Levi unlocked the door and let Eloise into his apartment, following just behind her. He couldn’t help but feel embarrassed as he took notice of the mess he left before going out. In his defense, he couldn’t possibly have expected he would bring someone back with him tonight.

“Here it is.. Not much but at least you can stay dry.” He scratched the back of his head as he observed her reaction.

The girl was gradually becoming less timid, but she remained just as quiet. Without a word, she started to curiously inspect the room. Her mannerisms reminded Levi of a cat being brought home for the first time. The empress inspecting her new domain. It was an amusing thought.

Levi didn’t mind really. It wasn’t like he had anything to hide and she was harmless, so he might as well let her explore. You can’t steal money that’s already gone.

As she looked around, he busied himself with cleaning up the most egregious signs of his newly found bachelorhood. It was amazing how much difference throwing away a few takeout boxes and clearing off the laundry chair made. It only took a couple minutes before his livingspace was upgraded from ‘what the fuck’ to ‘mostly presentable’. 

Once finished with his task, he checked up on Eloise again. Levi found her staring at a picture frame hung on the wall. His expression turned sour. It was a photo of him and Sophie while they were on holiday last year. 

“Ah, don’t mind that. We’re not still-.. There’s no one else living here, it’s an old photo.”

Levi didn’t know why he was explaining so much, but he felt compelled to say something. The girl tilted her head at him and gave a questioning look. He quickly took the picture down. As his eyes scanned over it, he felt a bit of anger well up inside him. One last glance and he tossed it unceremoniously into the kitchen trash bin. 

Eloise’s lips curled up into the faintest hint of a smile. Was she reassuring him? Pitying him? She was too difficult to read.

“Oh right.” Levi stopped as he suddenly remembered something he meant to say earlier. “My phone is on the nightstand beside my bed, so you can call somebody to come get you. And if you want to take a shower to warm up, the bathroom is through there too.”

He nodded towards the door that led back to his bedroom. 

Eloise blinked slowly and nodded in understanding. 

The girl disappeared into his bedroom. Levi didn’t follow, figuring he should give her some privacy. He knew it was the right move because after a couple minutes, he heard the shower kick on.

His bedroom was certainly off-limits for the next little while. Luckily, he had left his laptop out on the coffee table. So even though he didn’t have access to his desk, he could write. He had already wasted the whole afternoon earlier. If he didn’t get at least a little progress now, he would really feel like a worthless bum. 

Levi sat down and stared at the empty page. He paused briefly and then his fingers began to move. Hesitant at first, but then with increasing surety. Somehow he found a way out of the writer’s block maze. His chance meeting with Eloise that night gave him inspiration for a new character.

This was good news for Levi. His publisher had really been on his ass to get something new out asap. You see, Levi’s main genre for writing was romance. The romance genre was pretty much dominated by stories targeted towards women, but Levi was of course a man. He wrote the kind of stories that he would want to read. That made his work very niche, which wasn’t necessarily a bad thing in itself, but it meant that his stories weren’t that popular. And that meant that he needed to make up for his stories’ lack of popularity with high volume instead. If he went too long without releasing something decent, his publisher would kick him to the curb without a second thought.

When one gets into an inspired mood, it’s a magical feeling. Tonight, Levi was gifted with one of these rare moments. The words seemed to just fly off the page effortlessly. Line after line, paragraph after paragraph. Yes. This was it. He had been in a slump for awhile, but this story had that special spark. That extra ‘something’. He could feel it.

Levi became more and more absorbed in his writing sprint. Before he’d even realized it, nearly an hour had gone by. He instinctively found himself leaning over to press his nose close to the screen. Finally, his fingers came to a stop as he lost steam. Tapping a finger against his lips, he reread over the last couple lines he had just typed. Something moved in his peripheral vision.

His eyes shifted to the side, and there inches away from him was a ghostly pale face illuminated in an eerie glow by the screen’s backlighting.

“Fuck!”

Levi almost lept out of his skin and his heart skipped a beat. 

It only took a second for him to realize that it was just Eloise leaning over his shoulder to watch what he was typing. He was so fixated on the page, that he didn’t even hear when the shower stopped and she stepped back into the room. Now he felt bad. He just swore at the poor girl for no good reason.

“Uh, sorry, you scared me.”

She didn’t say anything.

“Not that you’re frightening. I just forgot you were here for a second and was startled.”

Eloise remained quiet.

