That goddamned thing

Chapter 2

"Who are you?" I almost whisper.

"I, uh, I..." He has nothing to say.

"Why are you in my apartment?" I state a bit loudly, putting all effort in my voice to keep it steady. I grip the umbrella tighter in order to minimize the shivering.

"I... I am sorry." That is all that comes out of his mouth.

He has a foreign accent, one that is unknown to me. I suddenly feel the anger that was welling up in me make a comeback and I raise my voice.

"Sorry about what? About breaking into my apartment? Yeah, as if that's going to work." I spit out somewhat sarcastically.

"Look. It's not what you think. I didn't mean to break into your apartment. I just needed shelter." He speaks without hesitating and with a flow even though he still has a strange expression on his face.

"What do you mean; it's not what I think? You are in my apartment from God knows when and you've been sleeping on my carpet with those dirty shoes on and ugh, I don't even know what you've been doing all this time." I almost shout.

"I am here since last night, and no one was here until midnight so I just slept here. I swear I have harmed or touched nothing. I thought the apartment is empty so I stayed" He says calmly.

I am agitated at his calmness. He is an intruder, for crying out loud. He is not supposed to be calm, yet he is sitting as cool as a cucumber in front of me like he owns the place.

"Wow. You'd see an empty apartment and sleep in it like it's your apartment? I am calling the cops right now." With this I move towards the phone which is on the table right beside the man. He hasn't moved from his position at all, which is strange, again.

"Please, I beg you. I will pay you for this. Just- just please don't call the cops. Just give me shelter for a few days." He pleads.

I look at him, the receiver in my hand. That innocent face cannot be of a liar. I think about giving him a chance, but I am not sure. He is an intruder after all – a very handsome intruder, I must admit. I find myself putting the receiver down.

"And – And I saw in the advertisement that you placed at the entrance. You are willing to rent out one of the room in your apartment." He says after I am quiet for a while weighing my choices.

I cannot believe this. That cursed advertisement; I should have taken it down long ago. It sounds so ridiculous. I hiss at him, "Yes! I did put up that advertisement. But first, I mentioned clearly that only ladies are eligible for this and secondly, I didn't want people to stay the night in my apartment without me knowing it and inform me in the morning that yes they like my apartment and would love to live here." I spit out.

"I told you. I am sorry. But it was an emergency. I waited outside for a while but there was no one. I had to. Please, I am sorry."

"How can I trust you?" I ask exasperated.

He turns around in his sitting position and grabs something I am not able to see. His sudden movement alarms me and I shout pointing the umbrella at him, "Don't move."

He quickly turns around to face me and hands me a small backpack, "Relax, I have no weapons." He says very calmly.

I look down at the backpack, and then at him, "What else do you have?"

"Just this." He replies.

I slowly open the backpack not moving my eyes from him. He keeps looking at the backpack.

Inside is a small diary, with a few numbers and addresses scribbled in it. They are in a language that I don't understand. Other than that I find a small, empty water bottle, a pocket knife, a piece of cloth which has several small boxes drawn on it and a small cross drawn neatly inside one of the square, it seems some kind of plan. There's a wallet which has some foreign currency in it.