When Hell Breaks Loose

The building complex was quiet except for the sounds of two sets of footsteps coming up the stairs to the third floor and heavy breathing. Darlene hoisted the heavy bag that was about to fall off her shoulder up a bit and gripped the bags in her hands tighter, not wanting to fall, not when they were almost at the third floor now. Her pretty eyes narrowed at the figure of a man in front of her, as if her stare could make the man turn around and help her with her three bags, thank you very much.

He however just kept walking without looking back so she followed quietly. When they reached the floor and the man guided her towards the flat she would be renting for the next three years of her life. Darlene came across the ads for a flat for rent about two weeks ago when she was doing some flat-hunting on the internet. The price was surprisingly low considering the building was located in the middle of the city of London and was within walking distance to the nearest public transportations and supermarkets. And she would also have her own room so really, she couldn't ask for anything better. So she jumped into it immediately, calling Zayn Malik, the owner of the lot to seal the deal. "No, I don't need to see the place. I'm in," she had said when they were talking on the phone, excitement and the fact that this would be her first time living away from family clouding her judgment.

“We’re here,” Zayn said as he stopped in front of a door written 3F-2B located at the far left of the corridor. Darlene dropped the bags from her hands and sighed in relief at the weight lifted off her shoulders. She rolled her shoulders to relieve a bit off the soreness there and just observed silently when Zayn produced a set of dangling keys from the pocket of his jeans. She couldn’t help the way her eyes lingered at his backside, covered by the black skinny jeans but she quickly averted her eyes, blushing even though no one was looking at her since Zayn had his back on her.

Zayn was the first to enter when the door opened and Darlene followed closely. She decided to just drag her bags by their strings since her shoulders were too sore to lift heavy objects. Her heart dropped when she remembered that she still had a few boxes of her belongings waiting downstairs and the past half an hour spent with the man, she knew Zayn wouldn’t be the one offering help and she wasn’t going to ask.

As soon as she was inside, her eyes immediately roamed the surrounding. The flat was spacious enough and she knew from the ads that it had four bedrooms and two bathrooms. The living room was already furnished with a sofa set, a TV cabinet, two side tables and a coffee table. To her left, there was an open space kitchen, also fully furnished with the basic necessities and she smiled in satisfaction to see that it had a coffee maker. With the pastel-coloured walls and parquet floor, she was loving the place already.

“Here’s your set of keys.” Zayn plucked two keys out from the keychain and dropped it onto Darlene’s open palm. “Those are the keys to the front door and your room. You room’s the first one on the right,” he navigated, pointing towards a closed white, wooden door. She stared at the keys, one of them was the typical key and nothing really stood out about it. However, the other one had a sticker of a cartoon rabbit on its flat head. She couldn’t help but to smile at the cute sticker. “You’ll have three other roommates and my guess, they’ll be here soon enough.”

“I have roommates?” she asked, the information was news to her. Zayn nodded but didn’t elaborate further. Silence grew around them and it was starting to get uncomfortable. “You gonna show me my room?” she questioned when it was obvious that Zayn wasn’t going to say anything anymore. The man looked reluctant at her question, his face pinched, making him look slightly less attractive than he was a few minutes ago.

He shook his head and shoved his hands into the front pockets of his jeans. “I should go,” he said solemnly and looked around cautiously, as if someone was going to jump on him at any second. He was an odd man, Darlene thought, watching as he started to bite his lower lip and once again, he let his eyes roamed all over the living room. His face suddenly turned pale when a gush of wind blew into the room through the opened window. “Be careful!” he said, lifting up one hand as if to pat her on her back. He however thought better of it and dropped his hand again. He shot her an uncertain smile before turning away and leaving the flat without even a glance back.

“Weird,” she mumbled to herself, watching the door swung close behind him, leaving her alone.

Taking a deep breath, she started to inspect the place more, in the privacy of her own company. The walls were a nice light shade of beige and there were several framed pictures of trees and chairs in black and white hung on the walls. Hipsters, she thought, shaking her head. And there was a shelf nailed onto the wall leading to the corridor and there were cute little knick-knacks like a snow globe, a few photo frames but there were no photos in them, a small replica of a Lamborghini and a piggy bank. The place had no TV but there was a TV cabinet pushed against a wall and there was a set of sofas in front of it. She assumed that it used to be the hangout area of the previous owner of the flat.

She decided that the kitchen and the bathrooms could wait as she dragged her heavy bags towards her room. When she stood in front of the white door, she couldn’t shake off the feeling of unease that had been settling in the pit of her stomach since the moment she first stepped into the house. And it had intensified. She however ignored it and fixed the key with the rabbit sticker into the slot under the knob. Twisting the key until she heard a click, Darlene then proceeded to turn the knob and push the door open.

A smile made its way onto her lips when she looked around the tidy room. It didn’t feel like the place had been abandoned at all. It had a nice homey feeling to it and the queen sized bed in the middle of the room looked very inviting. She stepped further inside, and stopped short in her track when she noticed the boxes containing her belongings were now stacked neatly at the foot of the bed. When did Zayn help her bring those up? She asked herself but didn’t let herself dwell too much on it and happily revelled in the fact that she didn’t need to make a few trips up and down the stairs just to haul up those heavy boxes.

She released her bags and just let them fall into a heap by the door and walked towards the big window overlooking the view of the city. By the window, there was a working desk littered with colourful pens and there was a table next to the desk that was elevated to 45 degree and a table lamp hovering above the desk. She sat on the desk chair, leaning back and swivel a few times.

“This is perfect,” she said to herself, smiling widely, completely ignoring the whispers carried through the wind. So the flat had thin walls, so what?