The door opened with a rattle and through the darkness hobbled Lilly like some broken creature of the night when in fact she was simply tired and carrying too much in her weak arms. It was only 4pm but the weather had made it appear much later, thankful to whatever God was out there Lilly was let out early from work since the place was quiet. Now she stood in the quiet apartment looking around for her new but mysterious flatmate. There where times when he made her jump out of her skin, if there was one thing she was not used to it was the way he moved about like a ghost. But Lilly ignored it because he helped pay the rent and it was nice to actually talk to someone even though most of the information she was feeding him was lies. He was her flatmate yes but she wasn’t about to go confess to killing her brother. Dumping her bags by the door and pulling of shoes and various jackets she made no time before sprinting to the nearest chair and falling in it. All day her body had been on edge like she was counting down the hours to some magical event, she felt more alive yet there was something clawing in her mind trying to break free. When she looked at the lights for too long Lilly was reminded, with much dismay, of trees and a great beast, but it all vanished when her boss yelled at her. 

Huffing the young woman turned on the sofa hugging the small pillow to her, dark eyes looking to the ceiling for answers. She was hungry, tired, worn out, all toppled on one another left her feeling like deflated beach ball. And that wasn’t even the worse part, all day she had been trying to suppress the  urge to eat meat or go running in the street. It reminded her of the previous months when similar events happened only Lilly had taken time off work and gone to some far of parkland to hide away from the world only to turn up lost the next morning. Now however she had no chance to run away, she enjoyed her new flatmate yes but it was also a pain. 

He kept looking at her weird the way a human looked at an animal in a cage, like he was waiting for her to do something. Lilly  only rolled her eyes and went on like usual. Without really meaning to her eyes drifted close and Lilly found herself being pulled down by the darkness. 

The sound of a door closing startled Lilly, the dream she was having ended suddenly and when her eyes opened she found herself sitting on the sofa the pillow fallen to the hardwood floor. The sun was almost done setting, the apartment was in darkness expect for the lights from the street. Leaning over Lilly turned on a side table lamp before rubbing her eyes, with a huff she stood from the sofa and made her way to the kitchen where she could hear Kohl clambering about.

Turning on the kitchen light her flatmate turned gave her one look then went back to what he was doing, Lilly hardly expected anything more. Still dressed in her work gear she went to the fridge hoping to find some sort of energy drink or something with sugar to wake her up, the last thing she needed was to over sleep herself. However the first thing that caught her eye when she opened the white fridge was the meat at the bottom. It seemed like she stood there for minutes just staring until at last Lilly snapped out of it and abruptly slammed the fridge closed. 

“So..” She cooked turning around and trying to smile a real smile “How was your day?” Pushing herself up onto the bench Lilly  gave up looking on something to wake her up and instead picked simple conversation, anything to keep her mind going. However it didn’t take long for her to get distracted and her eyes to wander to the window where just above the dark clouds she could see the top of the full moon.

“Yes well sadly bills do not pay themselves” Lily gave a small shrug closing the door from the cold, the heating was on but sometimes the place got a bit chilly. Wrapping her arms around herself Lily walked to the middle of the room looking at nothing in particular for a minute before turning to the man. “Sorry I didn’t catch your name” If this guy was interested in moving then Lily had to at least try to act friendly. Taking a step towards him she held out her right hand trying to smile “I’m Lily” 

Her nerves had died down a little but she was still unsure about him, there was something about him that made her want to wrinkle her nose and turn away. None the less Lily had to pretend to be a friendly 26 year old woman, no one would like the real her, thats what she told herself. For once in her life she needed something stable and normal, something that did not involve death

Lily said nothing, instead she stood waiting and listening trying  to study the man, maybe she had been to hasty in her actions but what else did she know? Lily  had spent the last few months trying to hide from the world because she was worried that if she let anyone in, even a friend, then when she would have it would be all for nothing. 

“I’m sorry” the word escaped her mouth but it sounded almost forced like maybe her mother was standing behind her telling her to say sorry. “If you are serious about this please know I’ve had a lot of…jokers, I’m not used to people being nice” Of course Lily  was used to people being nice but it was more herself not being nice. Taking a step back she opened the door, one hand came up rub the back of her neck as she let him see the apartment for the first time. She suddenly wished that she had not spent the day sleeping but rather cleaning, at least then things would not be scattered about the place. “You have to excuse the mess, I sort of don’t get much time off and cleaning is sort of pushed to the back of my mind” she let out a shaky laugh trying to mask her discomfort. 

darkaskohl:

He could hear her excitement from outside the door.  The  rushed pounds on the wood floor as she rushed towards the door; the hurried way in which she’d opened the door and the hopeful expectancy that had been on her face as she did.  Of course, such excitements were momentary, that enthusiasm dying as the wave of fear passed over her features. 

Excellent. He’d half expected she’d forgotten about him, about their littler run in days ago. It made this endeavor all the more exciting that such a brisk encounter could leave her so shaken still.  It powered his more sadistic ego that had been neglected for so long.

“You.” Kohl’s accentuated the end of the word, a hint of question snuck into the inflection as he attempted to turn the word to a joke. A tease meant to confuse her, at the very least. He smiled with charm and tilted his head in mock confusion, wondering if she was really so paranoid she wouldn’t invite him in.

