Pulse

Chapter 2: Burt's Apartment

A minute or two later, I find myself packing things in my backpack. Something feels wrong. Copenhagen isn't far away from Amsterdam. I can take my car and then take the ferryboat. I'll figure it out on the way. I put on a warm dark blue sweater that can handle the frosty bites of the autumn and black jeans that are easy to move in. Lastly I put on a pair of grey sneakers. My hair is still a mess, so I decide to make it simple and put it up in a high ponytail. I finish packing up, take some snacks and two bottles of water, a toothbrush, toothpaste, a powerful flashlight, my pocket-knife that I always carry with me and a good book, if I manage to take some time to read. I look around in my apartment, I've packed the most important things that I need, along with medicine and some family photographs and other important essentials. I leave everything else in my apartment. I'll just be gone for a week or two. I've got enough money to take care of myself, so money won't be an issue. I grab my phone and keys to my apartment, look around once more, then turn around and walk out of the apartment, locking the door behind me.

There is a silence in the hallway of the apartment building, except for the sound of my rustling keys that I put in my pocket. The apartment building's hallway looks a bit like a hotel, with numbers on the doors. But they've got the name-tags of the residents too, so that the mailman knows what to deliver to who. I hear a muffled growling, it's distant but I manage to notice the sound. The growling comes from Burt's apartment. I walk past his door entrance in order to get to the elevator and stairs to get to the bottom floor of the building. But I stop, because I can't help notice that Burt's door entrance to his apartment is open ajar.

"Burt?" I ask softly, although it feels odd to even say that name out loud.

No one replies. Perhaps Burt isn't home? I push the door a bit and it makes a creaky sound. I cringe. Burt's apartment smells like booze and regret. It's not a very pleasant smell. It's also messy, empty beer bottles thrown around in the apartment here and there along with open snack bags. The muffling noise seems to get louder as I walk in to the living room. I see a silhouette of a man whose back is turned towards me. He's in the corner of the room, his body pressed against the wall. He starts to bang his head against the wall and I step back, my heart starting to race a bit. My blood pressure is getting higher.

"Are you okay?" I ask again, but I get a muffled growling as a reply.

I step back once again and decide to turn on a small lamp. Big mistake. The lamp lights up the entire living room and the silhouette of a man turns out to be Burt, but not the same Burt that I used to see sometimes in the elevator smelling like cigarettes and cheap beer. Burt turns around and shrieks, the same kind of shriek I heard earlier and I cover my ears. When it stops I look up and he's still in the corner, but his face is terrifying. It is dark and monstrous, only some structures of his past human face are there, but they're faded and lost to whatever took over the old man that used to be Burt. And his eyes are faint red like rubies, reflecting in the light. I freeze and I can hear my heart beat like a drum, and instead of running away, I just stand there. Frozen. And this time he roars, still that shriek hidden behind his roar sounding like old grinding metal. That's when I decide it's time to run. I manage to take only two steps before I get jumped on. Burt holds a harsh grip on me and starts making animal noises. I scream.

"Let go of me!" I scream out of fear. "Help!"

But nobody comes to my rescue. Burt, or whatever he is now, raises his hand, that now seems to look like it has claws and prepares to hit me. I roll over to one side, he misses thankfully. I'm still on the floor, on my back and he jumps on me again, this time I kick him with both my feet and he falls back on the living room table. I manage to get him away from me and I quickly grab a wine bottle that was on the floor and retaliate by throwing it hard against him. It hits his face and shatters into pieces, but does almost no damage to him except for cutting his face, making it bloody. He shrieks again and roars loudly, becoming even angrier. I try to catch my breath quickly and get up on my feet in order to run. I quickly grab the lamp that's turned on and hurl it towards Burt as I make my run. I sprint as fast as I humanly can towards the exit of Burt's apartment. I get out of the apartment as I hear Burt behind me growling angrily, like an animal, and shut the door behind me quickly.