Well, if I really wanted to, I could hang my clothes up to dry in front of the fireplace...
Yeah, no.
Like I want my undergarments hanging there for him to ogle...
I retrieve the hoodie from where it landed near the bed. Put it back on.
Then I lean against the wall.
I’m trapped in Gregory Falk’s house, wearing Gregory Falk’s clothes, dependent on Gregory Falk’s charity.
Universe, why do you keep doing this to me?
Outside my window, the snow continues to fall.
6
Gregory
The generator shed offers minimal protection from the blizzard. I yank the door open against the wind and snow swirls inside with me. The metal walls provide shelter from the worst of it, but it’s still cold enough that my breath mists.
The generator sits silent. Still shut down from when I came in here last night. I want to double check the fuel reading.
That’s what I tell myself, anyway.
If I’m being completely honest, I just wanted to get out of the house.
Get away fromher.
Because her words... let’s just say, she’s not wrong about me.
Shaking off the thought, I move to the control panel and brush snow off the display. The fuel gauge reads one percent.
One fucking percent.
I stare at the digital display like it might change if I glare hard enough. It doesn’t. The numbers just sit there, mocking me with their brutal honesty.
If only the delivery on the twenty-first had come on time...
Since then, with the way the power has been cutting out lately, I’ve been burning through diesel fuel like it’s infinite. Well, at least before I came to my senses yesterday... I was running the heat at full blast. Powering every light in the house. Using the espresso machine multiple times a day. Acting like a spoiled asshole who’s never had to worry about resources running out.
Christ.
I stare at the silent machine. Before I shut it down, it was making this grinding noise. Getting worse each time it cycled on. Definitely something internal is wearing down. Maybe a bearing. Maybe the alternator. I don’t know enough about generators to diagnose it properly and Thomas isn’t here to fix it.
I could test it.
Run it for thirty seconds just to confirm it still works.
That the grinding hasn’t progressed to full mechanical failure.
My hand hovers over the manual start button...
Thirty seconds of runtime burns fuel I can’t replace.
And what if it doesn’t start? What if that grinding noise was the sound of something dying and I just don’t know it yet?
Better that I don’t know.
