11 Not Alone.
Chapter 2
Ethan was standing in his apartment. Empty apartment.
Earlier that day, delivery guys had come and transported the packed boxes to transfer them to his new place.
He still had some boxes around in the main room.
They were labeled 'delicate' 'Fragile items' these boxes will ride with him as he was afraid that the items inside these boxes would get damaged if they moved with others.
When the company told him the finalized date of his moving, he was surprisingly okay with the information. But as the said date came nearer and nearer, he realized something.
Ethan had never realized that how much he had gotten attached to it. The last week in his apartment spend there was a very emotional time for him.
It was hard to believe that the day had finally come, the final day to spend there in his small but cozy apartment.
He was living there for a very long time. He was feeling nostalgic and was reminiscing all the old memories. He was satisfied and was content that his life was taking a high-up road after spending years struggling.
After graduating, at the time Ethan was living in a dorm, sharing it with another person. He remembered that feeling, the feeling of not being enough. Living with another person, who was a stranger, in a small dorm with nothing.
He struggled to save the income that he earned by doing two jobs. His parents also were helping him financially by paying his rent.
Although that time of his life was a bit rough and was quite stressful, he was proud of it. If he had not done the hard work back then, he might not be able to afford to live in this house.
After saying his last goodbyes to the house, he said his goodbyes to the neighbors. He called the cab and finally packed the remaining boxes into the car to left for the train station.
.
.
.
The new apartment was looking more or less the same as the way he had seen a month ago. It was noon then when Ethan arrived there.
For some reason, the building looked a bit darker than compared to other ones.
Or is it the shadows that were playing tricks with his mind?!
Darker or not, it was then his apartment for the near future.
Traveling is tiring and exhausting.
Movers had come earlier than him and had put all the boxes in the living room. The apartment was semi-furnished, for that he was very thankful about it.
There was a couch and had a coffee table on which he had put the keys. The sigh of relief left his mouth when he sat on it. He had not realized how tired he was until then.
It was like he had melted there and there. He was on the brink of just dozing off when he realized he should eat something.
He had no energy whatsoever to even entertain the idea of making some meal for himself at that time, he was that exhausted, so he ordered from the restaurant chain known for their famous chicken and fried rice.
As he was waiting for his food to arrive, he freshened up and was just relaxing on the sofa and typing away on his phone.
Unintentionally his eyes were following back to that room on the left.
Ethan had no intention of investigating what was wrong with that room's temperature at that time. " Morning, all things in the morning" he mumbled to himself as he yawned and put all his pending work to the next day.
He heard a knock.
"Food! at last!" as he sprinted toward the door.
But
No one was there.
Had he imagined it?
As he was walking back to the couch, he heard it again. Confused and with a mind filled with doubts, he goes back to check on the door.
Still, no one was there.
Ethan was sure that he heard the sound but didn't realize that it was not from outside. The sound was coming from inside the apartment.
He was trying to fine-tune his hearing ability.
Again! He heard it!
He becomes hyper-aware of his surroundings and was trying to maintain a coherent thought process. As he was concentrating on finding out the source of it, then he realized it.
It became clear.
It was coming from the corner of the area where the kitchen and the other room were present.
Ethan was inching toward the room, very carefully. His mind was trying to figure out the possibilities by providing him with all possible situations, giving him ideas like that it might be a thief or a mouse.
But the moment he touched the knob of the door and just was going to twist it to open it, he heard the loud shrieky sound coming from another side of the house.
He whipped his body towards that direction so fast that he almost lost his balance. His heart was beating so fast.
After a moment when his heartbeat becomes normal, clarity came to break his hazy mind as he realized that the sound he heard was nothing but the doorbell ringing.
He might have fazed out a little because he heard another round of desperate ringing of the said doorbell. "He must be the delivery guy," he thought.
Shaking his head a little as coming back to his senses, he took his wallet out and took long strides, almost sprinting towards the main door.
The delivery guy looked bored as he greeted Ethan while yawning. He just gave him the boxes and gave him the bill.
Took the money with not much enthusiasm, said goodbye, and walked back to his bike.
" hmm, I guess I am not the only one who is not having a good time," Ethan thought.
He placed his food on the table.
Ethan was on autopilot mode as he didn't remember when did his plates become empty or when did he throw the plastic boxes away or when he doze off on the table in that position.
He can only register one thing, with the help of his groggy mind, that the pain in his lower back and his arm was feeling like jelly when he woke up from his slumber late at night.
"Uhm, Where am I?" "oh! new apartment, yea am awake now. What's the time?". It was midnight at that time.
He was wondering why he had been woken up as he was too deep into his sleep.
Before he could even ponder about it, he saw light coming from another direction.
The kitchen's light was on.
Ethan was so out of it when the food arrived, he might have forgotten to switch off the lights.
So he was walking back to the kitchen while doing some stretching to release the dull pain and
What?
What he saw was, the boxes that were put on the aisle were not in the same condition as they were before.
Cabinets of down compartments were also half-opened.
It looked like someone was trying to find something.
.
.
Fortunately for him, he had misplaced the cutlery item boxes.
They were not put on the kitchen aisle.
The box full of knives, spoons, etc were put on the backside with the other boxes, which were laying around the couch.
Ethan didn't know that he was being watched.
He had attracted some interest in someone who was roaming on this place.
For a long time, longer than others would have expected.
