All Alone?

You step cautiously into the apartment building. It seems to be empty, like the others. You bite your lip. One foot in front of the other. You can do this. You're not sensing any of them, yet.

Key word: Yet.

No one in the reception area. Everything has the appearance of being promptly abandoned. Good, right?

Key word: Appearance.

You're always on guard. Perhaps that's why you're still alive. You don't think it is a question. You slowly make your way up the stairs, double checking behind yourself every few paces. Nothing. You make it to the third floor after about an hour. As you inch along the hallway, you sense heat. Someone, or something, has been through here recently. You tense.

***

I wake up from a dreamless sleep by the shifting sun. It hasn't been more than a few hours, but this does mean the sun is now directly in my eyes. I grumble and sit up to close the curtains. I don't want to face reality right now. Or ever, right now. I yank the curtains clumsy and they make that scratchy shink sound. It annoys me slightly.

I hear something. My heart jumps to a million beats per second and I'm wide awake. This is because I've heard almost no noise that I haven't made myself. This new sound, completely unexpected, sounds, if I'm not still dreaming, like a gasp.

Like someone taking a surprised breath of air. Someone behind me.

I get completely out of bed as fast as I can without falling on my face. My skin feels jittery and I'm breathing fast.

"Hello?" I call. It has a desperate twinge that I don't care to notice. I start to walk towards my open door. I haven't bothered closing it recently.

Nothing.

"Hello? Is someone there?" I called again. My head's beginning to doubt what I heard. My heart, on the other hand, has had two too many desperate days.

"My name's Daniel," I say, "I'm not going to hurt you." In the apocalypse, there's always a group of people who go crazy and cannibalize, or do other fucked up shit. It's only been a couple days, though, so I think my statement has some merit to weary ears.

I'm at the door frame. I close my hand into a fist, fingers digging into my palm, to do something with the extra energy from my nerves. I step out and look around. At first, the most dreaded sight meets my eyes. No one is here. My head was right.

Then I notice it.

I wouldn't normally notice it, but now isn't normal.

It's small, and honestly, I don't even know what it is. I think it looks like a pendent, like on a necklace, but it's shaped like a triangle and has tiny wisps of what I first think is hair. White hair. White hair that contrasts sharply with the overall blackness of it. I think it's the closest color to void I've ever seen. I kneel down and examine it closer.

The hairs disappear into the thing and I realize they are a part of it. Gross.

I reach out to touch it and the hairs stand up to meet my fingers. Weird.

I have the fleeting impression of being in a sci-fi show. Kinda cool.

The hairs don't feel gross or dangerous, they just tickle a little. I pick the thing up and stand. It sits in my hand calmly. It's warmer than I thought and the hairs kept moving towards me and my hand. Waving around like their searching.

Body heat? I think, Probably. I dunno.

Whatever it is searching for, it doesn't stop. The hairs keep waving at me. To the surprise of both of us, I wave back with my other hand. This is a new low.

God, I'm so fucking lonely.

Then I realize what this means. This thing in the hallway, where it wasn't before. Someone was here. They must have run off and dropped this. I catch myself nodding my head in agreement with myself. Close one there. Better find whoever dropped the thing quick before I lose the rest of my sanity. I hurry towards the stairs.