ALEXA FINDLAY - ENDLESS

Alexa Findlay is an Undergraduate Creative Writing Major. She has an Associate of Arts Degree in English from El Camino College. She spends most of her time writing fiction and poetry. She aspires to receive her Master’s Degree in Creative Writing with a Specialization in Poetry. She hopes to one day become a Professor, and write books in the process. She is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of The Mystic Blue Review and Cadaverous Magazine. Her work has appeared in El Camino College’s Literary Arts Journal: Myriad, See Beyond Magazine, Pomona Valley Review, Better than Starbucks Magazine, Adelaide Literary Magazine, Halcyon Days and Halcyon Days Founder Favourites and forthcoming in The Quail Bell Magazine, Grotesque Magazine, and Blood Moon Rising Magazine. 

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ENDLESS
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​            You have arrived, Lauren’s GPS announces.
She comes to a stop, next to the decrepit, three story red brick apartment building in Downtown Brooklyn on Lindon Street. She pulls her old 2008 red Honda Civic beside the nearest curb. She steps out of the car and slams the door.
She steps onto the dried gum infested sidewalk. She stares at her new apartment complex. Ivy plants cover every inch of the building from top to bottom. Red painted fire escape stairs rest blatantly in front of the building for everyone to see. Shades remain closed throughout the complex as if deserted by human life for centuries. 
Lauren places her hand on her forehead to block the sun out of her face as she looks around for any signs of life. No one in sight. She turns to face the complex once again. Resting beside the complex and another building, lies a small children’s swing set.
Lauren is suddenly jolted back to her childhood when she and her older sister, Sydney, would play on the swings at their local park.
“Lauren,” a voice says with concern.
Lauren is suddenly jolted back to reality, standing on the sidewalk just outside the apartment complex. It’s Pete Holloway, the owner of the complex, and now her next door neighbor. He has an appearance of a twenty year old man, but is in his thirties. He is wearing a white collared long sleeve shirt with black work pants, a maroon tie, and black fancy shoes. His silky brown hair is groomed and gelled straight back like a man of the fifties. His crystal blue eyes twinkle like stars as the sun hits his retina. His broad shoulders are exposed through his white long sleeve shirt. He has the features of a male model. Lauren glares at him mesmerized by his beauty.
“Oh Pete. Hi!”
“You alright? You seemed to have zoned out there for a sec.”
“Oh yes! My apologies. Just a little nervous about moving into my new place.”
“No need to be worried. You are not alone. I am next door to keep you company if you ever need it.”
“Thanks Pete! I appreciate it.”
Pete reaches for Lauren’s green tote bag in the trunk of her car, but she grabs it before he can. He glares at her pink polished finger nails. They instantly take him back to when he watched her sign the lease papers, signing her name, Lauren Montgomery, a month before. But then she was wearing red nail polish. Her silky long blonde hair stretches all the way down to her lower back. She has the appearance of a sixteen year old, even though her driver’s license says she is twenty-five. She is wearing a maroon top under her black blazer, a pair of dark jeans, and short black boots.
Pete knew she was the one he wanted to lease the apartment to. She was young and beautiful, which was the type of tenant he wanted for particular reasons.
****
            As Lauren pours a medium can of SpaghettiOs into a pink ceramic bowl, she is reminded of when she and Chloe would eat them every day after school. It was part of their sibling bonding time.
Lauren is finally finished unpacking after a week of dusting, cleaning, organizing, and shopping. She glances at her watch. 7:00 P.M. As she places a napkin over the ceramic bowl filled with SpaghettiOs, the doorbell rings. She drops what she is doing to see who is at the door. She peeks through the peep hole. It’s Pete.
She opens the door part way. Pete is standing at her door wearing a plain black t-shirt, dark jeans, and Nike tennis shoes. Half of her body is hidden behind the door, the other half is exposed, revealing her solid navy blue baseball cap on top of her unwashed hair, a plain white t-shirt, light blue jeans, and pink fuzzy slippers. 
“Hi Pete. What can I do for you?”
“I was wondering if you would like to go to dinner with me?”
“As in a date?”
 “No, no. Just friends.”
“What day?
“Tonight.”
“Oh. Well the thing is I am making some SpaghettiOs for dinner.”
“SpaghettiOs? That’s going to be your dinner?”
“Yes. I love them. My sister and I used to eat them as kids.”
