Several Months Back

Our heroine has just moved back to family about a year after graduating university. Despite Kraków being a big city with lots of prestigious universities - she chose one on the other end of Poland to distance herself from the family.

She didn't hate her family. It's just - I guess saying they didn't get along was the most accurate statement. Her parents ... well they just always been to merry for her. Like they were too happy. In reality they shouldn't really be. Dad for example had a shitty job in the metallurgic company. Mom was constantly whining about her bitch-of-a-boss. Constant debt related to buying the apartment kept them working for almost 30 years. They never advanced, never found better jobs. Often they'd have to reduce eating expenses by the end of the month, and we'd just eat bread with spam. Lower-class existence to the core. Yet they were happy. So happy, and they showed it - A LOT.

Their fucking could be heard in her room, in neighbours apartments, possibly across the hall, and sometimes across the street. Definitely in summer when they'd leave the windows open.

So the moment she could Julia has left the home and never looked back.

As much as she hated her parents for being so damn happy - secretly of course she wished their kind of happiness for herself. Well. Higher class, debt free, well fed, kind of happiness. But still - a nice chemistry, hugs after 20 years of marriage, kisses good morning and good night.

Except finding a guy like that turned out to be nearly impossible. Every single one of them tried to his ideas on her. They wanted her to be what her mother was - a servant in the house, who'd wash their clothes, cook them food, and yet still work 8 hours a day.

So after finishing her university and getting a decent job (or so she thought), she rented a single apartment and started living a single life, and pretending she's not as miserable as she felt. It took two events for her to come back home: Her parents passed away, and her company went under.

Her Mother passed away first - and just few short weeks after her, her father passed away also - people said he just couldn't live without her. What they didn't know was that fucking bastard died from a heart attack while fucking one of his lovers. Completely traumatizing the poor woman in the process.

Week later Julia's company announced the lay-offs.

So here she were - few months later - sitting in a hallway of her parent's apartment on the boxes movers left there. She spent last two months commuting every week - constantly driving 200km each way to wrap up her things, her old life and prepare to move back.

Without a job she couldn't afford to rent an apartment in another city while leaving this one sit idle. She never entertained a thought of renting it out until she can sort out her parents things - but she managed to procrastinate that successfully for about half a year now.

At least she did sort out the will(s), funerals, and the inheritance.

Turned out that her parents were not so lower class after all - leaving her fully paid house and over a hundred thousand in local currency. Enough to live comfortably for a year, or frugally for five.

Still. She felt overwhelmed by this apartment. It was left frozen in time, didn't change a bit for half a year, and for her, it felt like it didn't change at all for the last 20 years. The same heavy closets, credenzas and bookshelves (her parents loved to read). Everything made of the hard wood - oak, beech, walnut - none of that Ikea cardboard. They will probably last another 200 years. But they were overwhelming. Relics of old times before everything became disposable.

She looked around the empty apartment and let out a sigh. Here's where she was going to be living now.

First decision before her was ... where should she sleep tonight. On one hand on every previous occasion she slept in a small room near the kitchen since her old room was renovated after she left for university and turned into a study/day room. So it felt familiar, cosy and safe. On the other she was now the owner of the apartment, so maybe the master bedroom would be a better choice?

This is a revised narrative version of the story. It provides a backstory, character information and development and is a bit of a slow outside of the wet dreams. If you've read this story before as a game - it's the same protagonist (although renamed). I've corrected some typos, missing words and some grammar mistakes. In addition story was streamlined to avoid pointless choices that previously were used for alignment scoring in a game mode. You can follow any branch but first one is canonical to the introduction :)

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