings that came out of it and the scars and cuts that were made by it are a whole other. Since you were bold enough to step in here today, why don't I take you inside? Let me show you the actual state of affairs.”
H knew that just one look would keep C away forever; or at least a very long time.
With slow cautious steps C walked in. She’d often stood by the barricaded doors wondering what truth was hidden behind them, but the fear of unearthed pain always kept her from feeding her curiosity. Finally she was able to see… nothing, all that filled her eyes was darkness
“Well could you at least turn on the light please? It's creepy in here.”
“No, you told me to cut out the electricity when you said that nobody should know about these things.”
“What? Okay then, but… uh what's that smell?” She clasped her nose as the horrid stench caught up with her senses.
“Oh, that’s blood” responded H with the corners of her mouth slightly turning up, this was going just as she’d expected as the apparent disgust remained on C’s face.
“Excuse me, I'm about to throw up.” C announced unable to maintain the strong face she’d hoped to hold “How did that get here?”
“Well you ignored the cuts that were given to me and gave no further instructions but instead more issues to deal with, there was never time to handle it so it created a pool of blood on the floor. The scar got infected due to improper treatment, got inflamed and started producing pus. It eventually started to dry out but it's still not completely healed.”
“Isn't there a cleaning crew here?”
H smirked, “You’re looking at her.”
“You've clearly been ignoring your duties.”
“Oh have I now?”, did she just dare call her incompetent? Now H’s anger was really set off. “ Well let me further explain my portfolio: I'm the cleaning crew, the stitching crew, the building crew, the fighting crew, the hiding crew, the everything you tell me to do crew... does that help you understand my work here a bit more?”
“I guess” C knew the comment had hurt her, but with the state of this place someone had to be held accountable.
“More like clueless” murmured H.
“Okay then, explain it to me.”
“What exactly do you want me to explain? There are piles of stuff here that load in each day and I have to sort through it all and react accordingly then reorganize and categorize the events, people and places date stamp and label them for you to refer back to when they or similar circumstances reoccur.”
She made sorting through files sound like hard work. C had done that once too, but at an actual company Her eyes began to explore- there certainly was all kinds of messes here with files stacked all over and what she believed was mould growing in one corner.
“Wait- are those rocks on that side?” just when she thought she’d seen it all.
“Oh, construction is always underway, you tell me to build another wall so often that I just stopped putting the materials away- it was just too tiring.” H didn’t like that the tables of confrontation seemed to be tilted in C’s favour. Graciously the alarm went off.
Both H and C paused for a moment as they both did not do well with ringing noises.
“What is that?” C asked.
“It's a trigger, someone must be approaching. It’s Trish, please go up and deal with her.”
“Wait no; I can't just when I myself don't know why I did that.”
“Oh for the love of cake, here look. This is not the first time she'd 'forgotten' about your appointment. She always comes up with silly excuses and is never really sorry.”
Well that was true but had H really held onto something like that?
“But she's trying to be my friend.” C persisted. “And I am trying to be your heart. As your heart I'd like to inform you that we don't deal well with people neglecting us okay. And she is always calling you 'sweetie'- I can't with that arrogant girl anymore.”
H was resolute as this was her jurisdiction and she would certainly not let anyone else manage it, especially not C.
“Whoa someone has got some anger issues.”
“And that someone is you, so hurry up and go before you also have to explain why you weren't listening to what she was saying for the past 5 minutes.”
C blinked a few times to focus on what was happening, the scent of the freshly brewed coffee quickened her to consciousness. She blinked and then immediately started nodding so as to pretend she’d heard all Trish had said so far.
“Hey C, may we talk?” said the soft spoken Trish.
A sigh of relief was released be C as she was relieved that she hadn’t missed anything yet
“Sure” C responded then crossed her arms.
H was keenly watching, with a loud voice straight to C’s thoughts she said, “Here it goes, the excuses in 3..2...1”
“Well, I'd like to apologise. I keep doing the same thing over and over again; it really is inexcusable. I'm just sorry, sincerely.” Eyes wide and sincere, Trish’s apology was heartfelt.
“Well…” C began
H spoke to C louder “She's faking it” with a scoff.
“If you actually have a bit of time I would love to have coffee with you.” continued Trish.
“Oh would you now? That’s the third time I’ve heard that in two weeks” H spoke out in frustration, scoffing once more.
Then, just then in that moment a similar noise protruded from C’s mouth and like a coin drop finally settling the realization dawned on her. When H rolled her eyes, so did she, when she crossed her arms and scoffed, so did she. H was right it was not just H who had problems, it was them as they were a representation of each other so they affected each other.
“Well you can Johnny Walker on honey, I ain't got time for that” H inserted loudly, as if to insight another outburst.
“ Okay, let's have it now then.” C said with great courage.
Needless to say H was stunned; this was the first time that C had ever directly gone against H. Since when could she go against her?
“Who gave you permission to…”
“I did," replied C to H in a sharp tone "now hush it.”
“Huh?” said a confused Trish as her question was met by a smiling C.
“Where would you like to go?" C responded blinking quickly.
C had made up her mind, yes her and her heart were one but that did not mean that H was meant to be in control of her. C decided that she was going to do things a bit differently as the time had come for change! And that change started right here as she choose, in spite of H’s lack of approval, to still sit and meet with Trish.
“Anywhere swee-tie.”
Trish’s words seemed to be spoken in slow motion as they echoed in C’s ear, frustration began to arise with in her again.
Well, wars weren’t won in a day; thought C as she continued to feel the creeping up of frustration with now a hint of anger rise up. She knew it would not be easy but she was determined so the game was on: C vs. Her Hurt Heart.
-End of Episode 1