We reached his car, it was a beige land cruiser, it looked very worn out and used; there was dents and scrapes everywhere. It looked like it would fall apart any minute now. The inside wasn’t too bad. A couple of threads were sticking out of the seats here and there, but nothing too bad. It didn’t smell like anything. There was a couple of wrappers and bills in the cup-holders and a little keychain (it looked a bit like a horse? I guess it was supposed to be white but the paint was really worn off).

“Mind giving me your address?” he said without looking over, opening the GPS on his phone.

“Um, I know it’s a weird request but could we just… drive around for a while?” I don’t know why I said that. I didn’t know what to say to fix it.

“I have time to kill anyway.” He didn’t sound irritated or phased at all.

“So… any reason why you were there? At the beach, I mean.” He said while driving.

For a moment I felt like I was being interrogated.

“I just had a bad day, I guess.” It wasn’t a lie.

“Yea, it gets really tough these days.” he sighed out. He sounded tired.

“Mind if I vent?” Oh. That was a little unexpected. But I owe him that, don’t I? He did just save my life.

“Sure man, what’s going on with you?” I felt genuinely curious.

“I’m getting evicted. The landlady’s this old gremlin and, I don’t really know man but, she has a thing against me. She just hates my guts. Probably has something to do with the fact that I dropped out of college. She thinks I’m uncivilized and whatnot.” He looked so conflicted. Old people just suck. At work, and apparently, everywhere else too.

“I work at an IT repair shop. Some loony old lady shows up once in a while and practically talks my ears off. Always something with the amount of money I make or the way I look, don’t know what her deal is.” We both were drowning in our problems. Maybe we could drown together.

“What’s your name?” he asked, eyes still on the road.

He had a deep voice. A tad deeper than mine.

“Erik.”

“Huh, Erik? Doesn’t sound like you’re from around here.”

“I’m not. I’m Russian.”

“Cool.”

“What’s your name?”

“Oskar with a K.”

“With a K?”

“With a K. Honestly, I’m surprised that your stuck on the K. Usually people like to remind that Oskar is a dogs’ name.”

I couldn’t help but laugh a bit at that. It wasn’t wrong, but people would really go as far as telling him that? God, what has the world come to.

“You don’t sound like you’re from around here either.”

“Nah, I’m Irish.”

“Really? You don’t sound it.”

“Moved here really early, was all. You live with your parents? Go to college?”

“My mother’s a drug addict, got herself diseased from it and now she’s landed herself at a hospital permanently. And yes I’m still in college, but I’ve been taking a couple of days off.” There was just something about talking to someone while being complete strangers, it’s just so real, so raw and so true. He had nothing to uphold against me and I had nothing against him.

“Oh, damn. That really sucks. I don’t have parents. What about your dad?”

Whoa.

He was an orphan?

“My father left when I was in high school. He had enough of my mother and her nonsense. So, what are you going to be about the eviction?”

“Hm. I never saw my dad. My mom left when I was like… what 16? She went to some party but never came back. I signed a missing person report after a day, they tracked her and found out she booked plane tickets to America. She kind of just… left me, I guess. At least she didn’t abort me. And I’m not really sure what to do about the eviction.”

He’s had it way worse than I ever did.

“You could crash at my place. I live down Hughe’s lane in a disgrace of an apartment, but we could make it work.”

“Whoa dude you sure? What, you’re just going to give me your address? You just met me, you should at least be a little concerned for your safety. Stranger danger, you know?”

“But we’re not really strangers, are we? I’m Erik and you’re Oskar. We’re just people.”

“So if I just show up, you’ll really let me stay?” he said, looking at me in surprise, after he pulled over.

“I mean, you could sleep over today. Get yourself used to the place, move in tomorrow, you know?”

“Like, right now?”

“Sure, right now.” I don’t know why I was saying all this, but it felt like if I spent even the next minute alone, I’d die of desperation, desperate for god knows what.

“Uh, alright then. Where’d you say you lived?”

“Hughe’s lane, Bainbridge apartments.”

“Okay.” His voice drifted off as he began driving me home and we settled in a comfortable silence.

…

…

…

“This is it?” he said as he pulled over, looking out the window.

“Uh, yea. This is it.”

We got out and made our way through the hallway. We came to my door, Room 016 engraved into a small, flat bronze strip on the door. I couldn’t help but look up at the security camera. Should I tell him?

After a jingle of keys, I opened my apartment and we stepped inside. Thank god it wasn’t a mess. A couple of stuff here and there, but nothing too out of place.

“Not too shabby.” He said, breaking the silence.

“So I get to use the drawers and stuff? Closet and all?” he looked around, examining the room.

“Yea pretty much. You can use anything you want to.”

What was I even doing? I literally just invited a random guy to stay over at my apartment. Why was I even doing this? It’s not like I know him or something. Am I losing my sanity? For all I know, he could be a psychopath waiting for me to fall asleep to kill me, he doesn’t seem like it, but who knows?

“Mind if I sit down?” he was taking off his shoes near the door.

“Sure, sure. Bed, chairs, anywhere you like. No need to ask.”

“Alright then”

He pushed my hairbrush aside and sat on my bed. He was still looking around, until his eyes landed on the mousetraps scattered across the house.

“Care to explain?” he asked, confused.

