7 DAYS

THE BEGINNING

Kayla opened the curtain of her small window. The sky was dark already as the clock struck 09:00 pm just a few minutes ago. Her stomach growled and she felt the hunger crawling inside of it. She moved to the fridge and found nothing much inside. She grabbed the last slice of left over pizza, her 2 nights ago dinner. Once the microwave made the ding sound, she quickly took that pizza slice out. Enjoying her pizza, she sat on the only couch in the room, turning the TV on without the intention to watch anything. At least she was lucky that she was already in her apartment because she could hear the sound of rain falling.

One slice was definitely not enough, which brought her back to fridge, trying to think what to eat next without cooking anything. She then ate 2 toasted slices of bread with 2 slices of cheddar cheese while leaning her body on the wall, looking out of the window. Heavy rain and dark sky, the perfect time to be inside her apartment. She could see some people on the street walked in a hurry, some without umbrella walked way faster than the people with umbrella and she felt sorry for them. She just finished her bread when she could hear the sound of someone in the room which made her turn her body around. She literally jumped when she saw a man was sitting on the couch.

"Who the hell are you? How did you come in?" she hissed. She wanted to run and take something as a defense weapon, but her body just froze.

"Your door is not locked."

"My... what? No way!" She shouted. "I always lock my door."

"Why don't you check it out?"

Kayla frowned. She wanted to say something but the words stuck in her throat. Carefully, Kayla pressed her body to the wall and moving slowly to the front door. The door was perfectly locked, as she expected it to be. She managed to get the umbrella, the longest, strongest and pointiest thing she could find at that moment. She approached that man, pointed the umbrella to him, ready to take any action if needed. "Who are you? How did you get in? My door is locked."

The man laughed. "I got you, didn't I?" He paused before continued, "I can get in anywhere I want to, but only when I am required to."

"Required to? To do what?"

"Stop pointing that umbrella to me. I am not here to harm you and that thing definitely won't scare me away. Why don't you sit next to me so we can have a good conversation?"

Kayla hesitated for a while but then she lowered the umbrella. But sitting next to a man who broke into her apartment was not a safe option, so she chose to go back standing close to the window. At least she could break the window and scream if anything bad happened, though she doubted anyone could hear her in the heavy rain.

"Not sitting next to me? I am disappointed. Do I look scary? 'Cos I am sure I heard some say I am very handsome." He clapped his hands to his thighs. "I know I should have made my entrance grander so people believe in me more. I guess the way I show myself up is too lame."

Kayla didn't say a word.

That man straightened his body. "Okay, it seems you have a lack of sense of humor. I will go straight to business then." He looked at her with a very serious expression on his face. "You only have seven days."

"Seven days of what?"

"Seven days to live on this earth."

There was a long pause before Kayla started laughing. "Okay, I get it. This is some kind of joke, prank. Just like the videos I watch on the internet."

"And she is laughing when she is supposed to be serious."

That didn't stop Kayla from laughing. She laughed so hard that her body was shaking.