This is story about friendly neighbors and good deeds. Also, about supernatural magical creatures, because they rock. A brief introduction to Jasper and Benjamin, characters that will be showing up again in another book in the future.
Hope you like it. :)
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|Ben & Jaz: Friendly Neighbors|
by Lilian Carmine
It's late at night when I finally arrive at my building. I've been wandering around town the entire day - and for the past couple of weeks - in search of a new apartment. At the moment I am crashing at my sister's place. On my sister's couch, to be more precise.
It's a temporary arrangement that any of us wasn't expecting to be in, since I was supposed to be living in another apartment in this same building. But mistakes were made and someone (AKA my evil older brother who lives to make my life a living hell) told my parents he'd take care of the correspondence and somehow 'forgot' to mail the rental's deposit check, so my apartment went to someone else and I was left with nowhere to stay.
My sister has let me crash at her place for now, until I could find someplace else, but I realized on the very first day that this deal was not going to work. For starters, Diana is not the easiest person to live with, and I sure ain't no picnic either.
There's also the fact that her apartment gives a new meaning to the word 'minuscule'. My sis is staying at the middle-of-hallway units, the kitchenette-size ones. They are the cheapest units in the building, but the low rent comes with a price, ironically speaking. Because the place barely fits one person; personal space is a luxury we cannot afford. There's also the detail about me being quite the burly guy, and she's not petit herself... You put all that together, you get a steaming crammed pot headed straight for a boiling disaster.
I am desperate. One more day in that apartment is one step closer to awaiting tragedy. I need to find somewhere to stay, and fast.
I've looked everywhere and couldn't find anything. Dorms are all taken. So are all the apartments for rent in the entire town, it seems.
Even if I could afford (which I surely cannot) one of the other units in this building, like the Underground ones for 'special tenants', or the Aboveground fancy units up front with the balconies and the big back ones for rich people, I still wouldn't be able to move out of my sister's place. There aren't any vacancies in the whole building, for the rich or for the poor.
It is in a dark desperate mood that I arrive at my sister's apartment door, and suddenly I hear a distinctive yelp coming from the end of the hallway. It's definitely a sound of distress, there's no doubt about it. I glance around and perk up my ears. The door down the hallway is wide open and a stream of light marks the wall on the other side.