“Anyway, I guess that means you got everything settled? So is somebody coming to pick you up?”

Silence. Stare. Blink.

She shook her head. Finally a bit of movement, but not the answer Levi was expecting.

“Oh. You couldn’t get a hold of anyone? I guess it is late.”

Levi closed his laptop and coughed to clear the awkwardness in the air. As he sat up straight, he noticed something odd.

“Are those my clothes?”

The girl was wearing one of his hoodies. It was far too big on her and fit her like a short dress, stopping just mid-thigh. The oversized sweater slipped off one shoulder, leaving it bare as well. She was wearing his hoodie. And nothing else.

“Right. Of course, you had no choice. There was nothing else to wear but your wet clothes.. That’s no problem. I don’t mind you borrowing it.”

It looked a lot better on her than it ever did on him. Levi’s eyes roamed up Eloise’s smooth and slim legs instinctually before he caught himself. He can’t look at her like that. She’s still in highschool for fuck’s sake. 

He quickly brought his gaze back up to Eloise’s face. She hadn’t caught him had she? No, definitely not. She’s smiling again like earlier and that’s not what you do when you catch a creep ogling you. Levi subconsciously labeled himself a creep even after swearing earlier that he wasn’t one.

Levi checked the time. It had already passed midnight. If Eloise hadn’t managed to get a ride before, it would only get less likely later.

“I guess that if you can’t get in touch with anyone now.. You’ll just have to try again in the morning.”

He carefully probed, but the girl didn’t give any particular reaction towards the implication. She made it seem like it was only natural she would be spending the night.

“I’ll sleep on the couch then and you can take my room.”

“...”

By now, Levi had got used to doing the talking for the both of them, so he naturally took her lack of response as affirmation. He had begun to realize that whatever trauma Eloise was going through knocked a few screws loose. Should he be gentler when talking to her? He really wasn’t a good choice of shoulder to lean on.

Levi took a pass through his bedroom briefly and made sure Eloise had enough pillows and blankets to sleep well. While he was at it, he also collected her soaked uniform from the floor of his bathroom. Tomorrow was a weekday, so she would probably need it washed. That meant he needed to get up early tomorrow. Should he make her breakfast too? Which would she like better, ramen or toast? 

Eloise followed him around like a lost puppy while he was arranging things. Finally, he left through the door to his bedroom once more and turned to see her standing in the threshold staring up at him. 

“I think you’re all set for the night.. Goodnight, Eloise.”

“Good.. night..”

Levi closed the door. He moved back to the couch and plopped backwards onto it in a heap. Usually he stayed up even later than this, but tonight he felt especially drained. 

What a strange end to what started as a really shitty day. You never know what kind of twists and turns life will have. Eloise was a sweet girl, if a little odd. She didn’t say much, but just having someone else there to talk to improved his mood. 

His eyes grew heavy and his senses dull. Levi’s thoughts tapered off to nothing as he drifted into unconsciousness. But his sleep was not restful. Levi had a dream.

A shadow loomed over his back. However, no matter how he turned or ran, he could neither shake it nor get a glimpse of its appearance. What he could see, however, was the aftermath left in its wake. Pools of blood and dismembered bodies. He was like a cursed harbinger of death. Anyone who came too close met the same terrible fate. He couldn’t see it over his shoulder, there was nothing in the mirror, but he knew. It was watching. It was always watching.

Levi jolted awake. His heart was beating fast and sweat soaked his back. His body’s instincts were screaming that he was in danger, but there was none. The danger had only been in his dream.

Scanning over the room, he found nothing amiss. He had only been asleep for around two hours. His laptop lay beside him on the coffee table. His apartment’s chain lock was still latched. The door to his bedroom left cracked ajar. Everything was exactly as he had left it. Still, he couldn’t calm his nerves and he had no idea why.

For a few minutes longer, Levi tossed and turned on the couch. As much as he wanted to return to sleep, his body defied him. Eventually, he could only give up with a sigh. If he couldn’t sleep, he could at least wash Eloise’s uniform like he was planning to do in the morning. That way he would be able to sleep in a little later once he calmed down.

Levi grabbed the girl’s clothes and left his apartment. All of the units in the building shared the same laundry room in the basement. It was sort of a pain, but since they had one of those big industrial machines like they have in laundry mats, it meant it didn’t take too long.

