Nicky laid sprawled across the couch in Lucas's apartment, pretending to listen to the other man's excited babbling. He didn't really care for the talkative man. He actually disliked him greatly, but he figured he should hang around him for a while. He didn't think Lucas was the one he was supposed to meet the other night, but his instincts told him the idiot had something to do with that person and his instincts hadn't ever been wrong yet. He hoped this other person showed up soon because he couldn't stand the man he'd met at the truck stop. Lucas was insufferable.

Lucas was currently bitching about his girlfriend. Apparently, she was the most irritating person alive. Nicky wasn't sure that was possible. He thought it was a tie between Kay and Lucas. The dark haired man pushed his glasses up and flung his hands in the air wildly while Nicky just stared at him. Hed realized a while ago that Lucas really didn't seem to care whether or not he was listening and had even interrupted him a few times when he had tried to respond to something that was said. So now he was just laying there letting the other man rant, while he fantasized about beating the shit out of him. It was a satisfying fantasy.

He looked at his phone. Kay had texted him several times in the last few hours, demanding to know where he was. He debated telling her to fuck off and decided he didn't feel like being homeless. He also had a few texts from his ex, asking if he could grab diapers for Jamie. He wouldn't because he had just given her money a week or so ago and he felt she could figure some shit out on her own for once. Their other roommate, Drake, had texted him complaining about Jamie's mom and Kay. Apparently they had ganged up on him and were making him watch some stupid show with them after the babies were asleep and he wanted Nicky to come endure the torture with him so he wouldn't be alone. He also had a half an hour before he was supposed to be at work.

He waited for an opening in Lucas's rant and then quickly informed him that he needed to leave.

"Oh." The man's face fell. "Bellamy is going to be off work in about an hour. I was hoping you'd be able to go with me to pick her up and meet her." Lucas then went on a rant about how the girl was so awkward she couldn't seem to keep friends.

Nicky pulled out his phone and texted his manager. He wouldn't be going in tonight. The moment he heard Bellamy's name he'd gotten the feeling that he needed to go with Lucas. Maybe she was the person he'd been supposed to meet the other night. He really hoped so, because he really needed to meet that person. But part of him also hoped that it wasn't her because that would mean having to deal with Lucas even more.

Lucas was overjoyed when Nicky agreed to ride along and meet his girlfriend. 

....

Bellamy walked out the back door of the kitchen into the employee parking lot behind the nursing home. The night was cool. It was mid April but it was still cold at night sometimes. She looked around for Lucas's car and didn't see it. She sighed and checked her phone. She had a message waiting from him stating he was bringing a friend with him to pick her up and that they'd be late. At least this time he texted her, she thought.

She felt uncomfortable at the thought of meeting another of his friends. The last one she had met had been scary. Lucas's friends weren't usually very good people.

She thought about the apartment Lucas had been staying at when she met him. The man he lived with then had been... different. He kept his apartment dark. He never turned the lights on and had stapled blankets to the windowsill so that no natural light could enter either. The only source of light she had ever seen there was the many thick, black candles scattered around the apartment. The one time she had dared to turn on a lamp, Levi, the exroommate, had flown into the room, grabbed the lamp and thrown it against the wall, screaming at her the entire time.

Other than the incident with the lamp, Levi had kept mostly to himself. Every now and then when she was visiting Lucas, she would hear him talking in different languages thru the thin walls of the apartment. Lucas had told her that he was deeply interested in the occult and was performing some kind of ritual when she had asked him what was going on. Levi's behavior became more and more erratic as time went on until one day he just disappeared. Lucas had moved shortly after, not wanting to have to pay the rent alone and not wanting to deal with another roommate. He now lived in a smaller, more affordable one bedroom apartment.

A car honked, startling her out of her thoughts. She looked down at her phone and realized that nearly 20 minutes had passed without her noticing. She couldn't even remember what exactly she had been thinking about. She felt slightly uneasy. She looked up from her phone as the car honked again. It was Lucas and company, obviously impatient. She stood and walked towards the car.

As she got closer the driver's side window rolled down and Lucas scowled at her. She was starting to wonder why she had agreed to spend the night with him anyway.

"What the fuck, Bell?" He spat "You just sat there staring at us like an idiot for like, ten minutes!"

