You Never Really Know [Dhara]

[Levi DAmico]

For once Levi had passed out in his apartment in Corvidae Flats so when he woke up, he woke up bewildered. At first all he could sense was this weird repeating sound drilling into his conscience, but when he started to come around a little more, that sound filtered through into the smooth harmonies of Jazz music. Levi pushed the music aside as he sat up and stretched, popping stagnant air that had become trapped in his joints for having slept like a coma patient for almost nine hours. He was weirdly unconcerned by the fact that there was music flooding his apartment as he brought a hand to his forehead, then kicked his legs over the side of the bed until they met the wooden floor with a thump. He looked around, just to check that everything was fine and dandy – save for the music – and then dragged himself to his feet. The bedside lamps had been left on, pumping warm light into a shallow space, but Levi could see perfectly well without them. In fact, most of the time, he would just walk around in the dark, so why they were on at all was a bit of a mystery. Still, the weird part only came when he was a few paces into the room and realised that he wasn’t clothed at all. Usually when Levi came home and couldn’t remember it, it was due to drink and he’d stagger into his room still fully dressed to collapse on the bed. It was rare that he’d take the time to get undressed and under the sheets, it was rarer still that Levi would bring someone home with him. He threw on a pair of slate grey slacks and decided to investigate; if there was someone here, they had to leave – pronto.

The apartment had been designed to be an exact replica of his apartment in Boston albeit space permitting. From the bedroom was a short corridor leading to a small library; small at least in comparison to those old grandiose buildings, but the style was pretty similar. There were bookcases lining every square-inch of wall from floor to ceiling and they were packed so full that it was a feat just to pull one of the books out. Levi generally preferred a clean, modern look to his furnishings and the library was in complete contrast to that. The walnut bookcases appeared vintage and since a lot of his books were second-hand or just looked second-hand, it was like stepping into an old man’s room. Unsurprisingly, Levi kept the room closed and locked so he walked instinctively past the library to enter the living room. This area was a lot more chic, with sharp angles and lines and bold, solid colours. There was a lot of black, white and shades of grey in his furniture; colour being reserved for the artwork which covered great expanses of bare white walls. The living room had soaring ceilings, floor-to-wall windows which were still blacked out with industrial shutters, and an adjacent formal dining room, gourmet kitchen and breakfast room – all with new White Oak hardwood flooring.

The air in here was stale, Levi noted on his route to the audio system; clicking off the Jazz just seemed to make the room feel even less lived-in. The lamps were left on in here as well and it was easy to recognise when hard, square furniture was dishevelled. It was almost like someone had come in while he was sleeping, made themselves at home, and then fucked off again when he woke up. Levi grumbled to himself and made his way to his home office, checking the area too was clear before marching back into the living room. Walking around the apartment to find no sign or trace of anything alive – or undead – didn’t fill him with happiness because it left him with gut-wrenching curiosity, and his march back into the night-soaked plateau of nothingness didn’t impact much positivity into his mood either. The air was so perceptively cold that it actually made his skin break out in goose flesh, reminding him that he was far away from his homeland again, but worst of all, reminding him that he was hungry. It was times like this that Levi was at his worst because he didn’t feel Human anymore. His skin was cold, looking less like caffé con latte and more like just latte, and the only thing he had on hand to make the nauseating pain of hunger go away was cold and coagulated and in the fridge. This wasn’t an ideal situation, but he had to make do. He switched on the under floor heating, nuked a blood pack in a black mug and returned to his bedroom.

Breakfast was choked down, the mug left on the bedside table as Levi took to the shower. Twenty minutes later, dried and shaved, he was back in his bedroom to get dressed. He tugged on a white shirt, some socks, shoes and a jacket to match the slate slacks. He was feeling a little rough today, so didn’t bother buttoning his shirts up too far, but he always had the excess lengths tucked into his trousers behind big, brassy belt buckles. And even though he could kill a man with his bare hands, he never went anywhere without at least one of his guns – the Beretta M9 and the Browning Hi-Power, or BHP for short; the belt and shoulder holsters were hidden neatly under the grey jacket. Pocketing his phone and various other essentials, Levi took his mug back into the kitchen, depositing it in the dishwasher and leaving the thing on to hum and rattle, creating artificial life as the undead kind made its way out the front door.