The lift screeched with metal grating against metal and shuttered to a stop at the basement level. It was absolutely pitch black apart from the dim glow of the lift’s floor indicator. Levi fumbled in the dark until he reached the center of the room and could turn on the light. It was just an exposed bulb operated with a pullstring. 

His building’s basement was even more dilapidated than the halls and lift. Paint chipped off the walls leaving dust on the cold cement floor. Even the industrial washer and dryer were rusty and yellowed from time.

This room always gave him the creeps. It reminded him of a horror movie he had seen once where the killer stuffed his victim in one of these machines.

Levi stopped wasting time. The sooner he got on with his task, the less time he needed to spend here. He was about midway through when the lift sprung to life and returned upstairs without him. Weird. Someone else was up at this hour.

The light flickered a few times, threatening to burn out for good. Levi stared towards the timer on the dryer as he grew increasingly impatient. He was tapping his leg. His arms crossed over his chest. Why was it so cold down here? Was the heater breaking down too? His landlord was a damn cheapskate. 

The hairs on his arm rose. The light flickered again and went out longer this time. The dryer thumped rhythmically against the wall like a prisoner banging against his cell. The timer ticked down slower. The stairwell door cracked open on its own and an eye peered through the slit. The cabling on the walls buzzed with electricity. The-... Wait, what was that last thing again?

Levi whipped his head around to look back at the stairwell. The door was closed.

They say that when someone is alone in the dark for an extended time, their mind starts to play tricks on them. Your brain just doesn’t have all the information, so it fills in the blanks from your imagination. If you spend long enough like that, apparently you can even start to see minor hallucinations. 

Levi had heard of this before and knew that there wasn’t really anything to be afraid of. The reason that he called the lift back down to the basement early was just so that he wouldn’t need to wait as long once the laundry was finished. The timer was at the last little notch, so it would be any second now.

His gaze kept returning to the stairwell door, but of course it remained closed just as it had always been. The light flickered. Levi pressed the call button again. He would really need to have a talk with his landlord later about the conditions of the building. It never occurred to him before tonight, but seriously could anyone live like this? The only problem would be getting the man to pay him any mind, especially when they had fought recently over his rent money. All these little problems might be minor things, but they added up. Seriously, why was this fucking lift taking so fucking long? Levi pressed the call button.

A shrill buzzer shattered the air signaling that the drying cycle was finished. Like the start of a race being signaled by a gunshot, Levi rocketed towards the machine, ripped open the door, and grabbed the clothes.

The lift finally reached the basement and it was on its way back up again after resting for just seconds.

Levi stood in the lift hugging a girl’s clothes against his chest with his breathing gradually coming back under control. There; A simple task done. And it had helped him calm down so he’d be able to get some sleep now…

Once he had returned to his floor, he opened the door to his apartment and was surprised to find Eloise standing in his kitchen. Had she been waiting for him?

“Eloise? Is something wrong?”

“You left…”

She woke up for something and must have been surprised to find his apartment empty.

“Oh, I was just washing your uniform so you’d have it ready in the morning.”

Levi swallowed his saliva. He felt like a husband being caught returning home late after visiting another woman. What the hell is he thinking about? He didn’t do anything wrong, he was just doing the laundry. No wait, the main point was that Eloise and him weren’t a couple.

Eloise stepped closer to him and grabbed the hem of his shirt. She was staring at him with disapproval. He didn’t understand why. 

A few moments passed, but she never let go of his shirt. Gradually, Levi became enlightened. She must have had a nightmare like he did. Judging from how clingy she suddenly became, it was a bad one. Should he comfort her somehow?

“Do you, uhh.. want me to sit with you awhile to help you fall asleep?”

Her facial expression didn’t change, but the girl nodded her head.

“Alright.”

Levi left her uniform on the countertop and led her back to his bedroom. He pulled the chair from his desk over near the bed. Only then did Eloise let go of his shirt and climb back under the covers. 

He left the lamp on the nightstand on, and just simply sat there watching as the girl closed her eyes. The strange situation made him feel a little awkward, but he was trying to be nice to this girl who was dealing with god-knows-what, so he didn’t complain. 

The covers rose and fell with Eloise’s slow and steady breathing while she laid on her side. Levi sat with her for around 15 minutes until it seemed like she had fallen asleep. He started to stand so he could return back to the living room, but the moment he did, a small hand shot out from the covers and snatched his wrist.

…Levi decided to sit with her a little longer.