Whispers in the Dark

Chapter one

Alex pulled his keys out of his back pocket and hastily attempted to shove the key in the lock. It wasn't that he was particularly in a hurry, but it was god damn cold outside, and he didn't have a jacket. The apartment door swung open with a forced groan, and Alex was hit with a wave of horrific smells. He gagged and covered his nose, obviously none of his roommates had bothered to clean while he was gone. It had only been three days that he was away on a work trip. For any normal person, three days wouldn't mean a trashed house. But unfortunately for him, his roommates were absolute slobs. It was disgusting. Garbage was strewn everywhere, some kind of purple goo was leaking from the walls- and it looked as if someone had shit just outside the entryway to the living room. That explained the smell.
Alex would never have stooped this low in his entire life. Yet, somehow he had ended up in a three bedroom apartment with his best friend and his fiancee, as well as six other friends who had become homeless. At least Alex had managed to snag a room all to himself, he didn't have to share his stuff, and that was a good thing. Considering that he paid the rent for the apartment on his own.
He pulled his shirt up over his face to block out more of the smell, and finally stepped inside the house. Being as quiet as he could, he made his way into the kitchen, and opened the fridge. Another foul stench hit him in the face, and he slammed the refrigerator door closed.
"Please god tell me that wasn't a hand in there." he whispered aloud to no one in particular. Alex left the kitchen quickly, and made his way to the bathroom. The light was on, and the shower was running. Either someone was in there, or one of Alex's stupid roommates had gotten stoned, and had forgotten to turn the shower off. Either way, he didn't want to risk walking in on anyone. Alex went to his bedroom, and opened the door.
Spotless.
Just the way he had left it. Alex closed the bedroom door behind him, and set his backpack by his closet. He promptly threw himself on his bed, and kicked his shoes off. Not bothering to put pajamas on, or even take his clothes off, he curled up under his favorite blanket, and hid himself from the outside world.

