Cleaning Out the Closet

Slipping quietly into her beachside house, Zora felt a chill run up her spine at how eerily quiet it was, and at how clinical it smelled. She had not been back home since that fateful evening. Though she now guessed that Felen or her grandfather must have hired someone to clean up afterward - although, after glancing at where it happened, in her mind's eye, she could still easily and clearly see where Broen's body had lain.

Trying not to fixate on that, Zora went straight to the kitchen where she began placing cook and bakeware, kitchen gadgets, tea towels, knives, and various spices and baking ingredients into a box quickly and efficiently. She had no intention of spending more time than was necessary in the place where Broen took his own life. Just being here bothered her, and she could imagine his spirit - angry and vengeful - lurking somewhere nearby.

Once the cardboard box was full of kitchen items, Zoraida ran upstairs and into her bedroom to look for anything that belonged to him. Finding a few more things in drawers and under the bed, things that she decided to keep for herself, Zora then hurried back downstairs, avoiding the area where it happened and headed directly for the kitchen. There she grabbed the box, and just because the house was giving her such weird vibes, she teleported herself directly to Frederick's apartment.


(She teleported into the hallway. I will let you do a post before she knocks.)

@Romi

Looking up and down the hall, Zora readjusted the box. It was actually quite heavy, a bit cumbersome and getting awkward to carry. Hoping she had gotten the location correct when she jumped, Zora double checked the numbers on the doors with the one Frederick had given her when she texted him a few days ago to see when he would be free.

Deciding she really had nothing to lose, Zora pressed the doorbell with her elbow while balancing the cardboard box. If it was the wrong building, she'd just call Frederick and ask for directions again.

"Close," Zora said rather relieved when Frederick opened the door and took the box from her. "There is a clay pot in there along with a small cast iron pan, and an Italian coffee pot, some bakeware, small appliances, ingredients, spices..." she replied, enumerating the things that she remembered putting in the box, though there were quite a few items she had no idea what they were used for and had also just tossed them in the box in her rush to get out of the house.

"I figured you might have a use for them. I don't cook, and probably shouldn't cook," she explained dryly and with a hint of irony in her tone. "In fact, Broen used to say ingredients trembled in fear when I walked into the kitchen," she said, remembering a better time between them.

"Anyways, I digress," she said somewhat sheepishly, as she gestured to the box he was holding, "I thought maybe you liked to cook, or had a need for kitchen things, and well, if not, I can always just donate them or something."

"I am guessing so, I do know the knife set is from a company in Germany, they use a high carbon alloy," she said, not really that knowledgable on kitchen knives, but aware enough to know that was probably a good thing to have in a knife.

Following Frederick partway into the small apartment, Zora had not really noticed the room too much until he mentioned the "mess". Looking around, Zora frowned a little. If a few newspapers and what looked like application forms were a mess, she hated to think what he'd think of her clothes closet. She hated to admit it, but she was not the most organized or tidy when it came to certain things like her walk-in closets.

"Everything is fine, honestly," she said as she watched Frederick put the box in the kitchen, "Also, I did pop in on a whim," she admitted, having forgotten temporarily that her grandfather had given her a list of companies that were in potential need of a consultant.

Making her way into the kitchen after him, Zoraida watched Frederick unpack the box she had brought.

"All in all, I am doing okay, I guess," Zora said with a sigh as she leaned with her back against a wall. "I mean I still have bad days, life still feels weirdly strange most days. I still expect Broen to come teleporting into my office unexpectedly or show up at my house late at night to study or just to say hi," she said as she watched Frederick pull out the spice rack along with some spices and started setting things on a kitchen counter.

"How about you?" she asked as she looked at Broen's father thinking, not for the first time either, that it was odd just how different the two men were. "How have things been since I last saw you?"