NOVEL WEB Chapter 71: Listening
Nick shut the door behind him with a slow click.
His apartment was quiet — as it always was without Luna home — and as he leaned back against the door, it struck him again just how little about this place he knew.
The rooms were clean, spotless, with barely any personal effects. A few bits of clothes, some sparse furniture, and the bare essentials. It was all rather… dull.
His and Luna's move had been quite haphazard, and so this new apartment, while much nicer, still had yet to feel like 'home' to Nick.
The lack of anything sentimental really set that tone in.
It was more of a house, a roof over his head, than a home — especially without Luna there.
He crossed to his room with unhurried steps, as his investigations were done for the day, and pulled back the curtain just slightly to check the street below, then let it fall again with a soft rustle.
There was no movement, at this time of day the streets were rather empty. People were either at work, or at home tending to their kids.
There were no suspicious loiterers, as he had a small suspicion the Whitesteel gang might place after he had shown his unwillingness to cooperate.
No thugs leaning against lampposts. Just the usual grey blur of city life, with the few pedestrians who were about being more concerned with their own bills and burdens than whatever was boiling up behind the scenes of this neighbourhood.
That was fine though.
He wasn't expecting them to return tonight.
People like that — gangsters, bullies who used numbers and fear to their advantage — always thought twice when they had their feathers ruffled by someone resisting their attempts.
At least, the smart ones did.
And while Nick didn't think the duo who visited him lived up to that criteria, Whitesteel, their leader, at least did — considering he had managed to keep his business under wraps and out of the ears of Kai and his father for so long after moving in.
And judging by how Nick had forced them away, Nick was willing to bet they were at least smart enough to go back to their boss and report what had happened.
Which meant tonight would likely be quiet.
He decided to call it there.
He made sure every entrance to his apartment was locked, and changed out of his clothes before jumping straight into bed.
His mind was too heavy with the images of that single mother, with her baby crying in the back, and the fear in her voice as she begged, not for herself, but for her child.
It brought up some memories from within Nick that were buried deep, some memories that he would have rather kept hidden.
The confusion he felt all those years ago when his parents had died, and he stood there in stunned silence at his opened front door after the officers had informed him — with Luna, barely even old enough to comprehend what had happened, beginning to wail in the back…
The image stuck with him as he laid on his mattress, eyes open, staring at the faint spots of light on his ceiling, filtered through the window.
A few weeks ago, he would have let it go. Just ignored the Whitesteel gang after they left him alone.
But a few weeks ago, he wasn't strong enough to do anything about it.
Now?
…He still wasn't 100% sure, but he still felt much more confident.
***
Morning came quickly after Nick had eventually managed to catch some sleep.
Nick's internal clock was still adjusted to his ventures in the Beast Domain, and so the sun wasn't even up by the time he woke up, and the sky was still as dark as ever.
He didn't eat breakfast.
Didn't even bother boiling some water for tea or coffee.
Instead, he dragged one of the dining chairs over to the door and sat down beside it, silently resting his Whiteclaw Snake King Beast Armament against his leg as he closed his eyes and rested his head on the wall behind him.
From afar, it might look like he was asleep.
One arm draped casually over the back of his chair, the other in his lap lightly holding his spear, and his breathing had slowed.
But while his eyes were closed, his ears were wide open.
The apartment building was unnervingly quiet at this time of morning.
But the thin walls made it so Nick could hear anything going on outside his door quite clearly, especially with his enhanced senses from being an Altered.
Yet, you could still go a full day without seeing anyone, as Nick had already proven. Though he suspected that the Whitesteel gang had something to do with this. The fear they drove into the residents when they extorted them probably made them terrified of leaving their houses.
He sat there for nearly forty minutes before he heard anything.
Thud.
Tap.
Tap.
Thud.
His eyes opened at once, keeping calm and alert.
The faint sound of shoes echoing against the hallway's flooring carried to him through the frame of the door.
It was muffled, but unmistakable to Nick's ears.
He recognised the sound of those footsteps.
He had etched them into his mind after he heard them departing from his door after he slammed it in their face the previous day…
One foot dragged a bit long, while the other hit with a heel first stomp.
Nick knew exactly who they belonged to.
The more alert, and attentive man from yesterday.
The one who kept his cool and confident demeanour and spoke first upon Nick opening the door.
Though there was only 1 pair of footsteps, which told Nick that the other guy must be somewhere else.
He leaned forward, pressing his ear lightly against the wood composite door.
The steps didn't stop at his door though, as he had assumed they might.
They kept going, a little past it, until they stopped across the hall.
Three soft knocks, followed by the pressing of a doorbell, ensued.
But not on Nick's door.
On the door opposite him, belonging to the woman he had talked to the previous day…