“That’s not a decent dinner. Let me take you out to get real food.”
“Hm…alright. Let me grab my coat.”
Lauren grabs her black coat from the coat hanger. She slips some black flats on her feet, grabbing her red medium sized leather purse in the process.
                                                            ****
Pete glares at Lauren through the darkness as they sit in the backseat of a taxi after dinner at Denny’s. He remembers when he was staring at Cindy the same way a few months ago as she sat next to him on the way back from the same Denny’s restaurant. Cindy lived in the same apartment that Lauren is living in now. Thoughts begin to race through his mind. How did he kill Cindy again? For a moment it escapes him, then he remembers drowning her in the nearby bay.
He is suddenly jolted back to reality when Lauren’s hand touches his when she places a twenty dollar bill in his hand. He smiles reluctantly.
How is he going to kill Lauren? Electrocution? Stabbing? Suffocation? So many endless possibilities.
The taxi driver pulls up to the building. Pete throws him some money. Lauren and Pete step out of the taxi ready to go back to their normal lives.
                                                            ****
            Pete presses his ear against the wall, hoping to hear what Lauren is up to. The apartment falls silent for a moment or so, until he hears her melodic voice in the living room.
            “Julie! Guess what?! I got promoted to Manager.”
            “Yes way!”
            “I start setting up my office tomorrow.”
            “I know I can’t believe it either.”
            Pete realizes that she is talking on the phone with someone named Julie. He dumps his glass of champagne on the wooden floor, and presses the glass up against the wall so he can hear better. The apartment falls silent once again.
                                                                        ****
            Lauren hustles to the coffee shop next to her office building in Downtown New York, before her meeting with the Johnsons’ at nine o’clock A.M.
            As she tells the barista her coffee order, she hears a familiar voice. She turns to the right and notices that it is Pete ordering a coffee as well. She quickly pays, and pulls Pete aside so she can talk to him. 
            “Oh my gosh Pete! I didn’t realize you get coffee here!”
            “Lauren! Of course. I love Crystal’s. They are known for having the best coffee in New York.”
“Well it was great seeing you, but I have to run. I have a meeting at nine. I’ll see you later.”
 Lauren grabs her vanilla latte from the ordering table, and sprints out the door.
                                                            ****
Pete buries his face into his hands as he sits at his tainted wooden desk in his cluttered room. How he is going to kill Lauren? The question lingers in his mind.
His thoughts run amuck as he begins to reminisce about what made him want to kill. The image of his high school crush, Sydney, takes over his mind. Her long blonde hair, her green eyes, her snowy white skin, her cherry red lips, her thin delicate body.
He violently shakes his head back and forth, trying to erase her face from his mind.
It was a week before prom and he desperately wanted to ask Sydney.
As she walked home one day after school, Pete followed subtly behind her. Unable to maintain the excitement, Pete screamed how much he loved her. He held out his giant poster that he spent hours on, asking Sydney to prom. Within a matter of seconds, Sydney burst out laughing. She told him that she would never go to prom with a loser like him.
Pete violently shakes his head, trying to shake the memory out of his brain. The thought of Sydney’s rejection sends him into a violent rage. He slams his fist against his desk, leaving an indentation. His rejection has made him hate beautiful women.
LAUREN MUST DIE! he writes on a piece of white printer paper.
                                                            ****
Lauren aimlessly strolls through the aisles of the grocery store, hoping to take care of some shopping.
She briefly remembers that she is need of milk. As she pushes her cart over to the dairy section, Pete comes unexpectedly from one of the aisles and slams into her cart. Ironic how she keeps running into him.
“Pete! How funny it is seeing you here!”
“I know! What are you shopping for?”
“Oh just the usual. Eggs, milk, butter, bread, etc. What about you?”
“Just the usual as well.”
“Well it was nice seeing you, but I better get going. Take care.”
Lauren leaves him in the middle of the dairy section. She pays for her items and leaves the store, second guessing that their encounters have been particularly odd.
                                                            ****
Pete watches from behind a bush as Lauren sits on a bench at the park eating her tuna sandwich with Lays chips. She comes here every day to eat her lunch. She feeds the birds her bits of bread. She gives the homeless woman, wearing a tattered old dress and a crocheted grey beanie with a purple flower in the center, some money. Pete glares at her admiring her kindness, but disgusted by her beauty. Sydney consumes his mind. He shakes his head violently, trying to once again shake her from his mind. He looks at Lauren. She resembles Sydney. Her jaw structure, her hair, her eyes, her lips etc. How is he going to kill Lauren? By ripping out her heart.
