They Are Your Neighbours

The woman closed and locked the door to her apartment, which read "Stevens, Jade" on a gold nameplate on the outside. She proceeded to throw her winter coat on the chair that sat in the entryway instead of hanging it up properly, where it sprawled across the arm. This was just a sign of being overly lazy at that point, only wanting to take a shower and then relax in front of the television. In her opinion, she'd just had a hard day's work after all. In others' opinions, she'd done no more than normal, but she usually disregarded what anyone else thought. That was just the way she was.

Jade had also removed her shoes and was now heading for the main living area of the apartment she rented out. She planned to own her own house some day, but she'd just gone through a divorce and got nothing out of it. Quite the contrary to the stereotype, no? Wasn't it usually that the husband was the one who got nothing? Regardless, she had to start from square one all over again.

When she actually got into the living area, she picked up the remote control off of the inexpensive, though still comfortable couch and clicked the power button, which actually, somehow, did click. It was the oddest thing and she could never really explain it, however it clicked. Nonetheless, it worked and turned on and controlled the television, so she didn't really care.

She also had little care as to what channel it was on at the moment, only concerned with having noise in the background while she did things to prepare for her relaxation. She preferred to have noise than no noise, for having no noise made her paranoid. The classic line of 'it's quiet, too quiet' was the first that always came to mind when there was no noise, causing this paranoia.

As she walked into her bedroom and threw her favourite purse casually on her bed, she could hear the five thirty regular talk show coming on. It was always on before the news was, which started at six o'clock. Jade would more often than not just watch the news for traffic and weather reasons considering she lived in a rather busy city, even if it wasn't an insanely large one.

When she left her average-sized, apartment bedroom, she wore nothing but a housecoat and had a gathering of clean clothes in her arms to change into after she showered. Heading for the bathroom, she heard something on the talk show about a serial killer who they were looking for. She didn't catch where they were looking for this person, having walked into the bathroom and shut the door when they said it, but she wasn't all too worried either. When were they not looking for some serial killer or another? While she was paranoid, she just figured she had nothing to worry about. She'd never encountered a killer before and didn't think she ever would.

The water pouring down from the showerhead distorted the noise of the television even more, but she could still hear it at least a little. She knew she'd probably tune out the now muffled voices after a few minutes anyway, but for the moment, she could still hear it that little bit. This assured her that everything was all right. It also allowed her to relax and enjoy the warm water running over her flesh and wash away the tensions of the day.

By the time she did finish showering and changing into her lounging-around-the-house clothes, she could hear the voices of the newscasters on the television. They were just getting to introducing themselves for the evening and instantly began speaking of what was thought to be among the most important news of the day. This of course concerned about the war that was taking place overseas in a place that she'd never been to and hadn't ever thought of before the whole war started. It was strange how a place could become so well known, though it was pretty sad that they were well known because of a war.

The fabric of the towel rubbed against her hand as she rubbed it quickly across her head to dry her hair a little. Of course the towel wouldn't be able to suck out all of the moisture trapped in the thick locks of hair, but it would help a little. When she was finished rubbing her hair with the towel, it fell across her shoulders, where her housecoat, which was much the same material as a towel, would begin to absorb any more of the water. She could have easily have let her shirt, which was underneath the housecoat, absorb this water, but she had a strange pet peeve of hating the back or neck of her shirt being wet from her hair. The little wet spot would just annoy her to bits.

Jade walked back towards the bathroom briefly to hang up the wet towel and also to grab her hairbrush. She could instantly feel the difference between temperatures in the two areas. The hallway was cooler, while the bathroom's air was thick with the steam of the shower. When she left the bathroom this time, she was brushing her hair out, which of course had become tangled from rubbing it just moments before. But with the magic of conditioner, brushing her tangled hair out wasn't so terribly painful.

As she sat down on the couch, she noted that the newscasters had also begun talking about the serial killer that she'd heard briefly about before. This time, she was able to pay more attention, though she still didn't really care all too much. Even as they mentioned that the serial killer was probably in a neighbouring city due to where the bodies were showing up she didn't flinch. Again it came down to the thought that she'd never encounter a killer. Ever.

From what she listened to and caught while listening, this serial killer had already killed at least three people, though the authorities thought that there were more that they hadn't yet found. They, of course, couldn't be sure at the moment, but it was their speculation due to what information they'd already gathered about this killer. Who was to say that this information was right, though? Maybe it was all false information or they were being led to the wrong guy. Usually the police and investigators were right about that kind of thing, but what if this was one of the rare screw-ups?

She simply shrugged all this off as the entertainment news came on next, as if even the news castors had already had enough of hearing about the serial killer. A chuckle escaped her upon hearing about another spat between two celebrities, spawned by derogatory comments by one of them. But then the other returned comments just as slanderous and degrading. Yet they were suing each other because of it. Jade could only shake her head, her thoughts telling her that it would lead nowhere.

Another woman sat within her own apartment, looking out the window and across into the window of another apartment occupant. Technically they were neighbours as they lived in the same building, the building just happened to have an odd 'U' shape to it. Most people had their blinds drawn because of this if they were in the center of the 'U', but there were always a few that didn't. The particular window she was looking into obviously didn't have the blinds drawn.

At the moment, her own blinds weren't drawn shut, but they rarely ever were. It didn't bug her if people looked into her apartment or not. She always wanted to give off the air that she had nothing to hide. The only room that had blinds was her bedroom and that was for obvious reasons. What she did need to hide, she hid well, and not within the depths of her own living space.

