*Ding~*
The elevator that had left the underground garage opened on the 69th floor. Alex came out with a sack of potatoes on his shoulder. But the sack had two feet, and a head of blond hair taken over by gravity and sweeping toward the floor with its arms down.
Unlocking the door of his apartment, Alex didn't glance at his bedroom once inside. He went across the dim room illuminated by the moon to open the door of another bedroom.
Turning on the light, the room looked simpler than his own bedroom. Walking to the bed, Alex threw away the handbag in hand first, then almost did the same with the burden on his shoulder. But after hesitating for a moment, he glanced at the unconscious blonde, then held back a sigh.
Bending his knees, he carefully lowered the woman onto the bed. He hesitated again, then decided to do the good deed to the end and tuck her in. Despite the heat that persisted outside even in the night, the inside of the apartment was kept cool and comfortable, so Sharon could indeed catch a cold if not careful.
Done with the maximum he had allowed himself to do, Alex stood up. He glanced at the pale face filled with sweat one last time, then turned around and left the room without looking back.
Though he had not eaten anything after leaving the hospital, Alex walked past the kitchen without stopping and went into his room. He made a beeline to the bathroom, then turned on the shower after throwing his clothes aside.
The cold water hit his head and slid down his skin, taking away much of the heat born more out of frustration than the sun or the season itself. His mind stopped turning, and the world paused under the rhythm splash of the water.
Passing his hands through his hair, the bruise on his left side looked prominent, though not as bad as it should have been after so long. It felt particularly obvious under the bright light of the bathroom, but he seemed not to feel anything, not pain, nor any discomfort.
The time the playboy spent in the shower was neither long nor short, but he came out fresh and calm.
After roughly wiping himself, he tied the towel at his waist and looked at himself in the mirror above the sink. Silent for a while, he let out a slight smile at the sharpness his slicked back hair lent him, then raised his hand to press his palm against the mirror and push it aside.
The cabinet behind the glass didn't contain much. Most prominent inside was a black kit. Alex took it out, and calmly opened it to take out an ampoule inside, along with a syringe.
Piercing the fragile center of the ampoule's stopper, Alex filled the syringe with the solution inside, then pierced the vein of his arm with the long needle. He remained like that for a second, then pulled the needle out. It was only then that he pressed the plunger of the syringe, emptying the contents inside straight into the sink.
Alex cleaned the dirty needle that had traces of his blood with alcohol, before bundling the medical trash together for proper disposal. He closed the kit with an additional empty slot inside, and put it back in its place.
After washing his hands, he walked out of the bathroom. Picking up his pajamas, he put on the pants, threw aside the top, and walked to his bed. When he passed by the cabinet behind which was the safe, he paused, for a moment.
Alex threw himself onto the bed, and let out a comfortable exhale. Nothing like the softness that no one could take away from him to wipe away the woes of the day. And nothing like a good night of sleep to forget any and all bad moods.
"Hahhh~"
Letting out another exhale, Alex let himself relax, and turn to the sky awash with the silvery glow of the full moon. It would have been even more beautiful if not for the city lights that made it dull.
A while later, Alex closed his eyes, and let his breath become even to call for sleep.
So high in the sky, the noise from the city felt distant, along with the restlessness of the night. Calm took over after the brief surge of activity the apartment had seen so close to the end of the twenty-four hours that made the day.
The day was not over for some down below, but here, it was truly over.
_ _ _
_ _ _
The sun rose on the city to find it a bit quiet. It was the weekend, after all, and even among those who had stayed at home to rest the previous night instead of going out to unwind, not many were really in a hurry to go out and start running around.
But some still found it better to start their day early.
*Ding-dong~*
The chime was pervasive but soft, the kind one would not find irritating even when disturbed. After the bell rang, the door of the only apartment on the 69th floor let out a soft click and was pushed open from outside.
An open toe high heel stepped in, followed by the second, before the black-haired ponytailed woman it belonged to glanced around, her greyish-blue eyes pausing on the empty kitchen.
Seeing no one there, Leyna went straight for the master bedroom, the crisp sound of her footsteps the only noise in the apartment, and pushed open the unlocked door without any shyness. When she saw the disturbed bed with no one on it and heard no sound inside, her calm gaze firmed up with a guess most likely to be the truth.
The apartment building had seventy floors, not just sixty-nine. Only, the last two floors had been built into one single apartment, connected by a flight of stairs beside the master bedroom.
Turning around, Leyna went to the bottom of the flight of stairs. Looking up, the top was beset with a darkness that made the floor above seem like another world altogether, a mysterious and unsettling world.
Looking into the darkness, Leyna called out in a clear voice:
"Alex."
The darkness had been quiet before, and now it fell even quieter.