Lauren Lopez waved a goodbye to her friends sitting in the car at the curb and turned back to the large apartment building. She brushed a piece of her brown hair behind her ear as she walked inside and waved at the receptionist in the lobby, giving him a wide smile. Lauren put her headphones in when she stepped into the elevator and pressed the '19' button, waiting for the elevator to takes its long journey to her apartment on the top floor.
"Hold the doors!" A voice rang out from the lobby and Lauren quickly put her foot in the path of the closing doors, forcing them to stay open until the owner of that voice got into the elevator with her. She removed her foot when the empty space was replaced by a hand, and Lauren stepped back from the opening to reveal a man in his mid-twenties stepping into the elevator. Lauren took out an earbud and nodded to him in a hello.
"Thanks, I owe you one." The man smiled at Lauren and out of politeness she smiled back, although she felt uncomfortable and nervous around the man. She waved off his comment and shook her head.
"No, it's fine. What floor?" Lauren looked up at him with a questioning gaze, motioning to the row of buttons in front of her on the wall.
"I'm stopping on level 14." The man replied, and she pressed the corresponding button. They rode the slow elevator in silence and the silent air was broken with a soft 'ding', and the doors opened. The man waved at her as he stepped out and Lauren waved back, the bad feeling coming back to her, and she fidgeted as the doors closed. She couldn't get over the creepy feeling the leftover presence of that man was giving her and she quickly exited the elevator, trying to get that strange tension off of her completely.
She fished around for the keys in her purse and found them, also turning her iPod off as well. She pulled the right key out from the mess of keys on her keychain and unlocked her apartment, turning on the hallway light at the same time.
"Julia, I'm home!" She yelled into the apartment and she closed and locked the door behind her, walking into the kitchen for some food when she was done with that. Forgetting about her best friend and roommate for a quick minute, she pulled a box of gluten-free crackers out from the closet pantry and padded softly into her room, shedding her coat, shoes, and purse onto the floor before going back into the kitchen.
As Lauren sank into a chair at the table in the kitchen, she finally heard the silence, and she frowned. She called out again for her friend, but all she heard was silence once again. Lauren stood up and slowly but silently walked to Julia's room, not sure if her friend was asleep. Lauren got about halfway to her room when she felt a searing pain in her stomach, and she looked down to see a knife sticking up from her abdomen. Clutching her stomach, Lauren kept making her way to Julia's room, the feeling from the man in the elevator coming back with a vengeance.
"Julia?" Lauren's breath was now coming out in pants laced with the slightest tinge of pain, and her voice came out in a raspy quality. "Julia, what's going on?" As she made it to Julia's room, she noticed the door was wide open, and Julia's room looked like it had been ransacked. Lauren gasped and covered her mouth with her free hand, and she turned to go back to the kitchen, not once questioning where the knife came from, and right as she turned around, a baseball bat hit her in the head, and she slumped to the ground helplessly, her hands still clutching her stomach uselessly.
She was on the verge of passing out, and about ten minutes passed in this condition when the sound of a slamming door filled the silent air next to her pained gasps for air. Before Lauren completely fell unconscious, she saw a pair of black Converse shoes in her vision, and someone was shouting her name before the world blurred then turned black.
Joe Walker left Nick Lang's apartment behind as he walked through the streets of Chicago, not wanting to be a part of the festivities for once. Everyone groaned when he said he'd be leaving about an hour after the girls left, and Brian Rosenthal even called him a few choice words in his drunk state of mind. It was hilarious to Joe, but he decided to walk off the small amount of alcohol he had consumed during the party.
"Excuse me, sir!" Joe's head snapped up from the grey concrete to meet the eyes of a woman running towards him clad in black, and Joe shivered as a strange feeling of discomfort chilled his bones. The woman stopped in front of him and bent over, panting slightly. "Do you know how to get to this address?" She handed him a piece of paper, folded and refolded many times, by the looks of it. Joe has to bring it to his face and squinted to get a good look at the black ink before finally seeing the address.
