The Change||Damon Torrance

III

Present

"Where have you been?" Rika asks me how I enter the door of the apartment."I ordered some pizzas if you want." she continued, watching me put my leather jacket on the hanger on the sofa. "I came home some hours earlier and I was hanging out with Alissia." I say while I sit down in the middle of the sofa. "She is in Meridian City?" Erika ask me while eating some candys."Did you fuck with some boy in the club?" Rika smile at me while I roll my eyes. "Don't exaggerate, Rika. It's not appropriate." I tell her while looking for a TV station.

"I mean it's past one in the morning. Who knows what you did in the club" Rika smirk at me,bringing her glass of red wine to her mouth and taking a sip. I look at her angrily and roll my eyes. "You're crazy." I tell her while watching the news. Erika want to say something but we heard a but I heard a sound. Like a knock. But not at our door. I look confused at Rika, she has the same face as me. It's heard again, but this time much stronger.

"What the hell?" Rika got up from the sofa and walked towards the door."Don't go." I tell her, being a little scared. That sound is heard again, but now it's as if a body has fallen. Rika stops, doesn't open the door and turns her gaze towards me. "Take a knife." she orders me and I go quickly and take a knife from the kitchen counter.

We open the door of our apartment, Rika is the first to step outside, me behind her. The noises could be heard from the apartment next door. But we knew that no one lives in it. There were noises and I hear the girl's voice "Please!" the girl begged someone there. I started to smile, thinking it was a sex game. But there were other bangs and screams "Stop! Please!" says the girl, but now you could hear the fear in her voice.

I look at Rika who is retreating and then a very loud bang of fright and makes me drop the knife on the floor. After a moment we hear the door of that apartment open and Rika takes my hand and we run up the stairs."Shit." Rika say. I went down to the ground floor and when I saw the end written "reception" we both turned our eyes to see if that person was coming after us.

But not a few seconds passed before I bumped into Rika who had collided with Michael Crist. What the hell is he doing in this hotel. "Michael?" Rika say,catching her breath. "What the hell are you doing?" Michael asks us, fixing his gaze on both of us. "It's past one in the morning." he tells us. We know what time it is, fool. "I heard something on our floor." Rika say turning her gaze from the direction we came from."What are you doing here?" continues Rika.

"This is where I live" Michael said with the tone I thought he left in Thunder Bay. The bastard. Rika looked at him confused and then I realized."You are the tenant on the 22nd floor? With a private elevator and all those benefits." I say while looking at him angrily. "Who are they?" asks a girl behind him, cute. Poor girl. "She is my younger brother's girlfriend." he motions to Rika "And the other one is Damon's ex-girlfriend." he says and the girl next to him smiles for a second.

"What did you hear?" Michael ask us,who I'm sure already knew what was happening in that apartment. "Noises." I answer him aggressively and he raises an eyebrow and fixes his gaze on the girl in his right. "Go upstairs! I'll come too." he says and the girl approves and heads towards the private elevator."Come on! I'll take you to your landing." he tells us and I roll my eyes.

Even when I was in high school I couldn't stand this guy, even if he's Damon's friend. We arrive in front of our apartment and see the hotel guard. "Mr. Crist, there is nothing here. It is free." he says and Michael approves. He turns his gaze towards us and he smirks. "I think it's pretty hard to pay your rent, right? You both ran away from your families and your friends and came to a new city." he says, fixing his gaze more on Rika. They always had a thing. "Beautiful girls have sometime to pay a price." Michael smirk and winked at us and left us in front of our apartment.

I looked at Rika who was already looking at me "How rude." I say "Let's go back in." I tell her while unlocking the door. How lucky I had the door card in my jeans pocket. Erika sits back on the sofa and looks somewhere, lost in thought.

"Hey!" I say coming to her. "What's going on?" I ask her and she looks at me. "Do you think Michael has something to do with the events in that apartment? Do you think he knows?" she asks me and I agree with her. "Of course. Who knows what friend or dubious person was there. Poor girl." I say while looking at Rikai's unfinished glass of wine.

"Look, I'm going to take a shower and go to bed. I'm tired. Keep the pizza for me too, please." I say to Rika as I get up from the sofa and go to my bedroom. I take my pajamas and enter the shower. I felt so strange. I don't know if it's because someone was raped in the apartment next to us or because above us was the apartment where Michael lived. The Penthouse. I hope only one thing. That all four of them are not in Meridian City.

♛

I'm waiting for the elevator while I fix my hair. Today I woke up late. Rika wasn't in the apartment when I woke up, she probably had an early class. I look at the clock and see that it's 9:30 in the morning, which makes me hurry because at 10 the class starts. Finally the doors of the elevator opened and I got into it, I went to the ground floor and waited for the doors to close. In about 15 seconds I was on the ground floor. There was a bit of commotion at the reception.

I saw a poster that registrations were being made for fencing, which made Rika want to register, but naturally she forced me to register as well. She left me a message in the morning asking me to go to interested in these courses. That's why I wasn't in the mood. I arrive at Hunter-Bailey reception and ask the receptionist. "Good morning,regarding the fencing course. Can you give me more details?" I ask, and the man at the reception turns around and looks for a sheet.

"I'll handle it. You can go back to work." I hear a voice behind me and immediately I feel like I'm freezing. "Sure Mr. Crist." I hear the receptionist addressing him. I'm annoyed by your presence," says Michael and I roll my eyes. "And I'm annoyed by your person." I tell him and I see him snort. He leans against the wall, looking at me. I can't stand him

"Why do you want to join the fencing club?" he asks, and I pretend to be looking for something in my college bag. "I don't want to, but Rika wants us to join." I say and he starts to smile. "Is she still so baggy?" he asks me, and I look at him bored by his presence. "Why do you keep bothering us?" I ask him.

"Because you're poking your nose where you shouldn't be," he says and looks away from the window. "Do you want me to drop you off at college?" he ask me and I refused. I see a man coming out of a large hall and I look at myself there."Don't think—" Michael starts to warn me but my ass hurts because of what he says, I leave my college bag on the table and start running towards that hall.

I enter and see a large fencing hall. Why the hell does Rika like this sport so much? Boxing is better in my opinion. I enter a slightly smaller room. Shit. I'm in the boys' locker room. I hide behind a locker waiting to be released because there were several boys. A few minutes passed and I turn around and see someone I never expected to see again. I froze. I feel a sweat running down my back.