The Trial to Survive

They stood in their bedroom, her hands softly tying the tie around his neck as he buttoned his suit jacket.

"Always, sometimes, never," he whispered.

"What was that, Nathan?" Adora asked, not fully hearing him.

"Nothing, just a little saying to help me remember which buttons to button"

She nodded and smiled, kissing his lips gently.

"Are you excited?" Nathan asked, following Adora to the jewelery box, where his cuff links were.

"Oh, yes. Terribly excited to be carted around on your arm for a business cocktail party. Only to be dropped off with all the other snooty wives and having to laugh at their not funny jokes. Terribly excited," she responded, sarcasm lacing her words.

He chuckled as she attached the cuff links. He pulled a simple white gold on gold cameo necklace from the jewelery box and dangled it across her neck as she pulled her short hair from her neck. Once that was done, he walked back into their closet to get his shoes and hers as he put on her make-up.

When Nathan came out, heels dangling in one hand and shiny dress shoes in the other, he stopped midway across the room and stared at the wall beyond, head darting up, just like Adora's had.

This wasn't the first time their next door neighbors had argued, but this one seemed violent. Not only were the voices leaking through, curses, shattering glass and pottery reached their ears.

"Nathan?" Adora called quietly, brush in hand and fear in her eyes.

Nathan looked over at her and quickly crossed the room to pick Adora off of the vanity stool and away from the shared wall. He pulled her away towards the bed as she tossed the brush back onto the vanity.

"Is my make-up okay? I didn't get to finish," she said, trying to ignore the ever growing violence, just across the wall.

"Perfect, as always," Nathan assured, smiling weakly.

"Good, I missed my lipstick, but maybe a natural look is better?" she asked nervously.

"You're gorgeous, so anything you do is still gorgeous," he complimented, kissing her softly.

They looked up at the wall as they pulled their shoes on. The wall shivered as a loud thud came from the other apartment. The shouting stopped. But a man's loud breathing came through the wall and a small whimper came from Adora's lips.

"She dead isn't she?" Adora whispered, scared.

Nathan shrugged.

"She could just have fainted"

"What do we do? Do we report him?"

"We can't assume"

They walked out into the living room and Adora turned on the TV, trying to find something to drown any sound from the bedroom as she paced and ran about, looking for things to shove into her silver clutch. When she was done with that task, she held the phone in her hand, ready to dial the police as soon as she had gathered her thoughts.

Nathan sat on the couch, clenching his fists while he thought everything through.

A harsh knock came at the door and Adora dropped the phone onto the couch.

"Act normal darling, like we didn't hear a thing"

She nodded and he made his way to the door.

"Hey George" Nathan greeted, smiling and acting normal.

Adora closed her eyes and breathed deeply, trying to calm her nerves. She opened her eyes and everything was better.

"Hi George!" She greeted happily as she normally would.

"You guys are dressed nicely," George said, breathing heavily.

"We're on our way to a cocktail party," Nathan replied, smiling.

"You'd better be careful, that thunder could mean a storm," George said.

Nathan and Adora knew that he was checking to see if they had heard anything, looking straight past his lie and seemingly innocent question.

"Thunder? We didn't hear any thunder. I guess the TV was too loud. Was it far?" Adora asked, thinking on her toes.

"It was sort of far. But just to be careful"

"Oh gosh, better bring the umbrella" Adora said, walking towards them and into the coat closet to get a large umbrella.

"So what brings you over?" Nathan asked.

"Well the Missus made some chocolate chip cookies and we don't have any milk. So we were just wondering if you had any. No sense in going out during a storm to get a carton of milk right?"

"Ah, makes sense" Nathan said.

"I'll get it, sweetie," Adora chimed in a sing song voice, leaning the umbrella against the front table where her clutch laid along with Nathan's keys.

Nathan made idle chat with George, trying to calm him of his nerves as Adora picked up a half filled carton of milk. She returned and gave it to George.

"It's only half filled. It isn't much, 'cause the carton's thin, but that's all we've got"

"If it's all you have then I'll just go ask our other neighbors," George offered.

"Oh nonsense, please, we'll just pick some more up on our way home from the party!" Adora exclaimed.

"Oh geez! The party! We're running late!" Nathan said, grabbing his keys and the umbrella.

Adora turned off the TV and shut off the lights in the back of the apartment as Nathan shut the curtains and turned off the lights.

"Sorry to cut our conversation short George, but we've gotta bounce," Nathan said.

Adora grabbed her silver clutch and walked out of the apartment first. She waited in the hallway as George came out and Nathan locked the door.

"Would Lorinda mind if I popped in and said hello?" Adora asked.

"Uh, no! You shouldn't go in there, Lorinda didn't want you to see her with her hair in rollers and everything,"

"Oh, okay. Tell her we said hello then," Adora replied as George slipped back into his apartment.

Adora and Nathan walked silently down to the garage. They didn't say a word until they were both strapped into the seats and the sleek black car was three blocks away from the apartment building.

"He killed her didn't he?" Adora asked.

"Yes. He did"

"What are we gonna do?"

"We're gonna keep quiet for now sweetie. If we tell, he'll kill us. Did you see the look on his face?"

"He was tense"

"Exactly, I bet he's asking his other neighbors if they heard the 'thunder' too"

Adora sighed and threw her head back against the seat.

"It feels wrong"

"The police will find out soon enough. For now, we have to keep quiet and look out for ourselves"

Adora nodded. The silence in the car made their hearts heavy with guilt.

"Nathan?" she asked quietly.

"Hm?"

"I'm scared"

"Me too, starlight, me too"