"Yeah, I was just headed there myself." The words tumbled out of his mouth without warning and she smiled, taking back the paper that Joe held out for her. "My friend lives there and I was just going to visit her cause it's her birthday." Joe caught himself before he revealed anymore information about Lauren, who lived at the apartment complex, and he inwardly cursed himself as the pair started walking towards the apartment building.
"You look familiar, as if I've seen you before." The woman broke the silence after a few minutes, and Joe smiled, not realizing his face was so recognizable. "Are you in any movies?" Joe almost laughed out loud at the woman's stupidity, shaking his head.
"No, I'm a part of a theatre group here in Chicago." Joe replied. "We're called StarKid, you may have heard of us before." He jumped slightly as she laughed, and the sound was easily comparable to nails on a chalkboard. The woman pulled out a small notepad and a pen from her coat pocket and held it out to him.
"Sign it for me?" She asked, slightly timid, and Joe nodded, taking the two items from her hands and quickly scribbling his signature out before handing them back to her, and she pocketed them. They continued walking in silence until they reached the apartment building, and the woman went to the elevator while Joe went to the man at the receptionist desk.
"Can you call Lauren Lopez on the nineteenth floor and tell her that a Joe Walker is here for her?" He asked nicely, and the man - Mr. Lawrence, by the name on the desk - nodded.
"Sure thing Mr. Walker, you'll have to wait down here until Ms. Lopez says you can go up." Mr. Lawrence replied, and Joe leaned against the shiny gold counter as he made the call. While Mr. Lawrence was talking, Joe looked around at the lobby of Lauren's apartment building, and he could easily see why she picked this place for her and Julia to live in. The walls were a dark red, and while that specific color meant passion and desire, the room with its beige armchairs and its roaring fireplace made the apartment building lobby look more homely.
"Mr. Walker." Joe was broken out of his thoughts by Mr. Lawrence, who looked at him with a nervous look on his face. "Ms. Lopez isn't picking up and she came through here about an hour ago. You should go check on her to see if she's okay." Joe instantly became worried and frowned.
"What do you think happened, Mr. Lawrence?" Joe felt a sharp pang in his stomach and he was swimming through a red haze in his vision. His voice was slightly heard, and Joe could only nod numbly, not understanding what was happening to him. He was given Lauren's apartment number and Joe bolted for the stairs, remembering Lauren's complains about how slow the elevator ride was up to the nineteenth floor.
Joe was taking the steps two at a time, ready to fall unconscious, and he breathed a sigh of relief once he saw the stairway door marked with the number '19' painted bright gold. He shoved the door open and ran to Lauren's apartment. Joe turned the doorknob to notice that it was unlocked and he slammed the door open, running around until he ran into the living room. Seeing the puddle of blood, Joe paled and he turned the corner to what must have been Julia's room when he saw Lauren lying on the ground with her eyes open in fear.
"Lauren!" Joe screamed and skidded to the floor in front of her, not caring about the blood staining his clothes as he picked up her small body and cradled it to himself. He remembered to call 911 and instantly dialled the number, his eyes not once leaving the dying girl in his arms.
The conversation had gone smoothly and he hung up the phone before shoving it in his pocket and wrapping both arms around a now unconscious Lauren.
"Lauren, you can't leave me." Joe's voice was shaky and you could tell he was on the verge of tears - something Joe Walker did not shed - ready to cry for his best friend. "Lauren, I need you. Who's gonna tell me to get back up when I'm being ridiculous?" He laughed slightly and fell silent again as he remembered Taz and Up from Starship, two years prior. He brushed a piece of her hair out of Lauren's face and caressed her cheek with his now blood-covered hand. "Who's gonna be there for me when the world's against me?" Joe's voice broke and he registered the sound of sirens before pulling his phone out of his pocket to call Julia, who was staying with Darren for the night.
"Julia, it's Joe Walker. You need to get to the hospital soon. It's Lauren." And with that sentence, he hung up, and the paramedics filled the room.