No Body No Crime || Bad Omens || Noah Sebastian

Prologue

Sometimes living alone can be seen as a blessing. A blessing that hadn’t touched Noah, since that morning he woke up to his colleagues and housemates making a racket all over the house, especially in front of his bedroom door.

A sliver of light, managing to sneak through the closed shutters, hit his face as Noah resigned himself to the fact that he was awake.

He couldn’t remember much from the night before, at least not clearly. They had thrown a party to celebrate the release of his band’s latest album, and things hadn’t gone too well.

He threw off the covers. He rubbed his eyes, and a yawn escaped his lips. The night before, he had drunk a lot, too much, to be honest. He got out of bed, his throbbing headache ticking like a metronome of guilt and regret. His memories were fragmented, brief flashes that didn’t form a coherent picture.

He stepped out of the room and headed to the living room, already filled with the shouts of his friends.

“Good morning, sunshine,” Nick greeted him with his usual carefree smile.

“Don’t you dare, Folio.”

“Sorry, our drama queen can’t talk to anyone before noon, we know,” the drummer continued teasing him.

Noah sat down on the couch next to Nicholas. His best friend had a blank stare; he must have just woken up, and Noah decided not to comment on his hair, tied up in a messy ponytail.

“Last night was a great party,” Davis said, entering the living room from the kitchen. “Oh Noah, I see you’ve graced us with your presence.”

“Please, just give me a few more minutes of silence,” he begged, covering his eyes as if to block out the daylight, which was now flooding every room in the house.

“Leave him be, he’s still recovering from yesterday,” Jolly said, handing him a cup of coffee. “Recover quickly, though, because soon you’ll have to talk. A lot.”

Noah looked at him in confusion, and Jolly shook his head, unsurprised. “You owe Lisa an apology; she was furious last night.”

Damn, Lisa. His girlfriend Lisa, the woman he loved and would have gladly taken to the altar if only he weren’t such an idiot, and she didn’t have zero tolerance for his crap.

“Can I ask what I did this time?” he asked wearily.

Folio stared at him, wide-eyed. “You don’t remember anything from last night?”

Noah shook his head, his hand still pressed to his forehead.

Jolly came to his rescue. “We don’t know what you two said to each other, but we saw her slap you. And I’m sure you deserved it,” he said, taking a sip from the cup in his hand.

“Shit.”

A slap. Lisa would never have slapped him, not without a reason.

“Did anyone talk to her?” he asked, hopeful that someone knew what he needed to apologize for.

Jolly shook his head. “I tried to stop her, but she wasn’t in the mood to explain to me why you’re an idiot. Again.”

Noah noticed that Nicholas hadn’t said a word since he’d entered the room. “Are you okay, Ruffilo?”

He saw those light eyes turn to look at him and sensed the emptiness in them. “I just have a headache. Last night wasn’t great for me either.”

He got up from the couch, leaving the seat next to Noah empty. Noah watched as he dragged himself wearily to his room. When they heard the door slam, the room let out a collective sigh.

“What’s wrong with him?” Davis asked.

“I don’t know, but it’s not the first time I’ve seen him like this,” Jolly declared.

“Yeah, he’s been acting... distant for a while now,” Nick added.

Noah shook his head as he got up from the couch. “I’m going to call Lisa.”

“Wouldn’t it be better to go to her place?” Jolly asked.

“Sure, so she can slap him again. Listen to me, call her, but don’t stress her out. Give her time to calm down and realize you’re sorry for... whatever you did,” Davis advised, placing a hand on Noah’s shoulder, as if to impart all his knowledge about women into his skin.

“You’re sure you don’t know what you did?” Nick asked.

“I have no idea.”

“Well, good luck. Wouldn’t it be better to wait until your hangover’s gone?” Davis asked.

“No, it’s better to do it now. I’m afraid that the more time passes, the more she’ll think I don’t care.”

“But you do care, right?” Jolly asked in his psychologist tone. He had picked up this attitude from Lisa, who was a psychologist by profession. In fact, the two of them spent a lot of time together; they acted like siblings, which was often strange, rarely cute.

“Of course, Jolly. I love her, but sometimes she can have a shitty temper.”

“And you give her every reason to,” the guitarist said, raising his coffee cup as if to offer an ironic toast.

Noah shook his head and shut himself in his room.

He dialed Lisa’s number and waited for her to pick up.

Once.

Twice.

Three times.

On the fourth unanswered call, he threw the phone onto his bed. He couldn’t remember what he’d done, but it must have been really bad. His heart pounded in his chest. Had he lost the most important person in his life over something he couldn’t even remember?

He dressed in a hurry. It couldn’t end like this; there was still so much to discuss, so much to clear up. If she wanted to leave him, she had to do it while looking him in the eye.

He headed to his car without saying goodbye to any of his friends. He arrived in front of his girlfriend’s building about ten minutes later and rang the buzzer.
He had a copy of the keys to her place, but he didn’t want to use them right then. She had to be the one to let him in. Many minutes passed before he finally decided to unlock the building’s door with his keys. Maybe he was crossing a line, but he felt the need to talk to her, to know if Lisa still loved him.

He opened the door to her apartment and shouted her name. She couldn’t ignore him if they were in the same room, right?

But Lisa wasn’t there. He searched everywhere. In the bedroom, on the small balcony of the kitchen. She wasn’t anywhere.

Nothing was missing, and at the same time, everything was. She was missing.

Hi. I love write stories with some mystery in them so I thought, why not a gone girl-ish type of story would be fun.
Keep in mind that english is not my first language, so feel free to correct me when I'm wrong, but please be kind.

Enjoy.