“You are Lily Summers, correct? We spoke on the phone?” He stared at her for a moment before gesturing expectantly towards the house, all innocence. “You said we’d talk…has something come up? Is this a bad time…”

“Why do you think I would let you in?” Lily didn’t know why but the man in front of her un-nerved her, like a bad twitch. The way he spoke, the way he moved, there was something very strange about it and Lily  wasn’t sure she liked it. The incident outside the shop was mostly forgotten but now looking back at it Lily  found it strange, like when you see a shadow following you. She closed the door just slightly, unsure what the man really wanted. Was she not afraid of this? Some prankster ringing her at 3am only to hang up? 

Her mind was still fuzzy from sleep and her whole body felt on edge like she was counting down the hours, counting down to what though? “Listen I don’t know what you are trying to pull and frankly I don’t want to know, I’ve had enough of your kind thank you very much” and by that kind she did not mean bloody drinking vampires but rather strangers, faces she could never forget. It seemed to happen a lot lately, she would recall faces of screaming strangers only to wake up and read about them in the news. Sometimes Lily  believed herself to see the future, other times she believed she was the cause of it. But everything was forgotten so easy, like dust in wind or a black mark simply painted over. It was easier to forget than to remember. The clock behind her chimed 2pm, for most it was a welcome chime that meant soon they could go home to families. But deep in Lily’s stomach it felt like a warning.  

The buzzer meant hope, a hope that Lily could pay bills and drop one job, that she didn’t have to come home late at night and be forced to clean the apartment when all she wanted to sleep. It offered her a chance to meet people, the lord knew Lily didn’t have friends. It also meant that Lily  took step away from her old self. As the buzzer rang Lily hoped, jumped, and almost skipped to the door pressing the button once to open the door. She was like a child waiting for Santa to come down the chimney, sitting on the stairs just to take a glance. 

I wonder if he’s fat, I wonder what his hair looks like, a blonde would be nice. Oh If he has muscles that would be nice, I need to move the bookshelf. 

There where so many thoughts running through Lily’s mind she thought her mouth would fall open and her words would spill on the floor. Instead she pulled at her jumper, flattened her messy hair and stood waiting for the knock. Like a reward she was greeted with a knock at the door. With a little too much enthusiasm o forcefully she opened the door almost hitting herself with it. However the face she was greeted with was not the one she expected and it took Lily several long seconds to actually react.

“You” The single word dripped with fear, her face slowly going pale as she realised the man standing before her, the man that wanted to be her roommate, was the same man that had scared her in the supermarket.

Lily struggled out of bed almost falling over causing her to bang into the bedside table, sticking the phone between her cheek and shoulder she turned in the room trying to find her jumper “Umm yes sounds great” she spoke quickly her eyes darting around the room until she found it across the other side. Like lightening the bolted picking it up “okay well see you in 15 minutes I guess… just press the buzzer for apartment 2F and I will let you up” with that the werewolf hung up tossing the phone on the bed. As soon as the jumper was over her head and she had some socks on Lily went about cleaning and shoving things in draws like she used to do as a child to avoid being told of. Don’t get her wrong Lily loved to clean but lately the ability to do anything besides sleep, eat, and work had vanished and she was left to fall asleep in a unmade bed simply because she had no time to make it. Only when she heard the buzzer go off did Lily stop what she was doing, she wasn’t dressed in the best clothes she had to admit; dark trousers creased from sleeping in them and an oversized red jumper did not exactly scream welcome to my home want to move in. As calmly as she could she moved to the front door pressing the little button to the side and opening the front door eager to watch her possible new flatmate walking up the steps.

Lily had spent most of the day walking around the apartment like some ghost, she had neither the energy nor the mind set to do any productive, naturally she called into work claiming it was Lady issues. The whole day she had been on edge always jumping at the slightest sound, it had nothing to do with the stranger but rather something else, something she was unsure about. The night before had been a bad one and Lily had gotten hardly any sleep, to many dreams about monsters and creatures of story books. When she phone rang she had been in bed trying once again, and failing, to get sleep. Picking up the phone in some confusion, no one knew her number and her boss wouldn’t be ringing her, unmoving and in a tired voice she answered. “Yes this is Lily” she waited patiently listening to the voice on the other end yawning in the process, at the mention of the flyer she sat up in bed blinking rapidly to get the sleep from her eyes. “Yes it’s my flyer…..are you interested?” Lily’s hopes went through the roof at the same time she knew it could just be another prank; she had received plenty of those late at night right before drifting to sleep. But her desperation for a roommate was clouding all negative thoughts. 

Lily stood there arms going numb from holding the shopping, heart racing and eye wide. She wasn’t used to strangers being so bold and open with her, especially not in the last couple months. Taking a step back she shook her head dark curls flying across her face.  “I don’t want trouble okay, I just want to get home” she spoke her words with a clear flat tone trying to leave out any emotion. Turning her head to the left she looked down the street to where her apartment was, right then it seemed like a shinning beacon of hope, she hated where she lived but right then it offered hope.

At his last words her head whipped back and Lily had to swallow the lump in her throat just so she could breath.  Had he been watching her? No one knew about the flyer and it had generated such low interest lily was considering asking the drug addict down the road to move in with her just so she could pay one bill.

“Listen I don’t know who you are or what you want with me okay but leave me alone” she raised one hand in warning before taking another step back. The air had picked up and despite wearing a jacket Lily was suddenly feeling the cold, or was it perhaps fear? She didn’t know or what it was about the man before her but it made her shiver and not in a good way. Without another word she turned heading down her street, she had been on edge all day and the meeting with the stranger didn’t help. 2 and a half minutes later she was at her door shopping bags at her feet but as she pulled her keys out she found her hand shaking. Lily could already tell she was not going to sleep that night.