aphotic

One

The streets were calm and quiet, only a few taxis and the occasional random car passing by Audrina as she drove through the sleeping city. The rain combined with the car's old, worn down tires forced her to take it slow on the road and the clock on the dashboard told her she was already late. Whatever. Jack could very well wait for a little while.

By the time she started to get close to the address Jack had given her earlier, Audrina was cold in her big raincoat, not having managed to get the heat working. The neighborhood she arrived to was not really what she'd expected. Jack's crowd was usually the rich entitled kind— frat boy material, if you may. This place, however, looked like more on the opposite end of the spectrum. Most of the wooden houses could've definitely needed a paint job, the surrounding grass and bushes had clearly not been tended to in a long time and the narrow street Audrina drove down was bumpy and uneven. The gps guided her onto an even smaller road and when she arrived at the big, cement house that seemed to be her destination, she somehow had ended up on a very small and empty lot behind the entire building instead of the front yard.

Could this be the right place? It looked nothing like where Jack used to party. The building was two stories and despite being the biggest one on the street, it still wasn't very large. It was bare and cold-looking, windows covered by gray blinds and only a small dim lamp visible through what looked like a square little bathroom window. If she were to guess, she'd bet this had been a small local postoffice or hardware store back in the days. Either way, judging by the three figures standing in front of the small stairs leading up to the backdoor, beer bottles in hands and cigarette smoke circulating above their heads, whoever occupied this place now had turned it into a place to party.

Staying in the car and keeping the engine running, Audrina fished her phone out of her pocket and sent Jack a text saying she was outside, adding a second text a few seconds later reading //out back.. I think.//

When she didn't get a reply and he didn't show up to the car a couple minutes later, she dialed Jack's number. Once, then twice. No reply.

"Damn it Jack," she muttered to herself while somewhat reluctantly killing the engine and getting out of the car. She pulled her raincoat tighter around herself, pulled the hood over her head and walked towards the backdoor and the people standing outside of it smoking. They looked her way when she came closer to them and she tried to ignore how out of place she felt. "Hey," she simply said, meaning to just walk past the little group, but one of them turned fully to look at her.

"Are you looking for someone?" The young woman wondered. She was in a black jean jacket and her dark hair looked like it hadn't seen a brush in awhile. The metal in her lip and all over her ears were the only things she was wearing that wasn't black. Audrina, with her pale brown hair in a braid, gray running tights and red raincoat on, must have looked like the black-clothed woman's complete opposite. Maybe that's why it was assumed she was looking for someone and wasn't there to join the party - she didn't quite fit in with this crowd.

"Yeah." Audrina nodded, stopping for a second to turn to the three-man-group. "Jack. He said he'd be here. Jack Paverick."

"Sorry, I don't know that name," the girl said, shrugging her shoulders and putting her cigarette to her lips. "Maybe inside."

"Thanks."

The second she opened the door to step inside, music reached her ears and she breathed in the smell of alcohol, smoke and something that reminded her of wet dog. The music wasn't the loud electronic bass she was used to from college parties and such; instead it was a more relaxed vibe on a lower volume you could easily talk over.

There was a lot of people in the house; some of them hanging out around the kitchen table, more of them chilling in the living room that Audrina only peeked into as she walked around looking for Jack. Despite the bathroom door being unlocked, she found herself walking in on four girls in there, one of them sitting on the toilet and the others placed sitting around the small room; one on the washing machine, one on the edge of the bathtub and the last one on the floor close enough to the door so that it bumped into her side when Audrina tried to open it. "Oh.. sorry!"

The four girls barely seemed to notice her when she quickly closed the door again and turned around with a sigh, heading for the staircase close to the front door.

"Hey sweetheart, who you looking for?" A man on his way down the stairs stopped at the bottom of it, looking at Audrina, obviously seeing how lost she was.

"Jack," she told him, stepping aside to let the man pass by her.

He looked much older than her. Older than the girl she'd talked to out back as well. When she came to think of it, this crowd seemed to vary a lot in age. The girls in the bathroom had looked around her own age, but a lot of the other people around the house seemed to be everywhere from their early twenties to later thirties. The man in front of her now was tall with broad shoulders, dirty blonde hair and a beard that could've looked really nice, had it not been so unkept and wild. His blue eyes looked red and tired, like he had a hard time keeping them entirely open.

"Paverick?" He asked, and she raised her eyebrows at him and nodded.

"Yeah. Is he here?"

"Pretty sure he left like an hour ago."

He'd left? Of course he had left. Of course he would call her in the evening and ask if she could come pick him up later the same night, give her the address to a sketchy place and then leave that place without letting her know. "Piece of shit," she muttered under her breath, making the man in front of her smile in amusement.

"Do you want to smoke one?" He asked, fishing up a homemade-looking cigarette from his pocket, making her frown.

"No." When she heard the irritation in her own voice, she reminded herself this man wasn't who she was annoyed with. "Have fun," she said, offering him the fraction of a smile before turning around and heading for the back door. She dug through her pocket for her phone, starting to type up a message for Jack to ask him where the hell he was, but before she could get that done she was interrupted by a voice when she made it out on the back porch.

"No luck?"

Audrina looked up from her phone, seeing a young man standing alone on the stairs, leaning against the railing, cigerette between his lips. Probably one of the three she'd met out here only minutes ago. Why did he bother coming out here for a smoke, she wondered, when it was obvious people were smoking away inside.

"No," she answered, shaking her head and starting down the stairs.

"You go to East West, don't you?"

His question made Audrina stop in the middle of the short staircase and look quizzdly at him. How did he know what university she attended? She had never seen him before, she was sure of that, because if she had she would've remembered. He was pale and tall, with cheekbones evident enough that he looked like he could have needed to gain a few pounds. His hair was dark enough to be a sharp contrast against his pale skin and his blue, almost gray-ish, eyes were clear even in the dark rainy night. The one of his hands that was holding the cigarette had black ink scattered over the skin, some kind of symbol och pattern she couldn't quite make out, but it looked like it continued up underneath the sleeve of his jacket. Most recognizable though, was the scar on the side of his neck. Slightly more pinkish than the rest of his complexion, it stretched down from just below his jawline probably almost three inches long.

Yeah, she would have remembered.

He must've seen the confusion on Audrina's face, because he gave a small smile and offered an explanation before she could ask. "I went there."

"Oh." She realized she was pretty much staring and he probably noticed, because his small smile was growing more amused. He stayed quiet, so she felt she had to say something more. "You quit?"

"Graduated last year," he explained, making Audrina feel a bit judgmental for assuming he hadn't finished his studies.

"I haven't seen you before," she stated, taking the last few steps down the stairs to put some distance between herself and the guy when he breathed out a deep breath of smoke from his lunges.

Audrina saw him part his lips to say something, but before he had the chance to do so both their attention snapped to the house as  chaos seemed to break loose in there. Loud beaming voices could be heard, followed by people tumbling around as if panicking. Then suddenly - making Audrina jump in surprise and terror - a sharp bang which she could only associate with a gunshot.