The days before(Fruk)

2

I knocked on his door, waiting......

I was always so nervous coming by, but I was more comfortable. "Francis! I'm so glad you decided to come!" Arthur smiled. He opened the door for me and stopped me from stepping forward. "Don't forget to take off your shoes!!" He laughed.

"Ahhh, right! I always forget!" I laughed nervously. I began to take them off and saw that he was sitting at his table. "So why did you call me over suddenly?" I asked. "Ahhh... It's embarrassing...." He laughed turning red.

"Nah! I'm sure it isn't! What's up?"
"Well......it's my AC..... I'm not sure if you noticed how hot it is," he began to fan himself, and I began to notice how hot it was. "Ahhh..... I see... Well, I'm here to help," I smiled.

I began to roll up my sleeves and pull my hair back. He always called me to fix things, and he wasn't really the handiest person, but I loved him. He shouldn't lift one finger while I'm around.

I walked over to his unit, and I began to look at it, confused. It looked as if someone messed it up. "Arthur?" I called out. "Yes?" He asked. I walked over to him and looked at him as he wrote stuff down. "What is it?" He asked.

"Well... It looks like someone broke it...."
"Really?.... I thought it had a shortage of something..."
"Now that I think about it... Didn't your stove have a weird problem too?"
"Yeah..... but you were able to fix it..."
"Yeah, but it seemed weird... The way it was broken," I tried to explain.

He stood up and walked over to where I was, and I showed him how it looked. "Hmmm maybe they are signs that I need to go out more often," he laughed. "What? Like Jesus is telling you to leave your house?" I laughed.

"Ehhhh never know..... I do spend a lot of time inside, besides leaving for work" he explained. I nodded agreeing and I began to work on it. "I'll do my best but it looks like I'll need to go to the hardware store..." I explained. "Ahhh I'll go with you"

~
I looked at his phone and began to take a seat in the living room. There was a worded passcode, and I felt myself stress out. "Okay... I don't want to lock him out, so I have to guess correctly," I spoke to myself.

I tried to guess his name first, and it didn't work...shit! What could it be? I tried to think, and I decided to wing it by putting my name. I doubt it is, but worth a shot?

I typed it in slowly, and as I pressed the last letter I closed my eyes nervously. I heard a clicking noise, and I opened my eyes quickly.

It had worked.

My face got red, but I had to stay focused on what I was trying to do.

I looked through his phone and saw the apps he had. Just the usual ones, no social media. He had a few games like candy crush and wordle, and I laughed a little at them. I bet he was on level one thousand on candy crush.

I began to look through his messages and saw everything. The last person he texted was me. I continued to look through his messages and found familiar names. "Alfred...Kiku...Matthew..." I said, scrolling.

I suddenly stopped at a random one that didn't have a name. It just showed the number, and I clicked on it. It had been texting Arthur multiple times, but he never answered. It was a bunch of "hey"s

I wrote the number down and continued to look through his phone. I decided to look at his photos, and I mentally prepared myself for anything weird I might see.

I opened the gallery, and it started from the very top. Pictures of plants and food... Pictures with him and his friends from years ago. I began to scroll more and saw when we first met. Early in our friendship, he began to take pictures of me without me knowing.

Pictures of us together, smiling, and pictures of me eating and doing random things. It made me feel really sad, and I felt tears swell up in my eyes.

I continue to scroll some more to recent photos. There were a couple of videos and pictures that were really dark.

I clicked on the photos, and it looked like he was in his bedroom and took a photo of something through the window. I tried to zoom in, but I couldn't.

I then clicked on the video, and it was him suddenly getting out of bed and running toward his living room. "Francis won't believe me unless I have a video," he said through it. He never told me about this, though.

He pointed the camera outside, and I saw a figure standing in the bushes. It made me piss my pants on seeing it, and I was terrified.

Was someone watching him? Who? Did he have a stalker? I looked at when the video was taken; it was the day before I last saw him. Why didn't he tell me? Was he scared? Did he think I wouldn't believe him?

If he had a stalker... Was this when he found out? Or did he know beforehand? I turned his phone off and began to look around his house again.

I went back to his bedroom and began to look through his books. Maybe he wrote something down about it? There has to be something else I can get to figure out who that was. If I find out who that was, I will beat them!

I looked under his bed and suddenly remembered something happening a few days ago. What was it? It was important, and I didn't think anything of it.