His Lips Were Made From Poison

Chapter 3

I looked up at the small and rickety but somewhat clean looking apartment block Kane and I were going to be staying at for the next however many days. In all honesty, the place wasn't exactly small but amongst the huge, skyscraper buildings that were dotted around the city it looked absolutely tiny.

Beside me, Kane fiddled with his worn down shirt and denim jeans, looking incredibly uncomfortable and somehow quite funny without his fighting leathers on.

I suppressed a smile as I took hold of our suitcase once again and hauled it up the the narrow staircase leading towards the entrance. Throughout the whole journey to the apartment we had both been relatively silent, enjoying the peace before the mission, if we wanted to look anything like siblings or very close friends now, however, we would need to start acting much more amiable towards each other.

I glanced back down at Kane who was now walking rather stiffly up the steps, the small backpack bobbing up and down at his every step. I sighed in exasperation. He looked nothing like a person excited and ready to start a new life. If anything he looked quite angry.

I stared at him plastering an unusually artificial grin on my face in an effort to usher him to do the same. Kane, however, merely glanced my direction before continuing his ascent.

I sighed again, even more exasperated this time and turned towards the door, fumbling with the keys I had been given by Demir or 'my landlord'. After a bit of testing out each of the three keys to see which one worked, I finally opened the creaky door to reveal a small dark landing area. I walked in, Kane close behind me and crinkled my nose at the unusual damp and rotting smell that was everywhere. Demir had told us that our apartment was on the top floor of the building so hopefully the smell wouldn't be so bad up there.

Doing my best to be cheery, I walked up the steps to our apartment which made loud creaking sounds all the way till the second floor before turning into quieter and more irregular creaks.

Apparently, being a child farmer in the suburbs of Zandaria not only meant an extremely low wage but a trashy apartment too. I groaned inwardly as I remembered that me and Kane would also need to find jobs according to our identities. Preferably near the place this mysterious Cullen Ledger worked.

Finally, after a few minutes of walking we reached our apartment on the fifth floor, it really was a shame that we couldn't climb to the top using the drainage pipe on the outside of the building, it would have been much more fun.

I looked around the tiny hallway area glad that the smell was but barely traceable up here. There were only two doors and we had been told that Cullen supposedly lived in apartment number 11 so I was guessing that we'd be apartment number 12. Using the hand free of the suitcase, I took the keys out of my back pocket, where I had last stuffed them, only to realise that they were gone.

I looked behind me, a vain attempt to find them perhaps on the floor. Great. Now I would have to go all the way down the stairs and then up to find them again.

Jingle jingle.

Jingle jingle jingle.

I looked up to find Kane dangling the keys and waving them about my face a smirk sitting smugly upon his own.

Foolishly, I reached out to grab them when he snatched them away to step back further and dangle them from there. I was about to step forward to try and swipe the keys from him again when I froze mid step, realising my stupidity.

He was goading me like a person would goad a donkey with carrots to make it run faster. I very nearly facepalmed myself.

Instead, Kane smirked wider than before as if realising that I had realised what he was doing was even more amusing.
Stupid guy.