Fucking hopefully. Because I'm not about to spend the evening here with my traitorous little bitch cousin who wrapped me right around her little finger. I'm just here to tell her she needs to get the fuck out of my place.
The elevator doors close and I exhale a breath of relief. I hate being around people, hate their questioning stares when they see me wincing, hate the trepidation that's written all over their faces as they stare into mine.
I know I look like a monster.
The scar that mars my face runs along the length of my right side. My vision in one eye is impaired, and unlike my dark brown eye, my right one is ice blue, nearly white. I look like a beast from a storybook, and there's nothing I can do to change that.
The elevator dings and I get out, wincing as I walk to the apartment where Willa has been wreaking havoc for the past year. I rap my knuckles at the door, instantly noticing the number on the door is askew. She couldn't even fix that? How fucking lazy is she?
But if I'm shocked by the appearance of the flat from outside, nothing prepares me for the sight as the door flies open.
A feral creature stands before me. Her dark hair is unruly and wild, curls framing her face. Her pupils are dilated to a painful extreme, nearly taking up all of the green of her irises. Her skin is pale, deathly pale, and she looks skinny enough to be a child. But she's a woman – underneath the dirt, grime and makeup. She's only wearing a long T-shirt, and I'm not even sure she has a pair of panties underneath it.
"What?" she barks at me ferociously.
But what shocks me more than her obvious hostility is that she doesn't recoil at the sight of me.
Since the accident, people have been treating me very fucking differently. They won't meet my gaze. They're freaked out by my scowl, by the scar, by the eye. But not this girl. She just stares at me with pure hatred, not even flinching at my beast-like appearance.
"Where the fuck is Willa?" I hiss back, matching her tone.
"Willa?" Her bottom lip trembles, making her look intensely vulnerable. It elicits an unwelcome reaction from me, one of pity, one of wanting to help this clearly lost creature. I shake my head to get the thought out. "She doesn't live here anymore."
"Then who the hell are you?"
"Mercy."
Her name feels like something between a blessing and a curse on her lips. And judging by the state of her, I'm guessing it's more of the latter. She certainly looks like she's going through something, and she seems high as fuck.
"And who the fuck are you?" she asks me. "You can't just walk in here and start demanding shit, Mr. Stranger."
"I'm the fucking guy whose apartment you're living in," I tell her coolly, risking a look over her shoulder into the interior of my place. "And judging by the state of it, Mercy, you got a lot of fucking explaining to do."
She instantly pales and I quickly realize it's worse than I first imagined. First of all, the scent of weed is flowing from inside, so potent it makes my stomach roll. And I can already see just from standing at the front door that the place is fucking trashed. What the fuck has Willa done to this apartment? And what the hell is this wild creature doing here, wrecking everything?
Mercy reacts quickly, attempting to slam the door closed on me. But I'm too fast for her, sliding my good leg between the door and its frame, wincing when she hits me with it hard.
"I'm calling the cops!" she screams like a banshee.
"And telling them what? That you're trespassing in my goddamn apartment?" I shake my head. "I don't fucking think so. Let me in."
"N-No."
She stubbornly crosses her arms and attempts to block me from entering my own place. "You can't come in right now."
"You'll forgive me if I don't take you seriously," I growl. "You're trespassing, Mercy. Now step the fuck aside so I can come inside."
She chews her bottom lip nervously, sizing me up with her eyes. She quickly comes to the realization she won't be able to hold me back physically. The girl is tiny and I tower over her. I could easily throw her over my shoulder and toss her the fuck out of here.
"Please don't come in."
Her voice is pleading now and I see she's trying a new tactic.
"Step aside."
"No."
I grunt, grabbing her by the waist while she shrieks and setting her aside as I walk into the apartment.
The first thing I notice is the smell which is even stronger inside. But there's something else. The apartment is bare, stripped of everything that was worth something.