The taxi stopped in front of the building Nora lived in, and she rushed out of the car, paid the fare, and ran inside. The neighborhood wasn't so bad that a burglar would come and go as pleased, so she was really surprised that this happened.
But, she wasn't sure of the entire gist. She would know that when she got upstairs. The building doesn't have an elevator, so she raced up the stairs to the second floor.
As she got there, she saw Ms. Teddy standing outside the door of her place with her hand on her waist, and the landlord poked his head out of the door, talking to Ms. Teddy
"This is really not an outside job." He said.
Frowning, Nora walked to the door quickly, and Ms. Teddy acknowledged her presence. "You're here now." She said and Nora nodded. She paused when she got to the door and looked into the apartment to find it empty.
This wasn't the usual break in where a few things would be taken. The apartment was completely empty. She gasped as she glanced back at Ms. Teddy and then at the landlord. "What the heck is going on?" she asked, but they sure didn't have the answer to her question.
She walked to her room slowly, as if something dangerous was waiting there for her, but in the real sense, she was just scared of what she would see. The door was also slightly opened and she pushed the door and entered.
Her bed was gone, replaced by the small bed her roommate used in her room. Most of her clothes were missing from her closet and the shoe box she used as her safe, the one she normally kept under numerous books in her closet was lying on the floor open, with all of her money gone.
Nora was at the point, close to tears. Her phone was ringing, perhaps she was being called from work because she had promised to be available tonight, but here she was in the middle of a chaos and she couldn't do anything about it. Who had done this to her? She asked herself but there was no answer, then suddenly, something clicked in her mind.
Rushing out of her room, she went into her roommate's room; a biker who had needed a place to stay for a few months a year ago, but she had stayed on. They had both split the rent and the bills around the apartment as well. She wasn't really sure about the kind of person she was, but they had been living without any problem on, so she had no reason to think anything was wrong.
Even now, she wasn't thinking she was behind this until the fact that her bed was replaced with hers came to mind. Why would a burglar come into their apartment to switch their beds after taking everything they basically have in the living room and most of her things? That was when it clicked that something was wrong.
Like her room, Firefly's room was empty as well, with only the desk in her room left. She walked to the desk when she noticed a white piece of paper lying on it.
She could see that something was written on it, so she picked it up and read. "Nora, sorry, but I had to leave. I borrowed some of your stuff. I'll get them back to you later. Don't fret. Firefly." The paper slid off her hand to the ground and Ms. Teddy who had followed her in picked it up to read it too.
"Oh, wow. This is all your roommate's doing?" she said.
Nora couldn't believe this was happening. Was it possible she had slept back at Ryan's apartment and this was just a dream? She couldn't believe she would do this. She had not only taken her stuff, but her money as well, leaving her poorer than she was yesterday. She had not told her about moving or hinted to her she needed to move. This was so critical that Nora was driven to the brink edge of crying, but she tried holding it all in.
What the hell was she going to do? How the heck was she going to survive this all? She was still asking herself that when she heard Ms. Teddy telling the landlord to call the cops.
"You're going to need to tell them everything you know about her when they arrive so that they can track her down." Ms. Teddy said, but Nora shook her head. she' knew nothing about Firefly, she wasn't even sure that was her real name. Of course, it wasn't because why would anyone name their child Firefly? She hated the fact that she had allowed herself to be used this way. It might sound unreal, but that was the truth.
When she wanted to rent this apartment, after looking around the neighborhood to find a great place to stay with a single room and couldn't, she had decided she would have to get a roommate. When Firefly came along, she didn't seem shady, just someone who was keeping secrets and she never thought it was polite to ask or start poking her nose into her business. She believed that she had the right to her privacy and would tell her if she ever wanted to.
They had lived together for one year and she never thought she would do that. They were just regular roommates that didn't know anything about themselves but what were told, and they ensured it stayed that way.
"So, when will you pay the rent money you're owing for the last two months?" the landlord asked behind her.
Frowning, she turned to him. "I'm sorry, what do you mean? I didn't owe any money." She said. "I know how you hated taking half payments so I gave mine to Firefly when she said hers was delayed. She told me she paid you, and when you didn't bother us any more about it, I believed her." She said.
The landlord shook his head. "She never did, Nora. I stopped asking because Ms. Teddy said you were going through a rough patch." He said. He was about Ms. Teddy's age and had a massive crush on the professor.
"Holy shit!" Nora said, with Ms. Teddy's voice echoing it. Before she knew what was happening, she was down and the last thing she heard before she blacked out was Ms. Teddy asking the landlord to call nine-one-one.