Chapt 2 Work in Progress

Short Story with Chapters Work in Progress please give your critics! it helps so much.

 

Chapt 2

When he arrived at her apartment complex he parked haphazardly between the lines and hastily rushed from the car.  He walked through the parking lot astonished by the grip fear had on him. Jack was inundated by the strain of finding the truth and his body was taking the punishment for it, feeling the weight in every step. He could not move faster then a walk but everything in him wanted to run to her. It felt as if the air thickened and he could not move through it quick enough. His legs felt like they were made of led. With every heavy step he felt the impact, just like his lost soul bearing this mass. He was quickly becoming breathless.  Jack was terrified to loose himself in the thick of all of the eeriness closing in on him.  He got to the lofty staircase where her door waited at the top and he forced his heavy legs to climb up each step. Up he lifted each tired limb, one after the other, and then another. A staircase to forever leading to the woman on the other end of the phone with all the answers he hoped for.  When finally arriving at the top ledge he collapsed on a bench in the corridor. Jack felt pangs of anxiety from anticipating what could be the finest greeting that he had been conjuring up in his memory with what is left of his visions of Juliet. He also feared something unspeakable and unexpected that he may find at the door from the tone of her voice on the other end of the phone just earlier today. Gaining some strength back he got up off the bench slowly and began to walk down the hallway. Around the corner he went heart racing, and palms beginning to sweat, as he came to her door, 19B. Jack took a minute to gain his composure when it became apparent that the door to Juliet’s apartment was pushed open slightly.  Nervously he used the back of his hand to slide the door open with closed eyes. “Hello?” He called out expecting to hear her voice. In return only an echo reached his ears. Opening his eyes abruptly he was bewildered at the scene in front of him. An obviously unlived in room with a red Berber carpet and the windows wide open blowing white curtains, as if from an old movie.  He went cautiously into the kitchen. The refrigerator had been emptied out and all the cabinets as well. In the bedroom there was only an oak dresser and a cracked standing oak dressing mirror left in the room in the corner. Upon the dresser he found a yellow candle and a thin stream of smoke bellowing from the wick. It did not appear that anyone had been there for so long.  Jack feeling more perplexed then before needed to know where she was and if not her who knew she loved the scent of Jasmine as he did?