Jack
I pulled the first of three boxes of equipment out of the car's backseat and closed the door with my foot. Looking up at the new apartment building, I sighed. The new place was on the third floor. The movers with the rest of my stuff would be here tomorrow, but I didn't trust them with my computer and recording stuff, along with a few of the more fragile fan gifts. These boxes were full of things I definitely did not want broken in a moving van. That was why I'd borrowed my friend's car to take them. Driving in Ireland wasn't easy, but I'd managed.
I wondered what my new roommate was like. I knew it was a girl named Emily who was looking for someone to share with. Anti had deemed her alone worthy, and I didn't want to live somewhere he didn't like.
I walked into the building with the box and extended a single finger from underneath the box to hit the elevator button. The elevator dinged and opened. Up we go, I thought, as I put the box on the floor and selected the third floor.
When I arrived, I walked down the hall a bit and found the door marked 316. Balancing the box on my knee, I knocked.
The door was opened a moment later by a young woman with shoulder length blonde hair and soft grey eyes. She smiled at me and said, "You must be the new roommate. Come in."
She stood aside and I stepped into the apartment. "The living room's a mess," she said, as she closed the door. I looked around. The couch looked quite comfortable, but there were books everywhere, and an errant jacket was draped over one arm. A few DVDs were scattered on the coffee table and the small set of shelves the TV sat on. "I didn't think you were coming until tomorrow."
"Well, that's when the moving van arrives," I said, as I set my box on the coffee table.
"What's in there?"
"Just my computer and stuff."
"Oh."
"My name is Sean, by the way."
She smiled at me and held out her hand, which I shook. "Pleased to meet you, Sean," she said pleasantly. "My name is Emily."
Her accent somewhat surprised me. "Are you American?"
She chuckled. "Yep. Ohioan by birth, but I moved here to go to college."
"Are you still in college?"
"Nope. But I stuck around because Ireland is so much prettier. Ohio is known for corn for a reason. You?"
"Went once, quit, went again, graduated, and never used my degree."
"Huh. Me neither." She gestured towards a doorway. "Kitchen's over there. Keeping it stocked will be my job." Waving at a hallway, she continued. "Bathroom's at the end of the hall. Your room's on the right, mine's on the left. I hope you don't mind hearing the French horn."
"What?"
She shrugged. "I play French horn professionally, and I have to practice. If you mind, I can practice elsewhere, but I prefer practicing here."
"I don't mind you practicing if you don't mind me shouting."
"What do you mean?"
"I have a YouTube channel that I live off of, and I tend to shout a lot."
"I don't mind. The walls are thick, and I'm used to tuning out noises. Besides, I mostly wanted a roommate to keep things from being so darn quiet around here."
"Okay." I was a bit relieved that she didn't know about my channel. I wasn't fond of the idea of living with someone who watched my videos. It made things slightly uncomfortable.
Emily then offered to help me move in. We went back down to the car and each grabbed a box. I took the heavier one. Emily's arms were quite twiggy.
In fact, everything about her was twiggy. She had long, thin arms, legs, and torso. Even her fingers were long and skinny, and her hands almost reminded me of spiders.
Emily talked the whole elevator ride, making sure I was okay with each thing she had been worried about. She had a hedgehog, she tended to talk to herself, she zoned out occasionally. Nothing was a big deal, but apparently her last roommate moved out because she found her annoying, and now Emily was slightly insecure.
I talked about my channel and the various things I would be doing in the apartment, such as locking my door while recording and, of course, a lot of yelling swear words. She was okay with anything I did, as long as I didn't leave food where she might step on it, which seemed reasonable.
When we got back to the apartment, I asked if she was okay with the vlog I was planning on doing the next day, after I'd gotten all my furniture moved in. She said that would be fine.
I spent the rest of the day setting up. I didn't have my desk yet, but I recorded my videos regardless. I got a pleasant surprise when I started uploading. With the new Internet, it would take an instant to get the videos up. When I commented, Emily nodded. "I'm used to really fast Internet," she explained.
Dinner was a pizza Emily ordered online. She liked pineapple, but she got a pizza that was half plain cheese. She knew not many people liked pineapple. Joke's on her, though. This was the first time I had ever tried pineapple, and I actually liked it.
I was on my third slice, and Emily was almost done with her second. Suddenly, she groaned and dropped the pizza to hold her head in both hands.
"Emily?" I asked. "Are you okay?"
Emily stayed quiet for a moment with her hands pressed against her temples. Then she looked up at me. Her eyes were wide, and her voice was quiet and hurried.
"Don't run. Don't try to hide. She'll find you. Keep her out of the kitchen. And whatever you do, don't make her mad. She's killed bef-"
Emily cut off as she cried out in pain and pressed the heels of her hands against her eyes. I was starting to get a little scared. "Who? Emily, who are you talking about?"
"Her. Be careful. I don't-" She groaned, and her breathing became ragged and shallow. She began to shake as if she was cold. I tried to put my hand on her shoulder, but at my touch, she gave a little shriek and jumped away, her hands still on her eyes.
A moment later, her breath suddenly eased. She stopped shaking and sat still, her hands still pressed against her eyelids.
"Emily?" I said, tentatively.
A low chuckle came out of her mouth. It was richer and darker than what I had heard a couple of times. And when Emily raised her head, I noticed that her eyes were suddenly a bright, sky blue.