Thank you for all the nice words about the story – please feel free to add more! If you want response to your feedback though, send it to danedotdk.hotmail.com

And Seven: I’m so sorry for unintentionally spoiling you! I have moved my warning to the summary…





The minute Tina entered the car, her hands started trembling. When Alice started driving her whole body shivered and when they finally stopped in front of her former home even the brain rotated and twitched like mad insects had invited all their friends to a huge head banger party.

Alice touched her shoulder. I can do this alone, Tina, you dont have to go in there – or I can phone Shane and Dana at The Planet.

Tina shook her head. She knew she had to do this. She had even been nuts enough to suggest that she and Alice were the ones to deal with whatever there was to deal with. They couldnt invade Bettes life like that – she would hate it, especially if she had the flu or something. Bette was soo not a cute and agreeable patient – no, empathize those words: A sick Bette was a genuine pest!

But Tina knew she had to be there. Even if their relationships were strained and almost non-existent at the moment and even if their few sporadic meetings up to date hadnt been pleasant, she felt the need to assure herself that Bette was doing okay. She winched at her own shallow thoughts; of course Bette wasnt okay, but she was strong and she would handle being fired by her former lovers new well – something hold Tinas thoughts back from this particular subject – Bette would handle this setback as she handled everything else: head on and no looking back.

Tina clamped down on her nervousness and her worry. It was probably a damn cold that kept Bette from answering the phone, or maybe shed gone on a vacation – with one of her undoubtedly many willing fuckbuddies. Alice was taking this waay out of proportion.

A feeling entered her and she couldnt shake it. Al, I have to go in alone.

For once Alice didnt argue, she just accepted Tinas wish and said: Yell if you need me.

The small walk to the house felt like the longest road shed ever faced. The part inside her that sheltered a well hidden dark sense of humour yelled: Dead man walking, like she was on death row, facing her final walk to the electric chair. Another part of her felt numb, like she was an unfeeling spectator watching a twisted soap or a bizarre Hallmark movie.

The first odd thing she noticed when she opened the door was the smell; sour, dusty, stale were the first words that came to her mind. And when she looked around she found a pure pigsty greeting her.

This was not a place her prissy, proper Bette would even consider living or even spend more than the two seconds it took to sneer at the mess and leave in disgust. A house in such a state of decay meant that Bette was indeed sick.

And if Bette wasnt feeling well she had to be in the bedroom. When Tina opened the door the numbness left her immediately. No Bette, but what she saw instead made her dizzy. The room seemed untouched since she left it for the last time; carrying all her clothes. The draws were opened, the bed messy from the awful night when life as she had known it ceased to exist, her torn dress was there – and Bettes expensive clothes thrown carelessly on the floor – a bedroom turned in to a shrine in memory of the death of .

And where the ***** was Bette? Tina heart was pounding hard, threatening to crack the ribs and join the torn dress that brought back so much misery. This room, the state of the whole house, was so unlike the Bette she knew – or at least thought she knew.

Maybe I should yell now, Tina thought and shivered slightly. There was only one possible option left for Bettes whereabouts; the guestroom. With heavy feet and a heavy heart Tina focused on the closed door.

Bette?

********************************************

There shouldnt be words here. No one speaks my name anymore. I just want to bury myself in sweet silence. I just want to sleep


***There is no pain, you are receding.
A distant ships smoke on the horizon.
You are only coming through in waves.
Your lips move but I cant hear what youre sayin.
When I was a child I had a fever.
My hands felt just like two balloons.
Now I got that feeling once again.
I cant explain, you would not understand.
This is not how I am.
I have become comfortably numb.****

tbc