"Sorry, baby, I didn't get a lot of sleep last night and I guess I just spaced out." She told him. "Do you want to stop at my grandma's and get some of my stuff? That way there's less we have to do tomorrow?"

Lucas perked up at the thought. He wasn't looking forward to having to move all of Bellamy's things to his apartment, even if he was thrilled at the fact she was finally doing what he wanted and moving in with him.

"Sure!" He told her as she got into the car. "Oh! And this is Nicky! He's one of the people I told you about the other night."

Nicky turned in his seat and smiled at the petite woman in the back seat of the car. This was definitely who he was supposed to meet. The moment he'd seen her, he knew. His stomach churned with excitement. He felt that his life was about to get very, very interesting. He turned back around and hummed quietly to himself.

Bellamy looked at the blonde man in the front seat and felt a cold shiver go down her spine when he smiled at her before he had turned back around. She wasnt sure how she felt about him. He looked normal, nice even. But something about him felt very, very off. She shook her head and dismissed the thought. She wasn't being fair and was just judging him based off of Lucas's other friends, she decided. Levi had been so strange and unstable that she hadn't really wanted to meet anyone else Lucas called a friend.

The drive through the small town to her grandmother's house only took a few minutes. The entire way there, Nicky hummed to himself. It sent cold shivers up and down Bellamy's spine. Every time he made a noise she felt like she was being dunked in ice water. She decided that it was just from the air conditioning and not his voice. It couldn't be his voice.

Once there, Bellamy hurried up the stairs to her room. Once inside she grabbed a box and took it downstairs. She saw that Lucas had stayed in the car, not wanting to interact with her grandma, but Nicky had followed her in. He took the box from her and took it out to the car. As uneasy as he made her, she was glad for the help. She loved her grandma but this house freaked her out. That was the only reason she had agreed to move in with Lucas. She couldn't handle the oppressive atmosphere any longer. She felt as though she was constantly being watched by something that really did not want her there.

The house had always seemed like it was bigger than it actually was. Every time she walked thru the upstairs hallway she counted the doors to the bedrooms. There were four bedrooms upstairs, two closets and a bathroom. Every time she counted them she felt like she missed some, like there should be more than just eight doors. She went back and counted again, confused. That wasnt adding up. There's seven doors. Seven. She told herself. As she walked back down the stairs for the last time, the bathroom door at the end of the hall clicked open.

Nicky's skin prickled as he walked into the house. He didn't know why but he liked the feeling. It was like the house was holding its breath, waiting to see what he would do. Something about the energy here felt familiar and he really hoped he'd be able to come back some day. This is what home should feel like, he thought.

Once the trunk and part of the back seat was full, they started the drive to Lucas's apartment.

...

Nicky was enjoying this immensely. From the first moment he'd heard her name, he felt drawn to Bellamy. Now that he was in her presence, he felt like he was home. Like nothing could ever possibly be wrong again. This girl was definitely who he was supposed to meet the other night at the truck stop. Or maybe he had been supposed to meet Lucas, so Lucas could bring Bellamy to him. Bellamy was going to change his life in so many ways. He smiled to himself again as his eyes wandered back over to the small girl on the other end of the couch. He couldn't seem to keep his eyes off of her.

Bellamy glanced over at Lucas's new friend. From the moment they walked in the apartment he had been pretending not to stare at her, a giant grin plastered on his face. She pretended not to notice, knowing if she said anything Lucas would be angry at her. He'd find a way to make it her fault. Nicky would only stare like that if she was doing something to get his attention, Lucas would say. She felt another shiver of unease go down her spine and felt goosebumps starting on her arms. She hated that this man made her feel so nervous. There didn't seem to be anything wrong with him, aside from his staring problem. She wondered if Lucas had said something about her to him. She decided she was being paranoid and tried to ignore him.

Nicky didn't leave until almost midnight. The moment the door to the apartment building closed behind him he felt almost lost. He began his long trek to his home on the other side of town. Up in the distance he thought he saw a woman walk across the street wearing a long white dress. He squinted and she disappeared as a car passed between them.

Almost too quiet to hear, the wind carried to him the broken lyrics if a lullaby, barely remembered from his childhood