The occupant that she was currently looking over at across the gap between the two sides of the 'U' building went by Jade Stevens. She knew much about Jade; where she worked, that she just went through divorce. The whole bit. It was also in her knowledge that Jade went through that divorce because she was cheating on her husband with another man. She knew that Jade was also a little concerned because this man she'd been cheating on her husband with hadn't returned her calls or seen her in several days. But he wouldn't be seeing her again. This woman had made sure of that.

She'd initially found out about Jade's unfaithfulness a while back. She'd seen Jade long before she ever had to move into the apartment building, mostly because they'd often taken the same bus to work. Jade and her husband would take the bus to work instead of using their car. The woman never knew why; figured it was something to do with trying to preserve the ozone layer or something. Whatever the case was, they took the bus.

While the two rode the bus, they would appear to be the perfect couple, but that only lasted until Jade's husband got off the bus. Apparently his work place came first in the couple's stop and once he got off the bus, Jade would, as discreetly as possible, remove her wedding ring and slip it into her pocket. She thought that no one ever noticed, but the woman did. She kept it to herself, figuring it wasn't her business. She thought at first maybe that Jade worked at some sort of place where she didn't want the ring to get dirty or lost. But why the discreetness then?

The woman found that out pretty soon, discovering that when Jade got off the bus there was another man waiting there for her. She'd give him a quick kiss and then the two would walk off together, at times even hand-in-hand. It was when she'd first seen this that the woman decided to be nosy and find out what was going on. And find out she did.

She felt a definite resentment towards those who cheated on their spouses, as her own husband had done that to her. That bastard wasn't someone she was worrying about anymore though, nor was the woman that he'd been sleeping with when he cheated on her. They were out of the picture. This hadn't been easy, but they were gone, just in the same way that Jade's man was gone as well.

Jade had already lost everything, well most everything, but that wasn't enough for this woman's resentment to be quelled. There was one final thing that she felt needed to be done, but she'd been waiting for the right time. Somehow that night felt like the right night, and she put her plan into action. She rose from her spot on the edge of the window and went to her cellular phone. Well, a cell phone. She didn't consider it hers, since she'd already gone through many.

After making the phone call, she went to meet the one she'd called at the spot that'd been agreed to. She wore a lighter coat that night because it wasn't too cold out. At least not to her; she had a high tolerance for colder weather. Regardless, she went out and reached the spot before the other person got there, just as she'd expected and leaned against the wall to wait.

It wasn't long after that she saw the unmistakeable form of the other making their way towards her at a slight run. This person was wearing a heavier coat and a hat on their head, hiding most of the wet hair, which was in a bun. They slowed to a halt and stared curiously at the person they saw before them, as it was obviously someone they weren't expecting.

"Hey, don't we live in the same building?" Jade asked the woman she saw before her. She was sure she'd seen this short-haired lady many-a-time in the building, though heading for the other side of the 'U'. Pretty much all attendants referred to it as the 'U'.

The woman grinned, pulling something out of her coat pocket with her gloved hand and tossing it on the ground at Jade's feet after hitting play. It was a small cassette player and it played off the message which had just been used to get Jade to come down to where they currently were. The voice on the recorded message was not that of the woman that stood before Jade, but that of a man. Her boyfriend. Jade looked up at the woman with disgust and shock.

"Where the hell did you get that?" she demanded to know, taking a step back and no longer realizing that the coat she was wearing just wasn't thick enough.

"It doesn't matter, Jade Stevens. That man is long dead," the woman explained with a slight shrug.

"Who-"

"It doesn't matter who I am. You won't be around long enough to care," the woman shook her head as she revealed the blade of a knife that no longer glimmered.

Jade's eyes widened in realization and she backed away in terror, finding that her feet wouldn't let her run away. They were cemented to the ground, or at least so heavy that she couldn't move. Was this just a sensation, or was something truly happening to make her feet cemented to the ground? Somehow it seemed terribly unimportant, especially as she suddenly felt the blade of the knife at her throat. Her breathing became heavy and panicked instantly, even more so than it had just been.

"Jade, dear, this is all your doing, I hope you realize. If only you'd loved your husband and been faithful to him. But no, you just had to go and cheat!" the woman whispered harshly in Jade's ear before drawing the knife sharply across the other woman's throat.

There was no screaming before or after this instant death, as if Jade had literally been rendered powerless in all ways. Her limp form fell to the ground now though, the blood seeping out of the deep gash in her paled skin and onto the sidewalk, which the woman took care to avoid. She also pulled out the cell phone she'd used and looked to a nearby trash can, where she threw it after doing a last wipe clean of it and tossed the knife in after doing the same thing to its handle.

The woman simply walked away from the dead form, not even glancing back at it in satisfaction that she'd completed the job well. It didn't matter that the dead body just lay in the middle of the sidewalk around mostly unpopulated buildings. This wasn't her town after all, but the one only fifteen minutes away from where she lived. She was confident that they wouldn't be able to trace her; not easily anyway.

So she just continued walking down the street at a fairly normal pace, sure that no one had seen the deed and not really caring if they had. It was too dark for them to see who she was. She would be gone and be rid of any identifiable items before they knew what hit them. Then she would go back to her apartment and sit in her living room and watch television. Maybe a special report would come up about her, though they would blame some man in another town. Why would they suspect her? Especially when she let on that she had nothing to hide.

End