The Richardson's

It was late afternoon, the door to the padded cell had just opened. The sun rays from the window opposite the room crept in, to reveal a woman in her early 20's, laying on the bed, her black short hair illuminates her brown eyes which matched her light and brown skin.

"Come on, Sarah," said the guard who stood at the doorway.

Sarah slowly turns to look at him, frowning. The thought of slamming his head against the door amused her. She knew that she would have to serve extra time at the mental institution if the same incident that occurred last week were to repeat itself.

Sarah gets up slowly, giving her body a little sway as she walked towards the guard, shrewdly hugging him.

"Sorry for breaking your nose" she whispered.

The guard leads her down the hallway at the end, a female guard standing behind a glass frameless counter hands out some forms for her to fill through an opening within the counter.

Sarah recalls when she was sent to a juvenile detention center 4 years ago, her mom had just abandoned her. she was young then and people stared at her and she fidgeted as she filled a form at the counter.

She's different now, she thought.

The guard hands Sarah's belongings to her, which were just a backpack and some clothes. They looked at each other for a long moment before Sarah walked away.

Outside the mental institution, Sarah takes a moment to breathe in the air and enjoyed the sun rays on her face. she hears the faint laughter of children around the corner as she moves towards them the laughter becomes louder. The children stopped laughing when they sited her.

"Want some clothes," she said. Sarah smiled, looking at the children who nodded in agreement.

She hands the clothes to the children and waves at them. As she walked on down the road the smell of street food made her hungry. But what could she do? She had no money on her, standing in front of the food vendor would make her stomach rumble more. She thought.

Across the street directly in front of her, she saw a truck pull to a stop and a black man got out with hands clutching his belt. She noticed the tattoo of three dots on his fist and remembered her mom tattooing three dots on her and her sister's fists as kids.

"It's a family mark," said the mother, who raised her head looking at little Sarah whose eyes were red from crying with sweat licking at the hair on her brow.

Sarah's head pounded in thought as she waved the man for him to come over. The man crossed the road, approached Sarah, and handed over a phone to her. Sarah reluctantly answered the phone for a moment. Handling the phone back, she grins at him. The man is taken aback.

"Do you have any cash on you?" said Sarah

The man gave her a hundred dollars and goes to the car, he starts the car and watched as Sarah crossed the road with a smile on her face munching on the snacks. He gestured to Sarah to wear her seat belt as he drives through the evening.

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

The man drove to an abandoned lot, there he reached for the suitcase in the back seat and gave it to Sarah.

"The big guy said in there is everything you need," said the man. He points to the suitcase.

Sarah gets out of the car and pulled out the gun she's been hiding inside her shirt since she took it from the prison guard while she hugged him.

Gbam! Sarah shoots the man in his head, blood splashed all over the window and slowly ooze down.

"No hard feelings, he said no witness," said Sarah pulling her hoodie over her head as she walks into the quiet night.

The streets were empty and cold, Sarah has been walking for some time. But while walking through this quiet neighborhood, she wondered if she had missed her way or the address written on the paper she saw in the briefcase doesn't exist. The houses she passed were huge: lights glowed softly in Windows. When she finally came to the address, she stopped and stood before an apartment building.

"Now's when the fun starts" she sighed.

The door opened, a woman and a man comes out hand in hand chattering, the woman wobbled, leaning on the man. she stops them and shows them the address, the stench of alcohol was all over them. The woman smiled and pointed at a window

"That's the place"

" Thank you". Sarah watched the two of them stagger onto the walkway.

"Lovers," Sarah said. She turns around to see a security man in the lobby. He wasn't there before. Would he search her? He hadn't seen her before surely he will question her and she has a lot of incriminating things with her. She thought.

Sarah hurriedly goes to the back and climbs the fire escape up to a window. she peeped through the window to make sure no one was coming, she lifted the window carefully and threw her suitcase and backpack inside. She slowly entered so that she wouldn't step on the flower vase and closed the window. She walked through the hallway looking for the number of the room.

'Aha!' Sarah exclaimed.

Sarah knocked on the door withstanding the DONT DISTURB sign hanging from the door but there was no response, tired and frustrated she bends over to bring out her lock pick kit.

She successfully opened the door and entered the apartment.

"A fancy two-bedroom apartment, modest but elegant," said, Sarah

She moved towards the kitchen, suddenly there's a scream and the sound of something hitting the floor. Sarah turns to see a woman in a cotton gown with earplugs on.

'Sarah!' the woman gasped. 'Omg, it's you' the woman moves to get a packer avoiding the particles of the broken mug on the floor.

'Where did you come from' said the woman as she cleans up the particles

'The window' said Sarah still startled by what just happened. She hugs Sarah.

"You are cold, tea?"

"Yes please"

She serves Sarah hot tea.

"How do you know me," Sarah asked the woman.

"I saw your picture and got a message that you will be coming here, I'm Peggy by the way". Peggy takes Sarah's suitcase and backpack and led her to a nicely air-conditioned room.

'let me fix you something to eat' said peggy. She leaves Sarah alone in the room. Sarah looked at the paintings on the wall, nodding.

"Peggy must have a thing for art," she said.

Sarah comes out of the bathroom and sees a plate of food on the cupboard near the bed. She's elated and starts eating. She engorged the food as this was the first meal she's had all day. Suddenly there's a vibration on the bed she reached for her phone and sees a message with the caps MEMORIAL.