Chapter 2

Quality time with everyone's favorite Randy

Chapter 2

It turns out that Randy does live in an apartment here, not that he uses it much.

I stayed there that night, after calling the police. The next week was spent with me sleeping on the couch, watching little kid cartoons because I was too tired to watch anything with actual plot.

My work was very understanding. I mean, my best friend had just got murdered, of course I would want a bit of time off.

Eventually, I got off my butt and quit that job. I didn't like it anyways, plus I would now need something that payed more now that I would be living alone.

The police called. They confessed that they hadn't really worked at all on the case in the past week, but it was understandable. Alix wasn't exactly a famous person or somthing, just a nice person that lived in an apartment with me. They said they would start figuring out who murdered Alix next week.

That information just made me want to go back to sleep, but something made me get up and stagger out into the lobby. I was wearing pajamas that hadn't been washed in a week, my short hair was all spiky and messed up. My eyes were bloodshot, and I'm pretty sure I scared a few people as I walked up to the desk that Randy was sitting at.

“Glad your feeling well enough to come out here..” Randy said. He was looking at me sympathetically, as if he knew what I was feeling. He didn't.

“Hey…” I croaked out.

“Any chance you have the keys to… to…” Deep breath in, deep breath out. “The other apartment?”

He glanced around, as if the security cameras that hung around we're going to send messages to the police that we were talking about this. Or maybe he was just nervous.

“I'm sorry… I don't… If I did, I would have given them to you a long time ago, they are technically yours.”

He looked around again, and I suddenly realized that whatever he was going to tell me next was probably illegal to do.

“That hallways is blocked off and locked up, right? Well… The fire escape. I have the keys to it. You can get onto that floor with them.” He took some keys from his back pocket and began picking through them. “Here, use this. To unlock it.”

I took them, then walked outside as if it was normal for me to walk out in dirty clothing with bedhead. Some people probably thought I was drunk or something. It sure felt like it to me.

The fire escape was around back, so I staggered to the spot and began the slow climb. Third floor- the place that I had, at some point, lived.

I unlocked the fire escape and climbed inside, quickly closing the door. Didn't want the alarm to go off.

I walked down to my room, which had the door open because that's how I had left it. I made sure not to touch the door while walking in.

Everything was untouched, sitting there exactly how I had remembered it when I had walked in last week, calling for my friend. Couch with remote on it, bowl of cereal left on counter, hallway with crooked paintings. My bedroom door was halfway open, which wasn't how it had been before- before, I had closed the door.

Did the police do this when they came in?  I wondered. But they should have touched just Alix’s room. Alix’s room was the only one that needed touching, because it was the room my friend had been murdered in.

I walked into my room, and to my surprise, it was trashed- books thrown around, covers hanging half off the bed. My diary was half under the bed and half out in the open, and I quickly checked over it then put it back under the bed. Didn't want anyone else to see that…

My laptop,(a gift from my parents), which I used to talk to my friends, online and real life, and write the occasional story(which was never actually seen by anyone but me) on was sitting open on my desk.

Thats weird, that was in its case when I last was in here…

I tapped a key to turn the laptop on. I was logged in already, which was weird because I always logged out. The only other person who knew my password….

...Was Alix.

I didn't see anything unusual, until I got to the tab with my newest story on it, a mystery about a girl who faked suicide to run away. I hadn't come up with why she had run away yet, which is why it was still a work in progress.

On there, I saw that the last time the document had been edited was 2:30 AM. On Thursday. That was today, except I hadn't been in here at 2:30 in the morning! It was five in the afternoon, right now!

I decided to pull out my chair and sit down to read whatever had been typed.

Shelly held the knife to the mannequin's chest.

Oh, thats a good idea! I thought after reading that line. Using a fake body in place of a real body… Before, I hadn't written that she had used a mannequin, just made a note saying that she had faked her death.

“Okay, I've used my own blood, so it should be pretty realistic…” Shelly said to herself.

A loud noise came from the hallway.

“I've got to finish before they come in!” Shelly muttered, panicking. She quickly stabbed the prop all over, ripping the bottom part and other places open to make it look like someone had simply torn their own body apart.

Finally, she put the knife right in the heart of the mannequin. Shelly wrapped the hand over the knife, to make it look like she had stabbed herself, then opened the window slowly.

“Hey! Anyone here!” A voice shouted.

This was where the writing stopped.

I suddenly realized that “Hey! Anyone here!” Was very similar to what I had shouted when I had gotten home and started looking for Alix.

Did this mean that… Alix had run away? But why? Did Alix not like me anymore, gotten tired of living with me? Was Alix on the run? In hiding? Flying away on a plane right now?

I sighed, confused. Alix was my best friend, and if alive, still would be my best friend.

The sound of a door creaking open startled me out of my chair.

“Hm? What was that?” A voice said from near the front of the apartment.

Oh, god! Was this the same panic that Alix was feeling? Was Alix actually murdered, or was the body fake? I thought, my normally one-track mind racing everywhere.

I looked for a way to escape whoever was out there, before seeing the window.

Could I….

I quickly threw open the window, looking down. Below, I could see the dumpster. I could also see a tiny ledge a decent amount of space below the window. I sat on the window backwards, fingers gripping the edge, and maneuvered myself until I was hanging out the window. My feet hung below me, swinging wildly around while trying to find the ledge.

I found myself wishing for Alix’s height, which I had always made fun of, now.

My feet finally found the ledge, and I got my feet on them at the same time that whoever was in the apartment walked into the room.

“Hello? This is the police! If anyone is in this room, please come out!” The voice called.

Oh, so it's the police… I thought, and my mind went into a state that was even more panicked than it had been before.

“Hm… Must be nothing…” He muttered, his footsteps receding a bit.

BZZZ!

“What in the world was that?” The policeman shouted.

The sound responded with another BZZZ! And I slowly realized that the sound was my phone, which must have fallen out while I was crawling out the window.

The footsteps got closer the the window, and I crouched down a little, hoping that he wouldn't notice me.

BZZZ! The phone said again. This must have been its last call, because it then vibrated right over the edge of the window, falling in front of me, hitting the ledge, and going into the dumpster.

The policeman muttered something about lazy teens leaving their phones everywhere, then left the room, probably to make a call.

Sighing, I loosened my fingers on the windowsill… And dropped into the dumpster.

Author's Note

slightly longer chapter