I didn't go to the bathroom, but rather wandered around Leah's apartment, trying to look for a sign that anyone really inhabited it. I wandered through the twisting doorways looking for a little mess that someone had accidentally left because they were too tired to clean it up or a picture somewhere.

But everything was spotless. Everything was crisp in all the wrong ways. I tried opening a random drawer to see what lay inside. Packs of pencils, still cozy in their unopened packaging were there in little bundles. 

I felt trapped somehow. Closer inspection revealed that the windows didn't open, and the ones that did were bolted shut. I wandered until I actually was in the bathroom.

It was like a hotel, tiny bottles of generic body wash stood unopened on a thin little shelf. No towels were on the towel bar, folded in a corner, barely visible. 

This wasn't Leah's apartment.

Something bad was going to happen. 

I went to a window, looking down at the street. There wasn't anything there, but it still somehow felt like there should've been at least something. 

I took a deep breath and walked back to where Theo and Leah where.

Theo looked up. "You were gone a long time. You alright?"

I made a big show of yawning, staring at our host out of the side of my eye. 

"I'm just tired. Can we go home?"

Theo nodded. "Yeah."

I wrapped my hands around the back of his chair, noticing that someone had cleared the food off the table already as he stood up.  

"Have a good evening," Leah said, barely looking at us. 

I smiled. "Thanks. You too," and walked towards the door with Theo. I don't know what I was expecting, but the door opened easily. I and Theo walked down to the street without seeing another person, but I still felt uneasy.

"Theo," I whispered, "do you still feel like something bad's going to happen?"

"Yeah," he answered, which hardly made me feel better.

I walked faster, the sinking sun giving me something to race as I moved through the twisting streets. I was back in front of our apartment just as the last ray of light was slipping away. No one said anything as I and Theo raced up the stairs. I jammed my key into the lock and collapsed on my bed. I started to feel a little safer, but still, something was wrong.

I forced myself up and got ready for bed without a word.

$$$

I woke with a start, Theo's arms warm against mine. I pulled away, curling my limbs into myself so I wasn't touching him.

Someone was banging on the door. The clock said it was one am. I ignored the sound, imagining whoever it was would go away. I couldn't be expected to answer the door at such an unreasonable hour, could I?

The banging didn't stop. Theo couldn't be bothered to wake up to answer it either, so that meant I had to swing my feet out of bed. 

The peephole revealed a man I'd never seen before. He started yelling.

"Open up."

I mumbled under my breath, walking back to my bed in hopes that if I ignored the person at the door they would go away. 

Fifteen minutes went by before the knocking stopped, and Theo hadn't woken up in any of that time. I tried to gently shake his shoulder, but he didn't stir. 

The knocking stopped, but I was already committed to being awake. I walked over to the peephole just to make sure the man was gone, but my breath caught when he wasn't. 

The shadows on the wall seemed to morph into malicious shapes. I paced, and winding up by bed again, shook Theo. I needed him awake, but he didn't stir. Something was wrong.

"Theo!"

I heard a click. The sound of a lock unlocking. I whipped my head to the door. Terror was spreading through my body. I don't know why, but I felt like I needed a way to defend myself from whoever was coming.

I rushed to our small little kitchen, my hands made clumsy by the dark. Luck had guided the largest knife I owned to my waiting hand, I stood there, dumbly waiting.

I forced my breathing to slow and be quieter. The door handle seemed to turn of its own accord, revealing a lean shape, already walking into my apartment. It didn't see me at first, walking to the bed. 

I was out of the intruder's line of sight, but that didn't make me feel much better. The man was trying to shake Theo awake, just like I had. He spoke softly.

"They really knocked you out, huh? I have something to wake you up here. It's in one of these pockets..."

He proceeded to give himself a pat down, sighing as his hand hit a bulge where something was obviously tucked away. He pulled out a vial, the liquid inside reflecting the moonlight from the open door onto the far wall. Onto my painting.

Theo didn't move in his sleep, even as the man shook the bottle. I took baby steps forwards, crossing my apartment. I suddenly wished I had something more threatening with a farther range. It couldn't be helped at that point. 

The man bent over, forcing whatever was in his bottle down Theo's throat before I could move more than a foot. I slunk back into the shadows as the man turned in a bout of caution.

"C'mon. Wake up. We don't have all night." He poked Theo, seeming annoyed.

Theo groaned in his sleep, slightly moving.

"Well, get up, then!"

I couldn't tell in the dark, but Theo must've opened his eyes because the man was yelling at him to get up. Theo mumbled something. 

"What did you do to me?"

"I just gave you a little antidote to wake you up."

"Antidote?" Theo questioned.

"Yeah, when we got the tip, we gave an order to make you resistant when we take you in. You were already eating dinner. It wasn't hard to slip a little something in."

My heart raced in the shadows. Leah had poisoned the dinner. I should've been knocked out too, but the whole meal the topic had made me feel too sick to eat. I guess that was proving to be a blessing.

"Tip? Tip about what?" Theo was interrogating.

The man didn't answer the question, asking his own question instead. 

"Hey, kid. Don't you have a girlfriend? Where's she?" I wanted to dissolve into the wall.

Theo was sitting up now. "I don't know. She might've gone out for a walk."

Both their eyes started to scan the apartment for signs that I was there, but I wasn't going to give them any evidence. I took a deep breath. I kind of needed to sneeze. I could hold it in...