Moving Up In The World Tonight

Chapter Three

"This looks comfortable," Eli said sarcastically, sitting his bag down in the doorway. "There's no way they expect me to live here."

The small house was pretty okay-looking from the outside, but the inside was a different story. It looked like it'd been abandoned almost, and Eli would've believed it had he not just talked to the seller. The floor was so dusty that it almost looked like a thin sheet of snow. The bed looked absolutely disgusting, the "white sheets" having light brown spots of ageing. There was nothing in the room other than the bed. Directly across from the foot of the bed was a closet. Next to that was a small door that most likely led to a bathroom, and the painting was badly chipped on the door. The window was also pretty dirty.

Eli had pretty much expected the room to be a bit dirty, but he didn't expect it to look like a rat's home. It was slightly a bit worse than the rest of the house, which wasn't good.

Eli had been trying to find a place to go. He was almost 19 now, and he'd been wanting to move out of his parents' house for a while. When he learned there was a house for sale within a considerable driving distance, it was an instant yes.

However, Eli had never expected this. The house was something from a horror movie. Obviously, he'd made a mistake, but he couldn't go back now. It just needed a lot of renovation.

"This looks comfortable," Eli said again, slowly walking into the room, flinching when a literal rat ran across the floor and under the bed.

Eli let out a shaky breath of disgust at the creature. It made him wonder how the previous owner even lived here. It was utterly disgusting.

Where there's rats, there's food, Eli thought, shaking his head. I need to clean this up before I absolutely lose it.

Eli left the room, picking up his back and walking into the living room. He looked around. Whoever had left before him hadn't taken the sofa, and it became apparent that either dogs or rats had chewed through the fabric of the sofa. There were also scratch marks covering the sofa. The sofa had a pretty green velvet fabric that was now forever ruined.

"Yeah, I've got to get rid of that," Eli said as he covered his nose when the stench of piss and cigarettes hit his nose. "I've definitely got to get rid of that."

Eli began the process of moving things out of the house. He didn't want anything to remain, and there were tons of leftover furniture, as if even the person who owned it didn't want any of it. By the time he was even halfway done, it was around 10 o'clock at night. The moon was a full moon and it cast light on the new house and the surrounding.

Eli sighed, flopping down on the new couch. He hadn't gotten a new mattress or sheets for the bed, so he'd be sleeping on the new couch tonight.

Looking around the living room, Eli noticed how much more tidy it looked now that the cobwebs and stray trash and furniture were gone.

Suddenly, Eli's phone rang. He looked at the caller ID.

Mom.

"Hello?" Eli answered.

"So you finally found a place?" Ms. Sams asked, and she sounded disinterested.

"Yeah, I -" Eli started, but his mother cut him off.

"You left a couple of things here," she said. "You've got a week to pick them up or they're going in the trash."

Then, she hung up. Eli stood still, his hands slowly beginning to shake in anger and hurt. He could've thrown his phone, but he needed it.

Right as he was about to go into an angry rant, he remembered the glass bottle around his neck, and all the thoughts from the night came back.

Echo . . . He thought. I can't believe I met Echo. And I met Jelly, too! I wonder who that other guy was. He must be newer. I haven't seen him before. Nevermind that - I met Echo!