She exited the living room in search of an exit, she was fully clothed and wearing shoes so she presumed that she was ready to head home. This had happened before and she'd ended up in cities miles away from where she had originally started, if that was the case here then she wouldn't be happy. No doubt she'd gone to a club and been invited back to some sort of house party, that could've been a house party down the road or an hour's taxi ride away. for now there was no way of telling. Tain jumped as she reached the entrance hall of the house, lying in the middle of the floor was a young man, early twenties perhaps, he was covered in blood and clearly dead. It took a few moments to process but soon Tain had walked round him, grabbed a bottle of whiskey from the bottom of the stairs and was out of the house.
Before she had time to think about what was going on she needed to get a good distance from the house, she was used to this sort of situation but never under these circumstances. In her line of work she'd always been more careful and would always ensure that she cleaned up after herself. In this case she had no idea whether the body in that house was down to a drunken fight between her and the man or someone else. Either way Tain needed to get away, it seemed to still be early morning, it was cold outside and the sun was just peaking over the rooftops.
The area seemed to be mainly residential and not somewhere that Tain recognised. She walked for a little while, taking in the surroundings, how she felt and trying frantically to remember what had happened. She was dressed in black jeans and a black tank top, the relisation that she had a smear of blood, red blood, not her's, along her left arm possibly confirmed the fact that she'd played some part in the dead body that was lying in that house. Quickly she wiped of the blood and continued on her way, there were few cars around which was good but if the sun was anything to go by people would soon be rising and heading out to work.
It was cold and Tain regretted not stealing some sort of coat from that place. The bottle of whiskey was half empty and even frequent swigs were doing little to keep her warm. Soon people would be bustling around and taking her for some sort of dishevled drunk that had failed to find their way home the previous evening. That was sort of true but it wasn't the sort of attention Tain needed. The area was slowly becoming more built up and people were emerging from their houses, jumping in cars and heading off. Tain had been walking for just under an hour and although the sun was higher in the sky it wasn't providing any sort of warmth.
Tain dug one hand into her pocket and felt the soft caress of a note, she pulled it out and realised it was a £20. Now to find a bus or a taxi, a bus would be preferable she had little desire to tell a taxi driver where she lived. Plus a bus would give her some sort of indication as to where she was and where she would end up.
Although she had been in London for a few years now she certainly didn't know every suburb. The fact that she couldn't see any high rise buildings suggested that she was quite a way out of the city. She could be walking for hours without seeing some sort of suitable transport, she had no phone and no jacket. What had she been thinking coming all this way out here? She used to pride herself on keeping a clear head when she was drunk and it wasn't often that there were gaps this vast in her memory. She finished off the last of the bottle and found herself pleasantly drunk once again, she wiped the neck of the bottle where she had been holding it on her shirt before throwing it into a nearby bin.
Soon a bus stop loomed in front of her, some remnant of city life. It had a bench and a time table. The time table, however was somewhat useless as she didn't know what the time was. She sat herself down anyway and concluded, by the amounting number of cars, that it was around 7am. There, in theory, should be a bus in just under half an hour. A further study of the time table showed that the last stop on the bus route was Soho, that was thirty stops from her current location. That would take her straight home but would take almost two hours. Being a car driver Tain did not care to greatly for public transport, the tube was just about bearable but not a rush hour. She always needed control, especially over vehicles, she knew how each little intricacy worked in their engines and how they maneuvered, having a human in charge of that made her nervous. The haze that had been achieved from topping up her alcohol levels had dulled the headache and nausea of the hangover but had not succeeded in warming her up. Only huddling herself into the corner of the bench made any difference and then very little. People often talked about how hot and stuffy buses were and Tain hoped that those people were correct. A hot and stuffy bus may have been her only choice but it was sounding like a very good one. It turned out that it was actually earlier than Tain had anticipated, a clock somewhere far away struck seven times before leaving an eerie silence in the air. That meant that she still had half an hour to go until the bus arrived. That half an hour swung by, Tain sobered up and sat shivering as the bus pulled up.
She paid the fare to Soho and sat herself at the back of a the bus right under a heater. Although she wouldn't have exactly called it hot on the vehicle it was much more bearable than the early morning cold of outside. Only a few minutes into the journey a police car whizzed past in the opposite direction, Tain wondered if someone had discovered the body. She didn't care about the life she may or may not have taken but she did care about getting caught. She could talk her way out of most situations and when she went about her work she cleaned up after herself. This had clearly been spontaneous, possibly self defence, she'd had no chance to clean up after herself. It was an unknown situation and that was a little scary.
Soon the landscape started to look like the one she recognised and that was comforting, Soho soon rose up around her and the bus came to a halt. Tain hopped off the bus and headed in the direction of her bar where she hoped she'd find some way of getting in. Trying the door handle to the back of the bar she found that it was open and wondered if she had left it open or if she'd have to fire someone again. She was grateful for the warmth that hit her and looking around she soon reliased that everything was as it should be. No one had broken in. She made her way to the office only to see her bar manager asleep in the office chair, Tain couldn't help but smile. She moved to sit on the edge of the desk before leaning close to the sleeping female. "Ella," she whispered. The manager awoke with a start and Tain grinned, "It's almost ten, have you been here all night?"
Ella gave Tain a wide grin when she realised who it was that was looming over her, "no I got in at nine, that night was catching up with me."
The knowing smile that Tain then received made her wonder if she'd been drinking with Ella the previous night. "I have no idea what happened last night. I've spent most of this morning not knowing where the hell I was." She smiled although she didn't feel too proud of the fact that she remembered nothing.
"I didn't see you after three, you were chatting to some guys."
Tain rolled her eyes, "tell me about it later, I need to have a shower and get some sleep. I feel terrible. Don't open the bar until twelve if you want to rest." With that she got up and left.
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