Neighbor

I finally started to write, or at least I really wanted to. I’d opened the text editor on my freshly new laptop and… stared at the blank white computer page for about an hour.

“Why is it so hard?!” my mind felt like Sahara Desert, empty and dry. Then I decided to go on some web novel chats in search for any kind of help.

“How do I start???” I cried desperately on the chat I found.

“Do you got a topic?” someone asked.

“I think I do…”

“Do you have the main character?”

“The main character…” I started thinking.

I wanted him to be a serial killer. A cold, twisted and incredibly intelligent man. Someone with a dark soul, but someone irresistible. The kind of guy who’d make anybody lose their heads and hearts. Handsome and tempting brunet with a pale white skin and cold deadly stare…

And then it hit me. I’d just described the guy from the supermarket! My perfect main character.

Ok, I went a little bit overboard with this serial killer. He did smile after all and that smile wasn’t that fake… or was it?

“Stop thinking about the guy you won’t meet again!” I reprimanded myself.

It was time to think about the story plot.

“Maybe I should read some news… some bloody, criminal news…” I started my research. I spent four hours on reading useless articles, about some accidents with a shooting gun and deaths caused by gang scores. They were all dreadful and bloody, but there was nothing refined about it. And I needed some topic, that would match my perfect main character.

Ok… I might sound like a psychopath myself, but I thought I have to face a piece of darkness to write about it.

Then I finally found something interesting. It was a story about a businessman who died in his car after bleeding to death from femoral artery cut. The case was peculiar because there was no one in the car besides an old chauffeur.

The police detective determined the victim, Mr. Paxton, had to be cut before entering the car, but somehow didn't notice the cut. He claimed that the possible place of the attack was the Golden Rose Hotel where the victim stayed that day.

I later got to the news that there was indeed an accident involving the murdered businessman and an angry crowd of his former workers. But the crowd was chased away by Mr. Paxton’s bodyguards. Even if one of those former workers really got through the security and cut Mr. Paxton’s thigh there was no way he would have survive long enough to get to the car and drive for at least a half of hour before bleeding out and it would take less than fifteen minutes to bleed about after femoral artery cut.

How did I know this? Well, I didn’t pass the exam for the medical school, but I still have some knowledge… For example, I know that cutting a carotid artery will bleed you out in approximately four minutes. It takes longer to bleed out from femoral artery cut… But that was the knowledge I got from Mystery Crime Night and all the CSI shows on tv. I had some strange, unladylike hobbies.

Anyway, the time frame didn’t match.

But then I started thinking, “What if he didn’t start bleeding right away? What if the weapon that he was cut with was so sharp, that the wound opened later, even though he took a few steps to his car?”

That sounded a lot like science fiction, but it got me even more curious. I went through some forums online and found the information that Mr. Paxton had a crippled leg. He tried to cover that, but his beautifully looking black cane was actually replacing crutches. I never found any specific information, but it was enough to use his case for my book.

“But… is it ok to use the real case?” I asked myself, but then I thought, “I change the names and create a scenario around it… There’s no way it would have happen this way!”

So, I started creating a plot for my first chapter starting with a killing event.

“Grand Hotel, late evening. A guy in a black facemask is hiding at the corner, near the elevators, he is waiting. The elevator door open and Mr.… Mr. Payton… No, wait! Too close to Paxton… how about Preston? So… Mr. Preston gets off the elevator surrounded by his bodyguards. They all walk to the hall where they meet some furious people cursing at Mr. Preston. One of them tried to attack the businessman but gets caught by security. That was a perfect moment of commotion for a killer to strike. He is surprisingly fast and cleverly cuts Mr. Preston’s inner thigh with a knife so sharp it gets even unnoticed by the victim. The killer obviously chose the victim’s crippled leg since he knew that… this leg has reduced sensation and he won’t feel the pain right away!”

I felt like I solved some mystery.

“God! I’m sooo clever!” I shouted in excitement. I drank a glass of wine to celebrate my stroke of genius and got back to plot writing.

“Then the killer leaves the scene unseen or ignored by the security and hotel staff while the victim takes steps towards the car. Mr. Preston is putting all the weight on his cane, so it doesn’t pressure the cut too much… yet. He sits in the back of his car slowly bleeding out, but still not noticing it due to the dark suit his wearing. When he’s starting to feel the pain, it’s already too late and he loses his consciousness.”

I was ecstatic to create my story’s first criminal case. Then I had to think about the main character and again started thinking about the man from the supermarket… First, I wanted to rebuke myself for thinking about him, but then I thought that I already use a real case to put in my novel, why not base my main character exactly on him?

But how could I build my book character on someone I know nothing about… except for his great looks.

“Maybe he goes to that supermarket often?” I wondered. “Maybe I should go there and try to observe him? Maybe… he’ll notice me and think I’m a stalker!”

But I became more and more desperate and finally decided to get rid of my anxieties of becoming a stalker… or insane and went to that supermarket again in search of him. The following day I choose a similar hour and went to observe my target.

I dressed up pretty plain hoping to blend in, but I forgot that “plain” is not what people in this district wear! So, my jeans and hoodie look only made me look suspicious. Nevertheless, I was walking thought the aisles with an empty shopping cart for at least an hour. Then I noticed the shop security following me, so I picked some random products and a bottle of wine not to cause more distrust in their eyes.

I felt like stupid. Maybe it was even more embarrassing than my idiotic stuttering the first time I saw him. Then it hit me – I really wanted to see him! Me! The one who gave up on romances… Maybe my research for the character was just the excuse I gave myself to look for him…

“Ana, you really are an idiot…” I thought and prayed that my stupidity wouldn’t end up in me having a crush on man I saw only once in my life.

I came back to my apartment and opened that bottle of wine I bought although it was only past four o’clock. I drank a few sips from the glass and heard a doorbell.

“W-who is it?” I called shouting from a hall. I really wasn’t expecting any guests, so I changed into my sweatshirt and washed off my make up as soon as I came back home.

“I’m your neighbor form 2027. I think someone mixed up numbers and I have your package. Are you Anastasia Kowalsky?”

His deep and manly voice stunned me completely. Then I figured out that I really can’t answer a door wearing the things I’m wearing!

“Yes… just a second…” I replied while trying to put on some pants.

“That’s a pretty heavy package… Could you open the door?” he replied with something like a smirk, like he was quite enjoying the situation.

“I’m coming!”

I ended up covering myself in a bath robe and opened the door, only to find out that my new neighbor was my target! My base for the main character in my book! the devilishly handsome man from the supermarket!!!