Northern_Lights_2021

34 Victoria was caught off guard and since it was five, she clocked out, told Alex she was leaving and made her way to her car. She didn’t know how she felt, and she just needed some time to herself, so she drove around town, did some errands, went shopping, and got some groceries. By the time she arrived at home, it was 7:45 p.m. She sat in the driveway for a moment and took a long deep breath before she got out. She grabbed as many bags as she could, but she couldn’t carry them all; she knew she was going to have to make a second trip. When she made it into the house, Jett was passed out on the couch. She brought everything in quietly and went out for the last of the groceries. She started putting everything away. When she closed the door to the fridge, Jett was standing right next to her, and she screamed. He was livid and asked, “Where the hell have you been?” She made the mistake of replying with the snarky comment, “Where do you think? I was getting food for us to . . . ” He slapped her before she could finish her sentence. Victoria knew then that she couldn’t keep doing this. She verbally fought back this time, but this only made Jett angrier. He punched her harder than normal, and right in her face. Victoria was done, but she didn’t have anywhere else to stay, so she ran to the bedroom and locked the door. She cried for three hours until she fell asleep. She woke up at 6:30 a.m. and started getting ready, but there was something different about the smell of the apartment. There was no food smell, which made her feel safer because that meant he was still sleeping. She struggled getting ready because she kept reliving the night before in her head. She tried her best to cover up the bruise around her eye. When she was finally ready, she quietly went to the kitchen to grab a banana and left without saying a word. Jett woke up to an empty apartment and a crazy hangover. He remembered all the horrible things that he had said and done to Victoria and immediately decided that he couldn’t handle the pain of reliving the night. He decided to go find something to ease his mind. Victoria had tried to forget about what happened the night before, but the memory persisted. When she arrived at High-Quality Clean, the door was locked, and she had to sit in the front and wait for Alex to get there. The longer she waited, the worse she felt, and she began to cry. When Alex pulled up to the store, he found Victoria crying with her head in her hands. He put the car in park and jumped out. He ran to Victoria and sat on the bench next to her. He sat there rubbing her back and listening to her cry for at least fifteen minutes before Victoria said anything. She was so embarrassed and apologized repeatedly for putting him in that position. Alex replied with an “It’s okay. Everyone has a bad day sometimes.” Victoria told Alex about everything that had happened between her and Jett for the past two months and apologized again for unloading her problems on him. That’s when he saw her black eye and he was extremely upset. He was fully prepared to leave right then and confront Jett. Alex also told her that if she needed a place to stay, she could stay with him. Victoria said, “I don’t think staying with you is a good idea, but thanks for the offer.” He insisted that it was no problem and tried to convince her to go to the cops. This was not what Victoria needed to hear but she thanked him for listening and changed the subject to work, which was good at first because it kept her mind busy. As the day went on, however, she started thinking about Jett and what was said the night before. She decided that she needed to have an honest conversation with Jett and that she would talk to him after work. At the end of her shift, she headed home to confront Jett. When she pulled into their driveway, she saw a dark figure slowly walking up to her car and she decided to wait in the car to see if they would leave. The figure hovered close by, so she rolled down the window to see if the person was all right. When she saw that it was Jett, she got out of the car and walked over to him. Victoria said, “Let’s go inside. We need to talk. Up close she could smell the alcohol and saw that he was drunk. She tried to help him into the apartment, but he started screaming “How could you cheat on me?! Why would you betray me like that?! I have done so much for you!” Before Victoria could get a word in Jett pulled a gun from his jacket pocket. Jett was furious and out of his mind, and he started mumbling “If I can’t have you no one can” repeatedly. When Victoria tried to say something, he loaded the gun and pointed it at her face and screamed “Shut up!” She begged him to stop, but when she spoke, he panicked and pulled the trigger. She was dead before she hit the ground.