The Situated

Chapter one

A sound of silverware hitting the floor woke her up from her sleep.

Kate sat up, her long raven hair flying with her and her heart running wildly. Her huge eyes moved to the door that led out of her bedroom. What was that? She could have dreamed the noise and woke up. Yeah that made sense. There was no one else in the house to move around the kitchen at this time. Oh maybe, she could go check it out and make sure.

However, at that thought, Kate slid her small body back down into the cushions, her heart still beating. It was probably nothing. She should just go back to sleep. It was nothing.

A glass shattered on the ground from the other room; her whole body stiffened, reminding her how scared she already was. There was a burglar in her home.

Okay. Okay.

She had to calm down and think. Phone? Where was the phone to call 911?

No phone! Yeah, she almost forgot. She felt tears pricking at the back of her eyes. Kate had moved in two weeks ago that she had held off getting a phone set up in the apartment.

No, don’t give up, she convinced herself.

Cell phone? She darted her eyes around the dark room and landed them in the darkest corner of the room by the closet. Okay, her bag was across the room and that was where her cell phone was; there was no way she could be able to get access to that.

Footsteps moved behind her door, getting her attention, and she heard him flick on the lights of the other room. She was going to die with the way her heart was heavily beating against her chest.

She swallowed holding her breath for a second, also scared that the person could hear her breathing. Then, feeling like she was about to suffocate without air, she exhaled slowly under her fist.

Kate bent her head and started crying with no sound coming out of her mouth. She really wished that she had a roommate, and then she wouldn’t have been in this situation. She should have listened to her parents when they had told her to stay home. Maybe, this was a punishment from the God for disobeying her parents. She tried moving her hands, but she noticed that they were involuntarily fisting the blanket tightly. Her whole body rocked for a second as fresh, hot tears left her eyes.

What had she done to get this treatment? She had been good all this long; she had never hurt anyone on purpose. She wasn’t rude to people, and she always prayed.

This deserved happening to her arrogant neighbor, who slept with everything wearing a skirt. But, it wasn’t occurring to him. Fate sucked.

No. No. Her hand smudged in her tears as she tried to wipe them away.

She wasn’t going down without a fight! She looked around her dark room for a weapon to use. Then, she remembered that she had bug spray underneath her bed.

Kate shakily pushed the covers off herself; forcing herself, she carried her heavy legs with her hands to the edge of the bed. She stepped down and stood up nearly losing her balance; however, she ended up in squatting position, barely balancing her weight on her trembling legs. The woman put her hands on the soft carpet to stay on her feet.





Then she painfully craned her neck to look behind her, shoving herself closer to the ground, ignoring the numbing pain and the weakness in her arms. She was able to see a shadow through the space between the carpet and the bottom part of the door. While panting, her face itched with drying tears on it; she brushed her face on the carpet before holding her breath and her hand wildly reaching under her bed searching around for the bug spray.

Fortunately for her, she didn’t have rubbish under her bed to alert the intruder of her consciousness.

She finally found what she was looking for and covered her mouth, catching her breath again.

The shadow was still at her door. Her eyes moved up hearing a crunching noising; it happened to be that the person was turning the doorknob. She stared and bravely pushed herself up, not aware of the new tears flowing down her cheeks.

She prepared her gun (the spray) pointing it towards the door.

The intruder shoved the door open, but he never got a chance to enter because she ran to him screaming and sprayed him right in the eyes.

He moaned and took steps back from her doorway rubbing his eyes. She stood there watching him breathing hard as she dropped the spray on the ground. What was she going to do now? She had to leave this place. Kate went passed him shooting for the door out of the apartment. The man recovered so fast surprising her and grabbed her around her waist and threw her across the room, altering her attempts of escaping.

She felt every bone in her body hurting at the contact of the wall of her apartment. Was this a dream? Usually, she saw this kind of stuff on TV. Was she going to be one of those missing women, and years later, the FBI would find her dead body on the shores of the Pacific Ocean?

She could see the man approaching her from her low-lid brown eyes.

Her body was frozen in one place that she didn’t think she could get up. Was this it? Was she really going to die like this? She had never had a real boyfriend before, nor had she had mind blowing sex yet!

Damn, she didn’t even get a chance to drive a Convertible Honda. She didn’t even have the car.

She closed her eyes and prayed for God to forgive her sins, embracing her destiny. No, this couldn’t be it. She felt her hand touch the hard wall. She could hear each of her breath coming from her mouth and feel sweat rolling down to her chin. She felt every cushion of her carpet under her feet as she breathed hard. Her hand no longer on the wall, but she swung it, her joints hurting.

