The Cracks in the Labyrinth

Chapter 2 (Part 1)

Adam stood before the door, not knowing who could be behind it. For a split second, he feared Evelia's corpse would be there; her empty eye sockets trying to look back at him, strips of withered skin barely covering her rotten bones, a wail coming from her lipless mouth, "You promised we'd be together ... no matter what."

The doorbell buzz pulled him from his waking nightmare, something Adam would have been thankful for if it didn't remind him of the annoying buzzer sound when someone gave a wrong answer in almost every game show.

"Liliana?" He said to himself, surprised to see a beautiful face framed by short sandy hair through the spyhole.

Well aware that his neighbor was a wet dream incarnated, Adam now understood why countless porn movies had made a fortune with that trope. Besides the megabits per second, the one benefit of his apartment was that the eponymous neighbor Los Amigos Invisibles sang about lived across the hall from him.

Adam doubted she remembered him, though.

They had bumped into each other twice in the elevator, or as Adam liked to call that deadly contraption, 'the Iron Maiden.' The first time, they stood there in a very uncomfortable silence and avoided meeting each other's eyes. The second time, on Mother's Day, Adam blabbered about how his grandmother deserved a special gift every day because she had been taking care of his siblings since their parents died in a car accident.

That conversation only left him with her first name, sweaty palms, and the regret of coming up with a bunch of clever things to say all too late, quips he should have said instead of spouting random facts about his past in the time it took them to get to the eighth floor.

Should I open the door?

He resisted his first impulse. While a long-legged blonde had never knocked on his door before, he still had work to do.

"Adam, it's Lili."

Heat rushed to his groin, clouding his better judgment.

"Hey!" He tried to sound laid back as he opened the three door locks and the gate. "How's it going?"

Lili wrinkled her nose like a bunny and pushed a strand of hair behind her ear.

"Sorry to bother."

"No worries."

In that white tank top and those short shorts, Lili's tanned arms and legs looked as smooth as rose petals. She drew close to him, and her scent started reverting him back to those teenage years of crazy hormones and clumsy awkwardness. Adam hadn't been with a woman in so long, and there was an air of naïve sensuality to Lili that made him weak in the knees. 

"Adam..."

The way she said his name struck him as odd. Oh, God! Had he been staring at her this whole time? Maybe his social skills had deteriorated, turning him into a creep without him even noticing it.

"Tell me."

"Can I ask you a favor?"

"Sure!"

"We need to get inside," a man coming out of Lili's apartment told Adam. He wore a plumber's uniform that seemed more akin to a Halloween costume than something an actual pro would wear.

"There's a smell driving me crazy." Lili pointed down the hallway. "I spoke to the superintendent and—"

"Here I am." The plumber's lips twisted in a weird grin. "To make things right."

Adam mentally ran through every excuse in the book. However, if he changed his mind now, having a shot with Lili would be off the table for good. No doubt about it.

Bianca and Darío are all that matters, he reminded himself. With each passing minute, his deadline loomed closer. There was no time to waste on this, regardless of how much his groin begged to differ.

"Pretty please?" Lili asked in the cutest way.

What if I tell them I'm leaving? Out of the question! To let a stranger know that no one would be home could be lethal in Caracas. Especially if said stranger grinned like a predator waiting to jump and tear out his prey's throat.

"Make it fast," Adam said.

"In a jiffy," promised the man. He walked in as if he'd been there before.

"You look pale." Lili grabbed Adam's hand. "Everything okay?"

Unlike in his fantasy, he didn't like her touching him.

His classmates had often teased him by saying that he'd been born in the wrong country (Adam's dislike for how Venezuelans treated everyone like long-time friends, was infamous). He always laughed it off, reminding them he hated everyone fond of hugs and kisses on the cheek regardless of their nationality.

"A-OK," Adam lied, never losing sight of the plumber. "So, want a cup of coffee?"

"Rain check? I'm running late," Lili said.

Is she leaving me alone with this guy?

Adam stared at her in stunned disbelief. Was he not getting anything out of this? The scene had played out so differently in his head: he would ask her inside, they would drink something while he kept an eye on the plumber (who wouldn't stay for long), and they would have a nice chat alone afterward.

But no.

Lili left, and there was a stranger in his apartment.

A stranger that was nowhere to be seen.

Adam's stomach did a queasy flip.

He closed the door behind him and padded through the living room. The same silence that used to comfort him was now ominous. The bathroom door stood ajar, but the darkness within it was still.

Where is he?

It wasn't until he came closer to the kitchen sink, the only blind spot in the entire apartment from where Adam stood, that he found him.

Fear ran through Adam like a current.

What was wrong with that man? The plumber's mouth was wide open; his jaw dislocated as he uttered a silent scream. The eyes in his expressionless face were white as if his pupils were looking for something deep inside of him.

To be continued...

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