Justin tried to contain his excitement.
Part of him knew it was wrong to start seeing someone else while he was still with John. However, the other part of him didn’t care. He didn’t give a shit anymore. He wanted someone new, someone who would treat him like a person. John and him had been done for months now, ever since Barbarella had made her way into their lives. Justin knew that some people didn’t have any writing abilities, so they had to find their creative side some other way.
Justin just wished that John had found it some other way rather than put on fake tits and women’s clothing.
He didn’t look at what he was about to do as cheating. They were done. He just had to kick the bitch out and change the locks. He turned on some soft music, knowing that Barbie would be out of the apartment for hours doing coke with her gal pals. He had the whole place to himself for once.
Justin always turned to his writing when things got tough and they had been especially tough as of late. Barbarella really put a damper on his self esteem and the way he felt about himself. He had started writing romance to somehow experience the love he wanted instead of the love he was getting. Not that things with John had been all bad. It was only as Barbarella reared her ugly head and John got into all the drugs that things had started to go downhill.
So he changed tracks. He wrote about the love he wanted instead of the love he was getting. He had seventy books to his credit and the last twenty of them had been New York Times Best Sellers. He didn’t know when it happened, but all of a sudden it was his heart on the page, his wants and desires. Justin had never really spoken through his characters before, but it seemed the readers loved it. He couldn’t write fast enough.
Justin was especially proud of his new novel. It was a tale of two men who are a handful of the last survivors on earth and only with the world having ended do they find each other. It was a little different from what he normally wrote, less hot sex and more romance and suspense, but he knew it would do well. He would show it to Shane and see what he thought.
There was a knock at the door. Taking off his ear phones, he threw them on the desk and gave himself one last look in the hallway mirror. He opened the door with a smile on his face and saw Shane with new eyes for the first time.
“Hi.” He said. Shit he was a writer. He could come up with better lines then that. “Want to come in?”
Shane nodded. “Did you see the big mess downstairs?”
“What big mess? Did someone get hurt?”
“Moira’s door is all busted and its like the building is a grave yard. I haven’t seen Hollis or Blaine or Colleen and Giles seems to be hiding somewhere; there’s black fog everywhere.”
“You know that fog can’t be in a building right?”
“I know that, but its not smoke. Did you know there are bird feathers all over the second floor?”
“What?” He opened the door so that Shane could step inside. “No one here has any birds. What would bird feathers be doing here?”
“Search me.” Shane said. He blushed. “Hi.”
“Hi.” He said again. God he had to think of better lines.
“So this is where you live…with John?”
“Shit. I was hoping we wouldn’t get to that right away.”
“What can I say, I’m pretty forward. You can feel free to get me a drink while you explain yourself.”
Despite his nervousness, Justin smiled. He went to the kitchen and spoke to Shane through the pass through. “Well, it’s complicated.”
“Let me guess. He’s been treating you like scum since he let his inner bitch out and you’ve decided your done but haven’t told him yet.”
Justin was quiet. “That obvious?” He handed Shane a martini.
“No, it’s what I do. That guy treats you like shit and just does what he wants. You’re not a lover to him, you’re a meal ticket.”
“Do you want to go? I’ll understand if you do, I shouldn’t have put that ad up.”
“Are you kidding me? I finally get to meet you! Do you know how many of your books I’ve read?”
“We live in the same building. You could have met me any time.”
“Not with the Godzilla around.”
“So what?” They moved to the living room and sat on the small sofa that was there. Justin was nervous. Shane had such a nice smile and gorgeous dimples that lit up his face every time he smiled. “Are you okay with this?”
“Well, it’s not the perfect situation, but I’ll take it.”
“I’m going to kiss you now.”
“I was hoping you’d say that.”
They moved in for a kiss but before their lips touched, they heard a scream. Justin leaped up, spilling his martini. “What was that?” He went to the door and opened it, taking a few steps back.
The hallway was filled with black fire. They heard a woman screaming and pounding on her apartment door. It sounded like Petunia. The fire crackled and snapped but it didn’t appear to be burning anything. As they watched it, the fire came towards them and Justin slammed the door shut.
“What the fuck was that?” Shane asked.
Justin was about to answer when he heard a voice. It was a whisper filled with malice and hate. It took Justin a second to realize that the voice was coming from all around them and that it wasn’t just inside his head.
“I grow impatient. All of you players are in position. Let the games begin.”
69B 