I wasn’t quite finished with the story I was telling by the time 2025 ended and so decided to continue it until it reached an ending point. Then I will start a new one. Besides, I kind of want to see where Penelope ends up. And so we have…
Day 182: The chain was long enough that it was an easy fit.
The chain was long enough that it was an easy fit. “I can also wear some protection charms as well,” she decided thinking of Michaelson. She added a few protective charm bracelets to her wrist and cucked them underneath the edge of the cast so they weren’t showing.
Penelope then gathered up the rest of the jewelry items and took them back to the bedroom. As she was working one handed, it took a couple of trips. Once the jewelry was put away, she moved the box to her closet to get it out of the way. As her kitchen town now smelled like metal and old wood shavings from the box, she put it in the laundry basket.
Deciding a purse was too much to be worried about, Penelope slipped on a jacket with large pockets. Into one she put her cell phone. In the other, her wallet and keys.
She then took another couple of ibuprofen for her arm, suspecting as she did that Michaelson would not approve of her leaving her apartment. “But I can’t stay locked up in here forever,” she told herself. “Besides I will be spending a lot of time reading and studying. I want to see how effective the luck charm is before I go through the trouble of studying how to make them.”
Feeling as though she justified the Spector of her agent, Penelope went down to the door. Despite her fine words, she looked through the peephole to see if anyone was lurking before she unlocked the locks. The street had cars driving up and down it but no one seemed to be watching. She unlocked the door and after taking a deep bracing breath, Penelope stepped through the front door. She locked it behind herself and feeling a bit like a rabbit hiding from a hawk, looked to each of her neighbors houses before hurrying to her own gate.
Their patio areas were devoid of people but the older neighbor to he left seemed to have added more elaborate planters to her space. ‘I wonder if that is because I asked about them,’ She wondered as she let herself out. She closed the gate behind her and started walking. While there were plenty of cars, the sidewalk was mostly empty. She saw a few people heading towards the parking garage but they paid her no attention and she similarly ignored them.
She reached the end of the street and turned the corner. There was a slight relief in being out of sight of her immediate neighbors. “I hate that,” she told herself.
She liked the house and was thrilled that she finally had a place of her own. When inside she didn’t have to worry about Trinity taking things or Jeanette deciding she didn’t need something or needed to do something else. She set her own schedule, decided what she liked and for the first time felt able to breathe deeply. She hated that whatever was going on with her neighbors caused her to feel uncomfortable as soon as she stepped out of the door.
‘Maybe Agent Michaelson will figure it out soon.’ Penelope didn’t like feeling like a damsel in distress but she went to school to be an accountant. Balancing the books and generally anything math related was where her strengths lay. ‘There was no figuring out the evil plots of your neighbors in my corporate accounting classes,’ she thought.
‘Unless they are embezzling.’ Penelope thought she would be able to see that. ‘Or at least see them taking bribes if large sums of money were deposited out of regularity.’ As she walked she amused herself with daring scenarios where she gained access to her neighbor’s bank records.
Ten til Midnight 