1

Arabella

Feeling the fear take over every second of me, some neighbors upon noticing me approached to make sure I was okay and filled me with meaningless questions. I approached the house with slow steps overthe cordon. A policeman approached me sending me away from the scene, but when I reported that that one was my home, I began to ask what had happened after all, then suddenly his countenance had been replaced by a mask of neutrality.

I was taken to a more reserved place, the officer called another man, also a policeofficer, who had just left the house at that moment. The man was a little lower than the first and appeared to be the superior of it. Realizing what it was about, the man with subtlety began to explain what had happened. When he finished narrating what the police knew so far, he asked me a few questions, yet I couldn't think coherently of any answers at the time. I was in shock. When they noticed I wasn't well, pale as wax, I was taken to an ambulance and attended the same minute.

After a while, I was able to answer the questions that were asked to me again. Simple things like where I was during the day, with whom and what I was doing, questions of practice for the situation. At the end of the little interrogation, the officer moved by my situation, asked if I had relatives or friends in the city where I could stay during the time when the forensics would have to work on site. In the midst of the fog that was my mind was in, I decided to stay at the house of a neighbor who had kindly offered me a place, five houses from mine.

It was dawn and I hadn't slept since I lay in that unknown bed all I did was cry, not believing what was happening. My parents were dead. According to police, the suspect was a robbery, someone broke into the house for money or something that could be sold. The suspicion was that it was some drug user, but there were no witnesses, no one saw or heard anything suspicious in the neighborhood.

After the bodies were released, at the wake most of the neighborhood was in present weight. More out of curiosity than solidarity, but I didn't care, I was suffering, in mourning, because I had lost the only people I loved and now there was no one left by my side. I just wanted my parents to be there with me.

That's all I wanted.

After the funeral, I put up the sale of my house so I could pay for the funeral expenses and finally decided what I would really do from then on. She was bereaved, but she needs to move on. The money from the sale of the house and my parents' last salary wouldn't last forever, besides, I couldn't stay in my neighbor's house any longer either. Even if she didn't complain, I felt uncomfortable abusing the hospitality that was offered to me.

Decided, I took the test and started working in a clothing store, where Dona Silvana, my neighbor, also worked, to help with the expenses of the house, until the result of the examination came out. In the meantime, I put together a good amount of money, since the expenses of the house were practically minimal, because only we both lived there and spent most of the time at work.

When the results came out and I was approved, I was elated, but I did not celebrate, because whoever I wanted there to celebrate that achievement with me was no longer alive. With this, I immersed myself in research on everything about the university, about the city, housing and the like, in the end I was aware of everything I needed to know for that new stage of my life. I quit my job, put up to time all the necessary documents, my bags were already ready with my belongings and the few things I had kept from the old house, would be sent in mailboxes as soon as I had a fixed address. The other things I had sold or donated, everything was right for my eminent departure. With a close in my heart, I thanked Silvana for all the help and for taking me in such a difficult time. We were moved on the day of the farewell and so I left, towards a new life.