Challenge #132
Option #1: suggested song - "Necessary Evil" by The Dresden Dolls
Peeping Alice pt.3
Alice walked quickly home to avoid any more unplanned stops. She combed her memory all the way home, trying to place where she had heard of Meadow Lane. Something nudged at her brain, and she tried to pull out whatever it was and nothing came. Nothing.
And there were no more random stops, no more odd houses, just straight through to her apartment building and up the steps. She knocked hard on the door across the hall from her own as she passed by. Once her door was unlocked she lingered a bit in the hall to see if anyone would join her. Vincent, where are you? When no one opened the other door she continued into her own apartment.
Comfortable in her own apartment, and more relaxed than she'd been all day, Alice kicked off her shoes and moved to settle in at her computer desk. So, a little research it is then. Within moments, she's lost herself to the internet, searching for any sign of Meadow Lane. With all time lost to her, she doesn't notice the final rays of sunlight crossing through her apartment and into the shadows of the evening.
When a knock finally sounds at her front door, she's startled. It takes her a moment to recover, and to get her heart to stop it's fitful pounding. Before she can get up and cross the distance to her door, it opens. A pale, and somewhat muscular man steps into the apartment, arms full of paper grocery bags. His almost white-blonde hair is windblown, and he's been unable to keep wisps of it out of his eyes.
"Vincent, there you are!" Alice scoops up a bag from his bundle and marches into the kitchen with him following behind her. He looks over the remaining bags in his hands, his dark blue eyes peering over the tops of groceries to take in Alice's frazzled appearance.
"I did not mean to startle you. Is everything alright Alice?"
"Things are mostly fine. I just expected you to be home already, I knocked on your door..." She searches the kitchen to figure out what time it is, "...wow, uh three hours ago."
"I was shopping. I knew you would need some things for this week."
For a few minutes they work in silence, putting things away in their proper places throughout Alice's tiny apartment kitchen. Alice finishes before him, and rustles through kitchen grabbing everything to make coffee.
"Ah," she reaches for a recently purchased cannister of coffee from one of Vincent's bags, "such a evil drink. But so very necessary."
"You said things were mostly okay, Alice? Did something happen this afternoon?" Concern lines his face as he turns to focus on Alice.
"Things, were weird this afternoon. You know that sometimes, I come home through the neighborhood, instead of taking the main roads when I walk?"
He nods.
"Well, I stopped on Meadow this afternoon, because I heard some shouting. I swear, I hadn't planned to, but I felt compelled to look inside and check on the people. This was really loud fighting. So, I snuck to the side of the house and looked in..."
Vincent grabs a mug for the both of them, and pours them both some of the freshly brewed coffee, then sits at the dining table. "What did you see?"
"Nothing much, a big guy pacing back and forth and yelling the whole time. I could hear a woman, just barely, crying I think, but I never saw her. Anyway, that's not the weird part." She sits. "The weird part is that I heard a weird noise when I got back to the sidewalk in front of the house. It was like, an earthquake, but not. It was a roar, and really loud too."
"Was it a human noise? Like from a human?"
"I don't think so. I don't know. But I don't think anyone else heard it, either. Vincent, it was so loud I don't know how anyone could've missed it. But it was like the world paused just for this noise."
"How, odd."
"I tried looking back inside the house afterwards, but I nothing was there. No people, no shouting, nothing. I don't know. Maybe I imagined it?"
"I doubt you imagined it. You said Meadow, Meadow Lane a few blocks over?"
Alice nods. "Yeah, about halfway down on the left...4125 I think. I thought you might know something about that place since you've lived here so long. That's why I knocked at your door earlier..." In mid-sentence, Alice realizes that Vincent has checked out of their conversation. He's staring at her, his blue eyes unreadable and lost deep in thought.
"Vincent? You know something?"
"Yes. But, you should know this already Alice. That is the house your parents lived in. The house, you grew up in before I found you."