Levi forgot about his apartment and the strange happenings he’d woken up to tonight as he made his way to the elevator. Now was as good a time as any to check his phone and catch up on whatever he’d missed when he was out for the count during the daylight hours. Unsurprisingly there were a dozen missed phone calls, most of which were from the same number; a refreshing change. They hadn’t left any voice mail, which was smart, and Levi wasn’t going to call them back anyway. He decided that if it was important and still appropriate, they would call again. Phone calls aside, Levi checked through the ream of text messages. There were a few sour messages from the Prince of Sour himself; a.k.a. Shiro. The ******** was complaining about how he was heading back to Japan in the next day or too and he needed to see him. They didn’t have any business to discuss, not as far as he was aware, so it seemed like a good idea to check that one out. Levi was just about to compose a message, to ask when the Shark was free, when the elevator pinged and stopped unexpectedly. Levi glanced up from his phone to check who was coming in; it would only have served as enlightening to see what kind of neighbours he was living with after all...

[Dhara]

She had only come home very briefly between the end of her shift at the bookstore. If she hurried, she could make it to audit another class at the university before running off to her job at Levi's office. She raced through the apartment, pausing long enough to comb out her snowy white hair. A two inch wide streak of royal blue framed the right side of her face, but other than that her hair was colorless. She set her comb down and ran to her bedroom, trading her pale green tunic for a simple tunic in black with silver flowers embroidered around the cuffs and the collar. She smoothed out her skirt, shoving text books and notebooks in to her bag.

Moving in to the living room, she paused to write a note to her flatmate. "Dinner is in the fridge. Hope to see you for coffee. :) ~D." She stuck the note to the fridge with a magnet shaped like a tambourine. She headed for the door, only to stop and turn around. She dropped her bag in the chair and raced back to the bedroom to grab her coat. Once more she picked up her bag and grabbed her keys. She was almost to the door when she stopped again. Dropping her things, she nipped in to Ali's room and cracked open a window. Just enough to let some fresh air in. It had become a nightly habit of hers.

"I swear D, you'd forget your head if it was not attached." She muttered as she finally made it out the door. She took the time to lock the apartment securely and tucked her keys in her bag. Holding her coat in her arms, she pushed the down button for the elevator. It arrived quickly and was empty when she stepped in, which made her think it was coming from the top floor and going down. She moved to the back of the car and settled in the corner. She looked up at the illuminated numbers, hoping the car would go straight down.

When it stopped on six, she gave a sigh and looked down at her toes. She was going to be late, she just knew it. As the doors dinged, she looked up and plastered a smile on her lips. She could at least play nice with whomever was on the other side. It wasn't their fault she was so scatter brained and hadn't left with enough time. She watched as the doors opened and her smile slowly fell to a look of surprise.

"Levi?! What are you doing here?" She squeaked out, shocked to see her boss standing on the other side of the doors, waiting to get on the elevator. Was he stalking her like he joked about? She instantly dismissed that though. She lived on the ninth floor and the elevator was going down. Levi wasn't a stupid man. If he was stalking her, he'd use the stairs. Maybe he was just visiting a friend in the building. Regardless, she straightened up and smiled again, waiting for him to join her in the elevator.

[Levi DAmico]

Looking at the woman in front of him made Levi almost drop his phone. Between sheets of snow-white and royal-blue was a face he recognised, but not one he was expecting to see here. His first thought was that she’d come seeking him out, but that assumption was quickly abandoned. Dhara couldn’t have followed him or tracked him here because her exclamation and subsequent question revealed that she was just as surprised to have seen him. He didn’t really have any answer to her question and so, he did what he normally did – reflected. He stepped into the elevator like he was meant to be here, tucking his phone into his pocket.

“Better question is,” he murmured, “why are you here?”

Umber eyes set a glare onto amber as he was stood across from her, his back against the side wall of the elevator. It was suspicious that either one of them was here really, what with the chaos that unfolded on the ground floor: Zombies shuffling around looking for food, Vampiri sneaking around looking for food, and the occasional Feral sprinting around the joint – probably looking for food. It just wasn’t the type of place that was hospitable for Humans, so, it really did beg the question why Dhara was here. The last he checked, she had a pulse...