The guy was dodging her like she was punching him, the time clicking in the background, and the apartment and the guy looking blurry.

Her fists continued to punch as she made out her intruder falling unconscious on the ground. However when she saw another shadow in her vision, she went for it as well.

“Stupid woman, what are you doing?” The new man shouted at her.

She stopped when he caught her fingers and then recognizing that voice. It was Sam. She blinked to make sure and caught his sharp, ebony eyes. Her voice broke and hugged him. Wait. What was he doing here? Kate pulled back, angry. “How dare you! I could get you arrested for harassment. How could you set me up like this and think it is funny? I’m calling the police right now that you broke into my home…”

She pulled her hands out of his and walked to her wall grabbing for the cordless phone.

“What are you rumbling about? And put that phone away this instant!” He yelled at her.

“What! You think I can’t do it?” She thought that he was daring her.

He pointed at the body lying on the floor.

She rolled her eyes not looking where he was pointing, thinking that he was playing with her. “I can’t believe your audacity! You know what! This is beyond you. How can you go so far to-?”

Her eyes followed his, and she blinked. It was the intruder. It didn’t make any sense though. How did her neighbor get into her house then? There must have been two people in her home, she reasoned. One of them knew her. She furiously looked up at him and put her hand on her hip. “Are you serious? Do you think I’m going to fall for your tricks?”

“Look, I broke into your house hearing you scream. Unfortunately, you interrupted my sleep, so I decided to stop whatever noise coming from here to go back to my room and resume my sleep.” He explained to her, his Nigerian accent coming out. “Now, if you excuse me…” He started for the exit.

She glanced at the body on her floor. “You’re not leaving him here!”

He ignored her and continued on his way until she rushed in front of him, trapping him in her room. Their chocolate skins matched as they stared at each other; it was as if this happened on a daily basis.

He decided to say something. “Call the police sweetie and tell them what happened. Now, move out of my way.”



“No! This is your fault!”

His angular, handsome face drew in a frown. “How is this my fault?”

“For all we know you probably were working with him. So, take him with you.” She replied, crossing her arms over her chest. She didn’t know how ridiculous she looked; she was twice small his size and six inches shorter than him.

“And why would I do that? Woman, get out of my way.” He commanded her as his v-goatee emphasized his words, aiming like an arrow in the direction he wanted her to go.

“This is your fault!” She jabbed a finger at his hard chest.

He pushed her aside, not to hurt her, but to remove her out of his way. Leaving, he walked to his room while she strode after him screaming.

He shut the door in her face.

She started banging on his door forgetting, or not caring that it was passed midnight, and other neighbors were sleeping. “Hey, open up! Don’t make me create a scene!!!”

She continued rapping on that door until he finally opened the door. His broad shoulders filled the entrance to his room as he let out a sigh. His face wrinkled as he looked down at her, but his face managed to look hot.

“I’m going to call the police for you and then leave me alone!” He roughly said and pushed passed her, slightly bumping into her.

Her small frame followed him into her room and jumped the body on the floor; she feared that the trespasser might wake up and grab her to stab her. Her neighbor was now holding the phone.

He punched in the digits, and then he passed the phone to her. She took the phone after he shook it in front of her four times. He was so rude like usual.

He left her side to go to the man he knocked out cold on the floor and checked his pulse.

The phone was ringing against her ear as she watched her neighbor. Her eyes dropped to his big hand that was lingering on the aggressor’s throat. It was enough touching. “What’s wrong?” she asked Sam.

He faced her and flipped the assailant over, revealing that he was dressed in a black jumpsuit throughout. “He is dead.” Her neighbor spoke.

She let go of the phone when someone picked up.

“Hello…” the voice vibrated through the phone on the floor.

Her neighbor came to her and picked up the phone handing it back to her. “Tell them what happened.”

“We killed a person!” She harshly whispered to him.

“So? It was self-defense.” He clarified to her.

“No!” She hung up the phone really quickly, hitting it back on its handle.

She walked around him and away from the body. Then, she looked outside the door before she shut the door.

He was silent. His tall figure stood still as his dark eyes watched her under his long eyelashes. “So?”

“How can you be so calm? Have you done this before?” She gave him a suspicious look over. Then a second late, she covered her mouth. “What are we going to do?” Her wide eyes searched answers in his.

He shrugged his shoulders. “We burry him.”

“Huh!” She snapped her head at him and eventually nodded though in understanding and bent her head in thought. “The problem is how we take the body out of this room. “