Transgression (Prequel #1)

3 - Caged in Bones

A cacophony of degrading cries erupted from the shambling vehicle while it dragged itself across every agonizing inch of the parking lot. Resubmitting itself to a night between the white lines, hoping for rain to wash away the rust. Yellow dimmed streetlamps provided a minimal glow thirty feet above the near empty lot; hardly qualifying as a source of illumination with a six-foot radius on the desaturated pavement.

The tires squealed to a halt just before the apartment complex; the exterior walls just white enough to reflect the headlights back into the windshield. Squinting in discomfort just before the car went silent. The keys were swiftly removed and the car gave a final whimper before falling silent. Everything settled and the ringing in his ears grew ever present.

Leaning back in his seat, he let his head bounce off the cushion, then settle. A wiry itch pressured his eyes, forcing him to vigorously rub them until he was seeing blue and yellow spots. The pounding of his beating heart sent waves of energy through his muscles which carried on and dissipated in the fabric of the seat. Body limp and mind numb from the recent ordeal, his eyes rotated to the passenger seat and fell on the paper bag buckled in beside him.

Seeing the dark grey strap holding the delicate bottles within, he reached for his own buckle and discovered it had never been set. Thinking nothing of it, he undid the other and threw his own door open. The interior light lit up and provided guidance as he stuffed the bag under his arm and slammed the door behind him.

A crisp dry taste entered his nose and he stopped to observe his surroundings. The small blacktop lot was locked in place by dense surrounding trees, creating a definitive boundary separate from other buildings. The lot was empty, save for another car or two. Everything outside of this paved square was obscured in darkness; unexplored and held no interest to him whatsoever.

Though he did suffer the consistent noise from another complex just on the other side of the trees. That one was smaller, but full of college kids who had a weekly schedule seemingly set to irritate him. Across the street sat an antique store that had long since been bustling, and just beside that was an empty lot where a foreclosed house had been demolished years back.

Scattered trees with decaying leaves filled in the pockets of underutilized space. From where he stood, this little speck of dust in the world that he lived, he felt truly alone. Though just beyond the buildings across the street lie a hundred more, behind these trees and just along the road were many more lives and businesses, all as dead and rampantly spiteful as the last.

This period of observation was enough to shake the cobwebs from his mind after the impossibly long thirty-minute drive from the job site. But the silence that followed him assisted in jacking up his internal angst. The world was hollow feeling; nailed to the earth in a nihilistic dream-state of fabricated peace in absence of life. The few surrounding buildings provided no light or sense of accompaniment. Though life existed all around him, not a soul dared leave their home after ten o'clock; for fear of the ones who would be so bold as to wander the streets.

The glass bottles scraped against each other in the bag as he moved away from the beaten Subaru and proceeded towards the unwelcoming front door. Dead plants adorned the short four steps he climbed each day until he was met by the biggest glare in this buildings security. A large wooden door with a single lock was all that barred trespassers from entering.

Each tenant had a duplicate of this key, four in total and yet there was always a new face wandering the short halls. Reaching into his left pocket, he removed the jingling keys and flipped through them until he came across the correct one. With one hand, he finagled the key into the door and let himself in.

The first step inside was as disappointing as each time before it. The light directly above the door flickered endlessly and was accompanied by the smell of stale cigarettes and what tasted like old, steamed carrots. Moving down the narrow hall, he thought about the other tenants; how inside their six-hundred square foot dorms they had an entire world of their own. A different layout, a different smell and a different view from the window; a new perspective.