Toxic

Jimmy promptly went into my house when he heard my call. When he arrived at my house, he found me sitting on the sofa with a dead look on my face as if I had just seen the many horrors of hell itself unfold before my very eyes. To be fair, that line of reasoning is not that far off. After all, my wife's corpse is currently hanging on my left leg for so long that I could somehow feel the skin on my leg merging with her dead ones until it would immediately eat up my body and pull my soul along with her into the very depths of the underworld.

When Jimmy arrived, he had the mall's old janitor along with him. I looked at both of them and knew then and there that the man whom Jimmy came with is here to do his job—cleaning. I stood up, feeling my wife's body slide off my leg until it dropped onto the floor with a loud thud. Luckily, it was not loud enough to wake my young daughter, who's sleeping soundly upstairs, not knowing that she had just lost the finest woman she could have ever met.

"We should get going," Jimmy told me as he very gently pulled my hand towards his side. He then turned to look at the janitor and pointed at the bloody mess in front of him. "Please,"

The janitor, who's wearing a green hoodie—which oddly has its hood off to make it look like a normal jacket instead—merely nodded as he walked towards my wife's body. I wanted to approach my wife and feel her body one last time, even if the only thing my hands would touch is her now cold and defunct self. However, when I was about to do so, Jimmy pulled me harder to his side and wrapped his hand around my shoulders.

"Let's go," He said as he forced me to walk with him outside of the house. Although my body is facing away from my wife, my head was still unconsciously turning towards her, making me see how the janitor checked the corpse of my wife with abject curiosity. When Jimmy found me doing so, he quickened his steps, and before I knew it, we were already on my front lawn. "What's done is done."

He's right; it's done—the darn thing is over. What else can I do? I just let my head droop slowly as my sunken gaze fell into the floor. Fuck, I can't even cry; I feel so lost that I don't even know if there's still an ounce of emotions left in my heart.

Jimmy then opened the door of a van parked right in front of our house. He beckoned me to sit beside the driver's seat, which was something I complied with without question. Jimmy sighed when he saw my pathetic state but didn't say anything about it further. He just quickly fastened my seatbelt with a dejected and sunken expression, closed the door, and promptly went into the driver seat. Without further ado, he drove the van, leaving the janitor alone in my house with my three-year-old daughter, and I didn't even say a word of protestation against it.

Time went on ever so slowly because neither Jimmy and I spoke a word to each other throughout the trip so far until we finally hit our first red light. Jimmy lightly tapped on the breaks and stopped the car from moving with a downcast gaze directed to the road ahead.

He then finally decided to break the ice, "We will be going to Mother's office in New York. I'm sure they're still preparing things there in the Court, but we will arrive on time."

"I see." That was the only thing I could say.

"Yeah." Jimmy promptly replied before hitting the gas again when he saw the green light turning up.

It was a long, long road trip, and none of us wishes to utter a single word to each after that one short exchange. I wanted to ask so much, but I'm sure that Jimmy is not really allowed to say anything. I'm pretty sure that the Mother can use something against him in the event of a betrayal plot. There's nothing both of us can do, really, other than to go to this fucking welcoming party that both of us didn't want to attend.

Sometimes, Jimmy would mumble some song lyrics or hum a few melodies, but I'm not sure as to what songs those were, so I looked outside the window with an empty gaze as I looked around the barren scenery around the dark road.

I felt sad, bored, and hurt all over my body as I heard Jimmy sing those random songs that I had never heard of before in succession until he uttered that one melody that I do know.

He hummed it perfectly. Fast, then turning slowly, and then just repeating it over and over again till the chorus hits. I chuckled after hearing that and hummed the melody along with him. Yeah, I know this song. It's that one Britney Spears song, Toxic.

Jimmy must have noticed the smile on my face as I hummed the song with him, so he looked at me with a relaxed gaze slightly before turning his eyes into the road ahead again.

"I never thought you'd be a Britney fan." Jimmy bantered mockingly at me, but his voice is so sunken and low, showing that he can still read my current depressed mood.

"Yeah. It's an alright song." I chuckled as I placed my hand on my palms. "My wife really liked it a lot."

Jimmy looked at me with eyes wide open and mouth agape after hearing what I had just said. HE then shook his head with a sigh, thinking that he must have dug his own grave just because of his innocent gesture. I appreciated the way he's handling this because it reminds me that I really am not okay. Jimmy then hurriedly took his phone away from his pocket and slowed his driving down slightly while looking at the apps on his phone. After a few seconds of searching, he finally tapped on the Spotify icon and looked at me somewhat while still driving slowly on the side of the road.

"Wanna listen to it?" He said playfully with his usual gentle smile.

"To what?" I replied with a raspy voice without looking at him.

"Toxic." He said like a whisper, which is enough for me to look at him with an awe-struck expression.

I then smiled with a light chuckle as I looked at him with shaking eyes. "Yes. That would be great, Jimmy."

Our once quiet surrounding was now covered with the upbeat tone of the music playing out of Jimmy's phone. Along this party-like atmosphere exuding out of the music itself, the sound of my shaking voice as I sang the song along with Britney Spears echoed all over the van.

My tears then flowed uncontrollably as I placed my head on my palms while singing along with the song.