Chapter 19

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They didn't offer me a ride back of course. I didn't have my jacket, so I went into a slight jog to get myself warm.

Kilkis wasn't a big town, but it was spread out. I tried to remember where the hotel was, but everything looks different at night. Especially if its illuminated yellow.

I know it sounds weird to make such a fuss about yellow streetlights, but to me it's as if you walked outside and stepped into a black and white night, like those very old films.

I could hear TV sets blaring some muffled words as I walked by the houses. I didn't feel in danger, I was certain that if anything happened people would come to help, unlike in the city. A few eyes followed me from half-closed aluminium shutters as I walked down their road.

I thought about Zoe, and instinctively tried to call her. I cancelled the call and told myself I was an idiot. They don't let you keep your phone in holding.

I thought about before, at the police station. I could have looked around quietly and found Zoe, after the middle-aged police officer let me go. The station was actually small, just a couple of floors. I decided it was for the best that I didn't push my luck.

It didn't make any sense. They had come in the middle of the night with drug charges. Zoe had mentioned that Mr. Epiktitos had come up here years ago to inform people, and the police officer I talked with was certainly old enough to remember and pay attention. So the suspicious substances thing was bullshit.

Zoe was certainly looking like a drug addict to them. Her style wouldn't even make a city person bat an eye, but here, in the countryside, she was demonised. I briefly imagined terrified country mothers shutting their son's eyes to protect them from the temptation of the flesh.

The cops knew it was bullshit as well, but it would work for the town-folk. She looked like a drug-addict hence, she was one.

Why were they doing that?

I looked around. Yup, I was lost.

I sat down in the middle of the empty road, bathed in faint yellow light.



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