'How nice'. Axel thought. There was no way he was going to let her stay close to him. We had to leave and as soon as possible.
Taking a deep breath to calm his erratic nerves, he walked to the floor-to-ceiling window and stood there, facing the world outside.
"Leave!" Axel's cold voice reached Hannah's ear and she flinched subconsciously. Axel was the only person whose voice was enough to send a warning signal to her brain. She turned around and began to walk to the door but after taking two steps, she stopped and turned to face Axel.
"But…"
"Get out!" Axel spat out before she could even form a reasonable sentence and the temperature in the office seemed to have dropped by a few degrees as she could feel goosebumps forming on her skin. Without waiting for a second longer, she turned around and left the office with a gloomy expression.
As Hannah walked home that day, her mind was occupied with the series of things that happened that day. First, she got kicked out of the gang, which was not a bad thing and she was happy about it, and then she got kicked out of the company. What was she supposed to do now? All she wanted was a normal life and to live like a normal person. She wanted to have a job and earn her salary like every other person and then go back home to rest like a normal person but that couldn't happen now that she has been dismissed from the company. She could not even look for a job somewhere else because she had nothing with her. Her credentials were all fake because she didn't attend high school nor did she go to college or university. All her learning was done in the basement and she had knowledge of a lot of things but who would hire her without a certificate? Going to Raymond's company was out of the question because it was the same as going back to the basement.
A cold wind hit her face, bringing her back to reality. She stopped walking when she sighted a restaurant. She should probably get some food for Penelope since Raymond wasn't around to prepare meals for her. She should learn how to cook soon so that she would not worry about Penelope's feeding.
The thought of cooking for the child made her somewhat relaxed and she walked into the restaurant and bought food for herself and Penelope, and soon enough, she was back on the road.
After a few minutes of walking, she finally arrived home. It was earlier than the other days as she didn't work in the company. She had only gone and come back after two to three hours.
She opened the door and just as she was about to step into the house, she stepped on a sharp and pointy object. Though it wasn't sharp enough to pierce through her flesh, it hurt her nonetheless. She withdrew her foot slowly and looked down to see what she had stepped on and to her surprise, it was one of Penelope's toys. Why was it lying around in the living room?
She raised her head and she was shocked by what she saw. The living room was a complete mess! Everything was scattered around in a way that she couldn't even imagine! If she didn't know better, she would think that an earthquake had occurred earlier seeing the state that her house was in. She looked further and saw Penelope who was focused on something that she was drawing on the aquarium. She was so focused that she didn't even notice Hannah enter the house.
Hannah walked slowly and carefully towards Penelope, making sure to avoid stepping on Penelope's toys or the other things that were littered on the ground.
"What are you doing Penny?" Hannah asked softly when she reached the child but Penelope didn't answer as she was all too focused on what she was drawing.
"How does it look, mommy?" Penelope asked after keeping silent for a while. Hannah looked at what Penelope had drawn and she was confused for a moment.
Was that a fish or just a line with curves and a small dot in the middle? Hannah didn't know but nevertheless, she answered Penelope. "It's very pretty." She said, making Penelope turn towards her with a wide smile on her face.
Hannah almost fell backward when she saw Penelope's face. Her face was covered in different colors of the markers she was either holding or was lying beside her.
Hannah closed her eyes and sighed and then asked the question that has been on her mind since she entered the house. "What happened here, Penelope?" She asked, and Penelope looked around the living room before looking back at Hannah with a smile still dancing on her painted face.
"I was playing with my friends. I had so much fun!" Penelope squealed loudly and Hannah placed a hand over her mouth before other people could hear her which was impossible as their building was far from the others.
"Friends?" Hannah asked in surprise. She didn't know that Penelope had already made friends and she wondered how that was even possible since Penelope was locked in the house all day.
"Yes! They are my best friends!" Penelope answered and started pointing at her toys that were scattered around and even calling their names which she had given them.
Hannah sighed again and carried Penelope inside the room to give her a bath. After she was done, she fed Penelope and went on to clean the house. Turns out that not only the living room was a mess, the entire house was and she couldn't help but think, how could one child possibly do this?! And to think that she wasn't even gone for a whole day!