                                                                        ****
            Lauren sits in the back of the Taxi wearing her solid black party dress that she got from her mother one Christmas, and a pair of black wedges. She glances at her watch. It’s 7:10 P.M. She is late for her get together with Julie and Emily, her best friends from college, at a bar and grill called Lizzie’s. The three of them get together every Saturday night to talk about their hectic lives.
Lauren’s cell phone began to buzz. It was Emily, her other best friend from college. She answers it.
“Hello.”
“Lauren, are you coming?!”
“Yes I’m on my way. I’ll be there soon.”
“You better,” Emily says teasing.
The three of them have been best friends since their college years, three years ago.
The taxi pulls up next to the bar and grill. Lauren jumps out, and runs. She pushes past the double glass doors. From a distance she can see Emily and Julie drinking a martini. She slides past a few people and takes a seat at the end of the risen round table in the bar area. Lauren removes her red coat and puts it behind her chair along with her purse.
A waiter comes by and asks her if she wants something to drink. She tells him she wants a water. She takes a deep breath and relaxes at her seat. Julie and Emily stare at one another. Lauren notices their odd behavior.
“What’s going on?” Lauren senses that something is off. Is it because she was late?
Julie speaks first.
“Remember when you told me last week that you have run into Pete everywhere you go? “Well sweetheart, Pete is stalking you.”
“You know, I think you are right.”  
“Maybe Lauren, you should go to the police,” Emily says questioning her own response.
“The police can’t do anything yet. Pete hasn’t done anything.”
“Okay sweetie, but be careful.”
Julie and Emily stare at one another concerned for Lauren’s safety.
                                                            ****
Pete is sitting at a table far from Lauren and her friends. He watches as she sips her glass of water slowly. Her black dress hugs her tan legs. Her black wedges emit a shine as she stomps her foot continuously. Her straight blonde hair is tightly organized into a Cinderella like bun. Her earrings dangle and move as she moves her neck. She is gorgeous. The question of how he is going to rip Lauren’s heart out lingers in his mind, consuming his thoughts. He sits at the table taking sips of his strawberry lemonade.
                                                            ****
Lauren lies under the beige covers of her bed wearing her pink cotton stripped pajamas. Her small square of a room was just down the hall from the kitchen.
Lauren props herself up with two white pillows. She grabs a book from her book stand that rests beside her bed. She grabs a book by her favorite author, Stephen King, and begins to read.
As she begins to read, her eyes get heavy. She gets out of bed and turns the light off, ready to hit the hay.
                                                            ****
Pete peeks through the peep hole of Lauren’s apartment. The apartment is pitch dark. He pulls out the spare key to Lauren’s apartment. He has one for every apartment in the complex. He places the key in the key hole and turns it discreetly, opening the door in the process. He tippy toes inside, feebly closing her front door behind him. He makes his way into Lauren’s room. He stands above her as she sleeps. He gently touches her soft blonde hair. She sleeps like an angel. He grabs his cell phone from his back pocket, and snaps a picture of her as she sleeps soundly. She is unaware that he is in the room. He moves about her room discreetly. He kneels down next to her bookcase and notices a picture in a frame resting beside some books. A familiar face is standing next to Lauren. It’s Sydney. The woman who rejected him in high school. Anger builds up inside of him. How does Lauren know Sydney? He grabs the frame with the picture inside and leaves her apartment swiftly.
                                                            ****
“I don’t know what happened to the picture of Sydney and me. It was there the other day and now it’s gone,” Lauren says talking to Julie.
“I’m sure it’s there, you are just not seeing it.”
“No. Julie I’m telling you it was there and now it’s gone. Hold on, I’m getting a call.”
“Hello. Is Lauren there?”
“Hello. Yes this is Lauren.”
“Hi. This is Brad.” Lauren’s heart skips a beat when he says his name. Brad is the man she has had a crush on for the past three years. He asked her on a date a few years back, but she declined because she was dating someone else.
“Hi Brad. What can I do for you?”
“I was wondering if you would like to grab some coffee with me today at about one o’clock?”
“That sounds great. See you at one.”
“Okay wonderful. See you at one.”