“Uh right, so I forgot to tell you about this, but I think some kid broke into my apartment yesterday. I’m not sure if it’s a kid or not, but I set up some mousetraps near the door and around the house to catch them, or at least give them a little warning, but they ended up coming from the window instead. I told the staff about it, they said they’re checking it out. Look, I’m really sorry man. Should’ve told you this earlier. You can leave if you want, I totally get it.” I was just rambling everything in my brain at that point.

“No bro, it’s cool. It’s actually good you told me to come over. If somebody’s breaking in then it’s more dangerous for you to be alone in here.” he said, as he got up and looked around the bedroom window and then eventually, outside.

“So I move in tomorrow? Clothes and everything?”

“Yea, pretty much. Care for something to eat?”

“Yea, if you don’t mind.”

I walked to my kitchen and opened the fridge. There was literally nothing I could give this guy. The fridge was empty, save for half a carton of milk and bread, which was probably expired.

“Are you like vegan or vegetarian, something?” I asked. God forbid this guy was vegan.

“No, but I’ll eat anything you give me. Or drink. I’m not picky.”

Well, that was a relief. Sure, I let him live with me, but I was not going to baby him 24/7.

Considering the food in the fridge, rather, the lack of it, I walked over to the cabinets to find just enough ramen for the two us. I’ll have to go grocery shopping tomorrow.

Peeling of the packaging of the ramen, I put it in bowls and added in the water. I opened the flimsy sauce packs and added those to the bowls, and put them in the microwave. After two minutes, it was done. I walked over to him and we sat together, eating ramen with forks. That’s just the way it was. Not aesthetic, but doable.

“The water here is always cold.” I said, it was better to tell him now than to hear complains early in the morning.

“Wasn’t any better at my place. I can live with that.”

“Oh”

“So… tell me more about you.” He said. This guy really likes saying ‘so’.

“Well, there’s not much to tell. I’m 17. I like Odetari, Rita Ora, Sam Soto, Kim Dracula, Grandson, Vundabar, Left Boy, Chase Atlantic…” I said. God, I really don’t know how to hold conversations. What was I even supposed to say?

“No way dude you know Chase Atlantic!?” he said. He sounded like an excited puppy. “I love their music!” he’s a really big fan, huh.

“Haha, yea. I like slow down and friends.”

“My favorite is into it, but I like heaven and back too.” He said.

The sun had finally set. It was getting pretty dark, considering we didn’t switch the lights on when we got here. this was the time where I’d usually just scroll mindlessly on my phone till sleep eventually came. But what do I do now…?

“You into movies?” he asked.

“Not really, but I’m up for it, if you want.” I can’t remember the last time I watched a movie.

“Alright then… let me just…” he said as he stretched over to get the TV remote on the other end of the bed. He sat back down and put pillows behind us, we settled and he dragged the covers over us. Wait. We were going to sleep on the same bed? I didn’t know how to feel about that, but I didn’t find myself minding it.

He switched on a movie: Human Centipede. It looked like a horror movie. I never really liked horror movies. It was that they were either too generic or they freaked me out too much. Sometimes they just pretty badly written, all jumpscares and no plot.

The film started and when it reached the part where the two women were in the rain, I felt myself deflate. This is just so boring. But then, the body horror kicked in. It was so… so...gory. I found myself looking away from the TV more than half of the time. Not because of anything in particular, but just because I couldn’t look at the TV. It was awful. What freaked me out was the fact that people really are sick enough to do this kind of stuff.

Loads of people have been going missing recently. I’m not sure about the rest of the city, but here, in Hughe’s lane, a person goes missing almost every 2 weeks. So many people have disappeared to the point where nobody even considers it odd. It’s like a roulette of who gets to see the light of the next day and who doesn’t. what’s even happening to them? Are they being cut and fused together into some mutated creature? Or are their organs being sold? Will I be next?

The movie was finally over, with an open ending. I think that freaked me out even more, as I was left wondering what would happen to the lone survivor. What would I have done? The night quickly approached and it was time to get to bed. Just then, Oskar spoke up:
“Got any spare clothes I could change into? Sorry, I just can’t sleep in jeans.”

And I can’t sleep at all.

I handed him 2 shirts, and 2 pairs of pants. He wore one on top of the other, just to shield himself from the cold. We lay in bed, our backs to each other. I felt so paranoid. What if somebody breaks in again? What if they were the kidnapper? Will I go missing? What if Oskar goes missing? What if we’re joined into some creature? I suddenly became to hyper-aware of my surroundings to the point where every single noise, even my own breathing, sounded like somebody trying to come in. I got up multiple times to check if my doors and windows were locked. For the fifth time, they were. Just like the fourth, the third, the second and the first time.

I was probably moving around too much, Oskar got up and turned on the flash on his phone, just to find me standing like a madman near the window, checking the locks for the sixth time.

“Erik…?” he said, rubbing his eyes and sitting up, propping himself against hid elbows.

“Um. I didn’t mean to wake you up.” Being awake the whole night was much better, in my opinion, than being kidnapped and dismembered into god knows how many parts.

“Is this about the break-in?” he asked, sitting up straight and putting the phone on the sheets, flash still on.

“No. Yes… kind of?”

“Come on… just… get in bed.” he sighed out. He was probably too tired to deal with me anyway.

“Yea, sure. Sorry.”

“No problem.” He rasped out.

I got back in bed, and he… just wrapped his arms around me. It was warm. It felt nice. What would I do if… I woke up tomorrow and he wasn’t there? What if he goes missing?

“Chill out. You told the staff about it. They’ll keep an eye on it.” He said, without opening his eyes.

He was right. I ought to get some sleep.

 

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