Unexpected Guest

”..-Ah, how bothersome…’

Catheris thought after waking up from a nap, prior he was exhausted from the sheer amount of energy it took moving things around. He was still unable to sleep in his room yet as brown cardboard boxes were sprawled across the floor of it. Maybe he’d get pajamas after his room was okay to sleep in, even if the slightly too big grey hoodie and black shorts were comfy he could definitely do better.

A few days ago he’d received the call about the car crash, and in a few days he’d visit; nice to know that the old lady was still hanging on.

All things aside, the leather couch he’d slept on felt like the best thing he’d ever slept on; as if he were sinking into it, he had been sleeping harder recently. This was what- the second place he lived in by himself? Sure, it was a nice location that made getting to work far easier. Catheris was a bit regretful about the timing, the leaves were wilted, crunchy and brown in preparation to fall off for the winter season. He’d have to rush to settle everything in time, but he was grateful nonetheless.

Even though he was very content with it, Catheris couldn’t shake off the feeling that something was wrong about the place no matter what he tried to convince himself with. There was something that made him feel uncomfortable. No clue where the unease came from, perhaps it’d be the unfamiliarity in the end.

Forget it, he was simply too tired to care. Catheris thought he’d get some peace of mind after moving further away from his family, but he couldn't predict they’d interfere with his life already via an unexpected car crash. Gosh, his dark circles were getting worse from the lack of sleep from over worrying.

With the current situation of the apartment and grandma being muddled together, Catheris was inevitably led to sleep deprivation. Maybe that was the reason why he was so on edge these days. Whenever he heard random creaks when it was silent, he’d think they had an underlying reason. Oh gods, was it the paranoia getting to him? He’d been seeing figures in the corner of his eyes as well lately.

“I thought I'd at least hold on for longer, to think I'm getting superstitious at this age…” He groaned, scratching the itch on his head with one hand and pulling on his blanket with the other after rolling himself on his side on the new, just placed couch.

‘Sure, take a minute.’ Catheris told himself, doubting he’d have the willpower to get up without adjusting a bit to being awake first. He suddenly stretched his arm to the side and started frantically moving his arm back and forth on the glass on top of his coffee table trying to feel his phone on its surface before finding it. Just something hard in general needed to be felt, as it was probably under one of the multitude of scattered magazines.

After grabbing the black phone in a clear case off of some sort of magazine, he set his alarm after glancing a bit at the time, around 6:30pm. Then he promptly went back to lying down doing nothing but trying to relax. Catheris closed his eyes and snuggled himself into the blanket.

A mere minute was all he was getting, nothing less, it was all he could afford before he got his weak ass back to work.

Currently Catheris’s mind could only fantasize of getting a proper rest while staring blankly into the wall. Did he ever get a proper night’s rest? No, but at least he could nap whenever he wanted to anywhere.

‘Perhaps the unease will go away after everything’s completely settled, -I could definitely use that as motivation.’ He thought, and he did use it as motivation. Besides, he didn't feel too bad about the move, did he have any friends where he last lived?

Hell no.

They only lived near the busy parts of Virosiad. He could've gone directly into the more livelier areas to be a bit closer, but that was far too crowded, Virosiad was essentially a business hub.

The rustling of the blue and white poofy striped blanket stripped from his bed stopped after Catheris deeply huffed in a sigh the moment his alarm went off. He reluctantly got off from the couch still wrapped in the blanket, and clearly still groggy. The certain way the blanket was stuck in the couch dragging him back made it so tempting to lay down for a few more minutes of sleep. But alas, Catheris begrudgingly left the couch in the end. Midway through rubbing his closed eyes to rid his bleariness, he could hear a faint knock coming from the front door.

Catheris hadn't even told his friends living in the city that he had moved yet, so it couldn't be any one of them. He started picking up the blanket off the ground slightly to prevent it from getting dirty before trudging painfully slowly to the entrance of the apartment; he knew what to expect by this point.

‘...I love this nice ass wood floor.’

Just a simple, sleek black hardwood floor. He suspected it was another door to door salesman waiting outside to pester him once again like last time, no clue on how they kept getting in but they did in the end anyways.

Once he’d reached his door he hovered his hand over the gold doorknob. Truthfully, Catheris was anticipating what kind of shitty product the alluded door-to-door salesman would try and sell him. It was the fun of having a scam call, but in real life.

Gods, he was already trying to rid of the faint mischievous smile forming on his lips hidden by his hand covering his mouth. Perhaps an overpriced kitchen equipment set of poor quality he could agree to buying, then at the last moment he’d back out and say his nonexistent wife said no-

Upon opening the door, a click from the door lock opening came.

Slowly but carefully Catheris opened the door, but only slightly. Before he was about to mindlessly begin with a coy, sly, innocent sounding “yes?” to the person he was about to meet face to face with, it struck him. Catheris eyes widened once he recognized that familiar look.

Oh shit.

-Would it be too awkward to slam the door? But they'd known each other for too long. Catheris was left speechless, his eyes wide open. He stared at the back of the door, blinking every once in a while as to not let them go dry. What if he suspected Catheris was doing some weird ass shit behind the door from the sudden door slamming. Hold on, how’d he even get his address anyways-

“Hm? Are you gonna let me in?”