Lauren glances at her watch. 12:45 P.M. She grabs her black coat and purse and heads out the door.
                                                                        ****
            Pete is instantly awaken from his nap when he hears Lauren and an unfamiliar voice chatting in her apartment. He presses his ear against the wall. Brad’s voice is heard. Pete begins to grow angry. Who is this guy? How does she know him? The voices begin to grow louder and louder as their conversation begins to grow exciting. Lauren’s laugh fills the apartment. Why is she laughing? Questions linger in his mind.
            Pete stomps his way out of his apartment and knocks on her door violently. No one answers. He knows she is home. He just heard her and a stranger inside the apartment. He knocks violently once more. This time Lauren answers the door.
            “Oh hi Pete! What can…”
            “Lauren, who do you have over?!” Pete raises his voice.
             “Just a friend. I hope that it’s not a problem.”
            “Yes it is a problem!
            “Oh I’m sorry. I didn’t realize…”
            “Don’t make that mistake again! Get rid of him now.”
He disappears back into his apartment within a matter of seconds. He presses his ear against the wall once again. The picture of Sydney and Lauren together taunts him. Lauren’s connection to Sydney makes him want to kill her even more. He repeats the words in his head LAUREN MUST DIE!
                                                                        ****
Lauren sips her coffee from her old mug as she sits at the kitchen table reading the newspaper before work. She starts to think about the way Pete acted last night. It was unusual behavior. How did Pete know that her friend was a “he”? Pete didn’t see Brad, but maybe Brad’s deep voice gave it away.
She is interrupted by a knock at the door. She gets up and notices that something was slid under her door. She picks it up and realizes that it is a picture of her sleeping. Her heart thumps at the thought of someone being in her room. She turns the photo around and notices the words I’M WATCHING YOU! written on the back. Sweat starts dripping from her face. Did Pete do this? Nah he couldn’t have, but he is the only one who has the extra key to her apartment.
                                                            ****
Pete fumbles through his scrapbook of victims. His first victim, Sarah, a twenty-five year old who moved into Lauren’s same apartment seven years ago. He slides his fingers over a lock of her red hair that is taped onto one of the pages. His eighth victim, Melissa, was a thirty four year old who moved into the same apartment four years ago. He strokes a lock of her brown hair that is taped to the one of the pages. He turns to the second to last page of his scrapbook. His tenth victim, Cindy, was a twenty eight year old who moved into the apartment a few months ago. He strokes over a lock of her black hair. A blank page awaits for Lauren.
The number ten hits him like a thousand bricks. He realizes that he has had ten victims. He has never been caught. He kills his victim in an unknown area, then sets them on fire so nothing can be traced back to him. He dumps their bodies in an isolated location so their bodies won’t be found for days. He smirks at the thought of Lauren being the next victim. 
                                                            ****
Lauren sits at the dining table staring at the picture of her sleeping. The doorbell rings once again. She frantically gets up from her cushioned dining room chair, worried what she is going to find next. Something is lying on the floor. She picks it up, turns it over, and sees the picture of her sister Sydney, and her from long ago. She turns the picture over to the blank side. The words LAUREN MUST DIE! is written in black sharpie. Her heart starts to briskly beat. She turns the picture back over, where her older sister Sydney and her are standing together.
The agonizing memories start flooding her brain. She stares at the picture. She is jolted back to ten years ago when her old sister, Sydney, stole her boyfriend, Austin. Lauren was a Freshman and Austin was a Junior in high school. While Lauren would be at cheer practice, Austin would be waiting at Lauren’s house. Sydney would keep Austin company while Lauren was gone. On the night of June fifth, Lauren walked in on Sydney and Austin making out in her bedroom. Lauren freaked out. She kicked Austin out of her life forever. Lauren was unable to forgive her sister for what she did.
Lauren tries to shake the vivid image of Sydney and Austin making out, but it won’t go away. She looks at the written words LAUREN MUST DIE! on the back of the picture. She stands there for a moment, thinking of what she should do next. Thoughts race through her mind. She knows what she has to do. She is going to kill Pete, before he kills her. She knows it’s Pete. It has to be. He is the only one who has access to her apartment. She sits on her bed with a piece of paper and pen in hand. She puts her head phones in her ears, listening to her favorite song. She begins to make a list of how she is going to kill Pete. Stabbing? Gun shot? Strangulation? Drowning? Poison? So many endless possibilities.