Out of the Darkness

197

"Good morning, gentlemen. How can I help you?" I shifted on my feet, trying to come up with something fast. "Uh, we're here to pick up my aunt. Her driver got sick last night, and it was too last minute for her to get another one. So, I decided to help her out." I put an innocent expression on my face, and smiled at the man. "Hmm," he said, looking Sam and I over. "What's your aunt's name?" Shit. I had forgotten what name that Lilith had used to secure this place. We were screwed. "Sandra. Sandra Jones. She stays in the penthouse." He furrowed his brow and stared us down. I knew that we were about to have to figure out a way to sneak in. "Let me check the list of occupants. If she's on here, then I'll call up and see if you can come up." Double damn. We waited for him to check, even though we knew that Sandra wouldn't be on the list. "Here it is," the man replied, pointing his finger at the screen of his Ipad. "She's not in the penthouse though. She's on the 12th floor." "Oh," I replied, trying to keep my excitement down. Maybe we could get through here. "I haven't been to visit her, so I didn't know. She told my mom the penthouse. They've always been competitive though, so she was probably just trying for bragging rights." I was surprised at how easily this story was flowing from my mouth. "Let me just call up there and see if you can come up," he replied, pressing his finger down on his pad. I heard a few long beeps, then a woman's voice answered. Shit. There was no way that this would work in our favor. "Hey, Ms. Jones. I have a couple of young men down here that say you're their aunt. They're supposed to give you a ride today," the doorman said. There was silence for a few minutes and I could see the distrust growing on his face. "Ma'am? Did you have your nephews coming over this morning?" The lady surprised me by laughing. "Oh, I swear I forget things so often, you'd think I was 80. I did have family coming over this morning to get me. We have a family reunion coming up and they know that I don't like to drive or ride in cars with people that I don't know. Why would anyone get into a car with a stranger? It doesn't make sense." She continued to rattle on but my mind checked out as soon as I heard her say yes. I glanced at Sam, whose face was just as shocked as mine felt.
"How?" he mouth to me. I shrugged and smiled. I didn't care how. The universe was working in my favor. "Okay, okay, thank you ma'am. I just needed to check before I sent them up." He pressed the key on his pad again, cutting the lady off. "Well...your aunt loves to talk, huh?" Sam and I laughed. "Yeah, she everyone she meets is a friend. Except for strangers who offer to drive her around. It took us forever to find her a driver that she was willing to meet, much less drive her around," I replied. He chuckled and pulled the door open for us. "You gentlemen have a wonderful day." "Thank you, sir," I responded, nodding at him. Sam and I walked through without speaking, until he closed the door. "Oh my God, I can't believe that worked!" Sam exclaimed. "What are the odds?!" "It's almost too easy," I murmured. The lobby of the apartment building was one of the most upscale ones that I had even seen. The classy downstairs bar area was just to the right, when we entered. It was encased with glass windows, had a large flat screen tv mounted on the wall, and a couple of clean pool tables waiting for someone to use them. We kept walking towards the elevator, acting like we were supposed to be there, and praying the entire time that the lobby receptionist didn't notice us. Thankfully, she didn't. We passed a sign that said "Movie Viewing Area," and I couldn't resist a peak inside. "Bro, what are you doing?" Sam said, in a hushed tone. "We need to go before we get caught." "I just want to see what it looks like," I whispered back, and pushed the door open, just a little. There were two levels, with a long wide couch in the back of the room, then a shorter couch in front of it. The screen on the front wall covered almost the entire span of the wall, except for two thin strips of glass that showed the view outside. "Nice," I murmured. "Okay, you saw it. Can we go?" Sam asked. He was getting nervous. For some reason, I was calm and relaxed. "Where do we go?" he asked, when we stepped inside the elevator. "Penthouse," I replied. "Top floor." He pressed the button and up we went. Classical music played at a low volume in the overhead speakers. It took us a little while to get to the top, since this place had so many floors. "How are we going to get inside the apartment, Colby?" Sam asked. He was picking at his nails nervously. "We'll know when we get there," I answered. Everything was working out. I was right, earlier. It was too easy. Something, some force, was working with us, helping us. "I hope you're right," he muttered, looking up at the floor numbers. When the elevator finally dinged, and opened it's doors, he let out a sigh of relief and stepped out. I followed, and pointed to the impressive doorway that was directly in front of us. "I guess we're here," I replied, quietly. Only, I didn't know what to do now. "Should we just...try the door?" Sam asked. I shrugged. "Maybe. I don't know yet." "Okay," he replied, and swallowed hard. He reached his hand out slowly, like he was scared of tripping something, and closed it around the handle. "Here goes nothing." He pushed down on the handle, but nothing happened. The door was locked. "Shit," he whispered. "What now?" "Let me think," I answered, not surprised that the door was locked. Just then, we heard a woman's voice coming from inside, and the monotonous voices from a television. "There's someone in there!" Sam exclaimed. "It's Lilith," I replied. I would know that fear inducing voice anywhere.