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Everything. God, the car was everything, more of a home than her house a thousand miles away. Music leaked from the speakers near the dash, a softly lilting tune calling her back to the days before she left. She let herself sway to it for a moment, nothing more.

No, she wouldn’t be caught in this cycle today. Today was a day of goodbyes, not reminiscence. She traced her fingers over the chipping paint of the car, recalling every scratch and dent and near-collision. The tips of her fingers, they trembled, but the stains on her skin had long since been removed. Scrub, scrub, scrub to the beat of the music.

So close now. Her breath clouded in the air before her, a puff of white against the midnight sky. She hugged her jacket just slightly closer, relishing in that bit of salvaged warmth. Someone else’s scent clung to the fabric, but for now that was okay.

It was time to say goodbye, she supposed. The back door’s hinge squeaked when she opened it, but there wouldn’t be much time to fix that now. Her bike still sat in the back seat, though she had to push the body out of the way to get it. She winced when her fingers brushed the corpse, though she knew she should have been used to this by now. She reached forward and turned the music up.

The bike came out easily; she leaned it against a nearby tree and looked out over the edge of the dock. The car was already in neutral. She took a deep breath and planted a foot on the rear bumper. Another breath and she pushed. The car rolled easily into the water. She danced away from the droplets that splashed back up at her and watched the car sink, sink, sink until it came to rest among perhaps a dozen other cars with bodies in their back seats.