Crash and Burn (1)

you're proving to be a lot of trouble, princess

♚ ♛

SOREN DIDN'T SPEAK as he worked his way from the roof and to the first apartment on the top floor. The silence was stifling in a way that the heat wasn't.

It didn't linger, it suffocated.

When the keys jiggled in the first door, I swallowed hard. Obviously, this man hadn't known what he was dealing with because he shouldn't have met Soren so close to his home.

As soon as the door swung open, the silence was overshadowed by the stench. A rancid mixture of piss, smoke and old laundry knocked me back a step. I wrinkled my nose and glanced at Soren, but he only cocked his head in a gesture for me to enter first.

Not exactly royalty.

Rolling my eyes, I stepped over the threshold into the unknown apartment.

The walls were painted a sickly peach shade that made my stomach lurch. With white trim rimming the two windows at the front, old, dusty blinds pulled up and nearly transparent curtains roped to the side, a stream of sunlight filtered in. It washed over the small studio apartment, showering the stained, putrid green-yellow carpet that spanned the entire space.

All the colors twisted together into a nauseous palette that made me dizzy.

My gaze flickered from the warm shades and to the sparse furniture laid out without rhyme or reason. A small black futon sat beside a recliner with a broken back and a collapsed lounge beach chair. Along the edge of the room, broken radiators remained untouched and a milk crate in the corner of the room held stacks of newspapers on top.

Whoever lived here must've been a minimalist.

The outlets were left without plates, wires pulled out of the holes in the wall; one lead all the way across the cramped living space and into the mini kitchen.

A narrow bar faced us, a small opening that led into a tiled space the size of a square that just barely fit a fridge and a stove. Two cabinets hung above, one of the doors slightly ajar to reveal a box of cereal.

Leading forward, the tiles continued to another doorway.

Just as I was about to take a step forward to follow it, the door swung shut. I was wrenched backward, spinning and spiraling to face Soren.

My back hit the door.

"What the fuck did you say to him?" Soren spat, his jaw clenching. "Did you say anything to him about me?"

"Soren!" I writhed against him, but both hands grabbed my shoulders. All the memories of this morning flashed violently beneath my eyelids. He hadn't even hesitated to kill him.

"No hesitation, princess."

With his own words spurring me, I tried to plant my hands on his chest and shove him, but Soren was quicker. He caught them in a blur, pinning them to the wall so hard that my wrists throbbed. "Soren, I- I didn't say anything!"

"Are you sure about that, Lacey?"

"Soren, I didn't even know we were going to get burner phones. I thought you had left me!"

"Even more reason for you to drop my name, princess."

When our eyes met, I nearly flinched. That shade of green had darkened beyond the depths of the ocean; it was the deepest pits of the unknown, lurking with threats I never wanted to face.

I didn't want to be on his bad side.

"I didn't, Soren."

His grip loosened slightly. I gulped, holding his gaze intently. It happened so quickly. Like he'd flipped a switch, the emotions in his eyes softened and his expression dropped.