The Noxious Neighbors Part 5
He is through the gate and up the stairs and it is clear that the screams are coming from the neighbor’s apartment. He tries the knob and the door swings open, revealing a laundry room that leads out to a hall way. The screams come rushing back, close now. He throws himself down the hall and he’s briefly in a small living room before finding himself in a bedroom with Ellie standing pushed up against the wall. She stops screaming the instant he enters.
“What the hell is going on?!” PB demands.
Ellie’s face is white as a sheet and all she can do is point into the closet. He makes his way across the room and over to the closet door. There is a box lying on the floor of the closet and inside is a dead raccoon.
“God damn. You’re boyfriend is into some sick shit,” he says.
“I don’t know what do.”
She leaves the room in tears and PB is left with the box and the raccoon. He puts the top back on the box and joins her in the living room where she is lighting a cigarette with shaking fingers.
“I knew I noticed a smell but I wasn’t sure,” she says “This morning I couldn’t stand it. It was horrible. I thought it was in the kitchen but then I really started looking-“
She trails off and takes a deep hit of her cigarette. The smoke and the crying have combined into hiccups which come out as little squeaks between drags. PB leaves her there on the couch and returns to the bedroom where he retrieves the box. He takes it behind the building and disposes of it in the dumpster. He returns to the apartment and Ellie is still pale but much more composed.
“Do you know what Owens’s involved in?” he asks her.
“No.”
“It’s not pretty. It’s some sort of gang led by a bald psychotic. They almost killed a girl up in the hills last night.”
“What girl?”
“I don’t know. A Spanish girl. They were going to kill her and Owen was involved.”
He expects her to ask how he knows this but she just lights another cigarette. He’s still exhausted but his own mind is asking a million questions.
“Did Owen come home last night?” he asks.
“I didn’t know he left. I was at work.”
“Where is he now?”
“At work I guess.”
“Where’s that?”
“Downtown Berkeley on Shattuck. It’s called The Hobbit Hole.”
“Does he have an older friend that’s bald?”
“He has friends on the Internet. Not one’s I’ve met.”
Part of him just wants to go next door and go to sleep but a bigger part of him is curious and an even bigger part of PB is scared. The fear won’t let him rest and he knows he has no choice but to go where the fear demands.
“You said the Hobbit Hole right?” he asks and heads to the door without waiting for an answer.
“Wait!” Ellie is on her feet and is stubbing the cigarette out “Can I stay in your place? I don’t feel safe here.”
He nods and lets her into his apartment which still sits neglected and full of boxes. He leaves her there and catches the train a few blocks away. He gets off at Downtown Berkeley and makes his way up out of the subway station. He only walks two blocks before spotting the Hobbit Hole.
It is a tiny books store in the mid way point of a block. He stalks it from the other side and observes the windows with the books and the green door and the wooden sign with the little gnomb painted on it. He crosses the street at the next block and slowly makes his way back to the store, entering through the door.
Business seems to be slow, besides PB there is only one other customer in the store. PB makes his way through the rows of book shelves and spots Owen standing behind the counter reading a magazine. PB makes as if he is browsing and looks over the titles on the shelves. It all is mostly comic books and fantasy novels. He makes it to the well stocked occult section before he hears the door swing open and a fourth person enter the store.
He peers over the shelves and spots the bald man with the handle bar mustache make his way up to the counter. He is no longer in his crimson cloak; he floats across the wooden floor in a black raincoat even though there are no clouds in the sky outside. The bald man consults quietly with Owen and then Owen is coming around the counter and making his way towards the occult section. PB feels all the muscles in his body tense up.
“Excuse me.”
PB is acting like he is engrossed in the titles on the shelf and doesn’t turn to look directly at Owen.
“Excuse me sir. We’re going to be closing for lunch. Feel free to come back after 1pm and make a selection then.”
Owen speaks flat and dull, like a robot. PB nods and follows the other customer out the door. He makes a right to get back to the train and almost walks head first into another pedestrian. He steps back to apologize and looks into the face of a giant, bruised along the right side where he was hit by a blunt object the night before. PB is looking into the giant’s eyes and he sees the spark in the pupils when the recognition hits the other man’s mind.
PB is thinking about which way to run when the giant’s hands are around his neck and he is being shoved through the door way and back into the store.
To be continued in Part 6.
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