Katy Geng

Home, Sweet Home

At the age of 5, he was a rowdy trouble-maker at home. At the age of 10, he was almost expelled for
picking fights at school. At the age of 12, he haunted the streets, always on the watch-out for signs
of authority. Now at the age of 20, he had just finished serving his first jail sentence.

“Laters kid. I don’t want to ever see you back in here again.”

He smirked as he passed the officer and casually waved goodbye. As if he’d be stupid enough to get
caught again. The tension as he waited in his cell for the footsteps which would alert him of his
impending freedom would be reminder enough for him to remember to double-check his traces
before leaving a crime scene. And above all, jail was boring.

He walked out of his old home to hear a familiar roaring coming from the sky. Suddenly, he felt a
sharp, cold sensation running down his spine and looked up to see a sight he had not seen for years.
Figures, he thought as he continued to saunter towards the bus stop in the rain. It wasn’t everyday a
police officer let an infamous criminal stroll out in the open.

He hopped onto the bus when it arrived, glad to be out of the rain and took a seat at the back of the
bus. His eyes wandered until they met those of a curious boy’s. Before he could go back to
pretending to watch the passing scenery, he noticed the boy’s eyes widen in fear and his body flinch
as if an invisible force had struck him. Before he could get a good look at the boy’s reaction, the boy
too was staring hard at the rain-glazed glass. He found the reason literally staring at him as he
resumed watching his narrow strip of glass. His hair, while an improvement from his time in jail, had
seen better days and was now every barber’s hell. His haggard face sported the odd stubborn scars
which refused to fade and a wretched smile. Even he had to admit, it was truly a sight to behold,
especially in contrast to the soft, minute features of the boy.

Now that he thought about it, he wasn’t exactly how a “normal person” would look like.

He leapt off the bus, heading towards the poor barber who would be dealing with his hair. As he
strolled towards the nearing shopping complex, he noticed people hushing, staring, avoiding. He was
quite a wretched sight, but he wasn’t that bad, right? And besides, he had seen worse – with no
ladies or potential employers to impress, plenty of his cellmates completely loss interest in their
physical appearance. One would be led to believe that they were auditioning for the role of a
humanoid monkey.

His years in a medium security holding weren’t exactly the ideal times to socialise, but nobody
skirted around him either. Eyes narrowed, he watched another elderly couple back-track,
remembering back to the days when Big Harry would give him a rough, albeit friendly slap on the
back every now and again. Then he remembered with some grimness that he had only just been on
the receiving end of a back-breaking farewell slap this morning. Jail might have been boring, but it
wasn’t completely devoid of social interaction either.

He made a detour into a supermarket to help start off his new life. Bread, cheese, canned food,
fruit… His groceries dropped from his arms as he reached for a knife, startling a sales assistant with
the ruckus. She scurried over to help him pick up his fallen goods, but as she raised her head to give
Katy Geng

them back, she dropped them again. Her doe-like eyes watered as her lips quivered uncontrollably.
Great, not this again.

The world outside of jail certainly wasn’t boring, but it wasn’t very pleasant either. There was only so
much melodrama he could take from denizens of this quaint town. Time hadn’t really changed the
outside world, but it had certainly changed him. He wanted to go home – not the temporary
lodgings the government had offered for former scumbags like himself. Perhaps the government
would be better off using tax payer money to fix up the toilets and repaint the walls.

Perhaps the officer would be seeing him sooner than he expected.

Thinking wildly, he set his eyes on his unfortunate sales assistant. He stared into the eyes of his
victim and flashed his wretched, tired smile as his hands felt around the floor for his fallen knife. He
raised the knife threateningly, face looming closer to the face of the sales assistant.

“I’m going home now”

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