Before he knew it it was light outside, and someone was pounding on his bedroom door. Shouting unintelligible words. Alex was instantly greeted with a headache. He groaned, and forced himself to sit up. He hauled himself out of bed, and looked in the mirror above his dresser. His hair was a mess, and the eyeliner he had been wearing last night was smeared all over his face. It looked as if he had two black eyes. With another groan, Alex pulled his candy-apple red hair back into a half hearted pony tail, and opened the door to his room.
His roommate, as well as his best friend, came tumbling into his room. A look of shock on his face, as if he wasn't expecting the door to be opened at that particular moment.
"John, what the hell?" Alex yawned loudly, and rubbed at his eyes. John stood up, and rubbed his hands together as if they were hurting him.
"I just wanted to make sure that you were home. The neighbors in 2-B got arrested last night, and I was worried about you," Alex blinked. The nice couple that lived in 2-B were very nice people, they had never done anything wrong or suspicious in the five years that they had lived next door.
"I- What? They never did anything- we're the drug dealers. Well, you are anyway," John looked highly offended. But everyone knew that it was true, despite his best attempts John was constantly seen sneaking baggies of crystal meth and cocaine out of the apartment. The work that John was doing was illegal worldwide, as it had always been.
And yet, six years into the business, John hadn't been caught.
"You're a butt." John pouted and walked away
John had set up shop in one of the three bedrooms. Two bedrooms were located on one side of the house, while Alex's room stood alone, across the hall from the only bathroom and also directly next to the kitchen. John's room was next to the living room, with doors going directly to the spare bedroom, and the bathroom. Everyone else who lived in the house just found a place to crash on a piece of furniture, and dubbed that as their bedrooms.
Privacy was a thing of the past in Alex's home. Not that he really minded. He was twenty five years old, he could handle a few randomly nude people prancing about the apartment on occasion. Not that he enjoyed it at all, in actuality Alex found it rather repulsive. But he didn't bother to say anything, because he was the most conservative person in the house. And he thought that it would be rude to say something regarding the dressage of his many roommates.
Alex yawned once again, and went back into his room to change his clothes. He stripped out of his clothes from the previous night, and stood naked in the center of his room for a moment. Stepping over to the plastic drawers in his door-less closet, Alex grabbed an AC/DC shirt he had received as a hand-me-down gift from his grandfather's grandfather and pulled it over his head. He grabbed a pair of dark grey sweatpants and put them on too. Over the course of the night, Alex's hair had become a royal mess. It was stiff from the ludicrous amount of hair gel it required to style his hair everyday, and it seemed to have migrated entirely to the left side of his head. How on earth did John manage not to laugh?
Carelessly Alex attempted to even out the distribution of his hair, and made his way to the kitchen. Cautiously he opened the refrigerator, and looked inside. Surprisingly enough, nothing in the fridge was out of the ordinary; There was a container of sour cream that was nearly at it's expiration date, and several small tubs of leftover foods, as well as a half case of beer and someone's random tomato plant growing in an empty tin can. There wasn't any milk or cheese, which told Alex that he needed to go shopping today.
Alex pulled open one of the crisper drawers clearly labelled with his name. Inside was very organized, a bottle of ketchup and a thing of mustard were resting in the corner next to a plastic bag with a small amount of celery remaining in it. And also a few other bags with various fruits and vegetables inside. Underneath it all however, Alex was hiding a top quality steak, and a bag of skittles. They didn't make skittles anymore. It was a shame.
For some reason, Alex's drawer had obtained a half eaten burrito without his knowledge. Gross. Alex took the entire drawer of his out of the refrigerator, and set it on the counter. He pulled out the burrito and its wrapper and threw it away into the overflowing garbage underneath the sink. He would take out the trash on his way to the store.
For now though, Alex found an apple from his drawer and bit into it. He replaced the drawer in the fridge and took another look inside it; The hand that had been present yesterday was no longer there, this worried Alex. Looking around the apartment, Alex realized that, for the most part, everything was spotless. It wasn't at all the hellhole it had been last night. Granted, the wallpaper was still peeling from the walls, and there was purple goo dripping onto the floor, but, there was no longer shit on the living room floor, and the trash seemed to have been put in it's appropriate container. Alex had a hunch that it was all John's work, in some sort of desperate attempt not to piss Alex off. He was a clean freak, and everyone knew it.
Alex walked down the short hallway into the living room, and upon seeing no one was sleeping on the loveseat, jumped over the back of the couch, and promptly fell onto his face. Embarrassed, he stood up, and sat normally on the small couch. He ate his apple entirely in silence, until one of his other male roommates, a very tall man, named Calvin, who was obviously just as underfed as anyone else in this house.
Calvin turned on the television, and turned it to the only channel that they had. Some consistent broadcast tracking the orbit of the moon around Earth. It wasn't much to look at, but, there was music, which made it just a bit more bearable. Calvin sat in the spot next to Alex, and looked at him.
"Wassup?" He mumbled, casting a glance at the half-eaten apple that Alex was holding. Alex knew what it was that Calvin wanted; With a sigh, Alex gave up the rest of his apple, and got to his feet.
"I have to go to the store today anyway..." He muttered, put off by the fact that he had to give up his last apple. He went back into the kitchen to see if there was anything else in there that was worth eating. In the end, Alex settled for some stale crackers that he found in a cupboard, and he sat on the counter and ate them in peace.
John came into the kitchen a little while later, and got himself and his fiancee Sadie bottle of water.
"Sadie is planning on going out with some friends tonight, would you like to go with us if we decide to go?" He asked. Alex thought about it for a moment - going out would mean that he could go have some fun and relax for a while, and that he could forget about the daily stress of the terrible home he lived in. On the other hand, Alex hadn't been home in several days, and a nice somewhat quiet evening sounded just as nice as, if not better than going out.
"I'd love to." Alex grinned.
John smiled back, "I'm certain that there will be lots of girls where we're going." He winked.
Alex furrowed his brow, and tried to appear as if he genuinely didn't care about anyone of the opposite gender, but that wasn't true. Alex had dated lots of women in the past, and was currently in a very shaky relationship with a dark haired beauty named Lucy. It wasn't really an official relationship, but Alex counted it as one because it might as well have been. They had been doing very relationship worthy things for months.
John and Alex were joined in the kitchen by Sadie, who was in her own little world listening to very loud music, swaying her hips and singing along to the song. Alex smiled at her, she was such a dork. Catching his smile out of the corner of her eye, Sadie smiled back at Alex, and took her headphones out.
"Mornin' grumpy, you comin' with us tonight?" She took her water bottle from John, and took a drink out of it.
"Yeah," Alex nodded, " I might as well. I ain't got nothing better to do."
Sadie nodded.
"My friend Bianca will be there with her husband. Maybe you could help us find somewhere cool to hang out? You know all the nice places around here, and I want to show these fancy British brats how to have fun." John laughed at his fiancee. She was so full of energy, and was always just the cutest thing.
"Of course I know the good places." Alex said, getting off the counter. "Just let me go take a shower and take care of a few things, and then we can meet up with your friends, and I can show you my favorite places." Alex smiled at Sadie one last time, and walked back to his bedroom to change out of his comfortable clothes, and to find something a little more public friendly to wear. When he found something somewhat decent to wear, Alex ran to the bathroom and hopped into the shower while the bathroom was vacant.