Nyctophilia

chapter four: steele enterprizes

As she entered her house, she looked around to see if anything was out of place.

She didn't know why but she felt the need to look around and see if anything was missing or broken. She placed her bag on the counter and immediately searched for her phone which was located inside one of its pockets. She looked around the living room only to see that everything was in place and nothing was missing.

She walked inside her bedroom cautiously, her mind telling to get back and leave the apartment immediately. She felt like someone was spying on her but there was no one inside the house. She turned on the alarm in case anything happened but she still felt unsafe.

Her heart picked up its speed as she looked over to her bathroom. For some reason, that room was giving her bad vibes and she couldn't understand why. Did something happen? But if something did happen, she would be the first one to know. After all, this was her apartment now. Opening the door to the detached room, she noticed that her hairdryer was still plugged in.

She swore that she had plugged it out before she left for college but then, a memory of Caleb calling out for her to hurry up and her leaving in a hurry came into her mind and she guessed that maybe she had forgotten about it. She placed it inside the basket on top of the washing machine, next to some hair brushes before taking a look around the bathroom.

Just as she was about to leave and call herself paranoid, she noticed a small card on the floor next to the rug she had placed there before taking a shower in the morning. She picked it up and inspected it.

'STEELE ENTERPRISES' was written on it along with their number and their address. Under the card, she found a pair of keys which made her even more suspicious. What the hell is this? She asked herself before she realized that these could be her sister's or even Caleb's. Maybe they applied for a job there and the keys belong to one of them as well. She walked out of the room and into her bedroom to grab the house phone to call her sister. It ringed a few times before she picked up.

"Hey, Beauty!" Caleb answered, making her roll her eyes. That nickname was really getting old. He keeps calling her that because of her previous obsession with Beauty and the Beast but now that she is obsessed with Netflix and Twilight's wolf pack, she had completely forgotten about the cursed prince.

"Stop calling me that!" she groaned, making him chuckle which annoyed her even more. If he had been there, she would have kicked him where the sun doesn't shine whether or not he was her sister's boyfriend.

"Okay, sorry" she could tell by his tone that he wasn't even a little bit sorry which made her even madder, "So why did you call? What did your sister forget now?"

Anastasia could hear her sister cursing on the other side, calling Caleb names which made her boyfriend laugh but then, she heard a big 'oof' and she immediately could tell that Hayley had slapped Caleb -probably on the back of his head because he started saying about her killing him if she had hit him harder.

"Hey, babies stop! I just wanted to ask if this card I found on the bathroom floor is yours? Its says 'Steele Enterprises' on it. Does it ring any bells? And oh, by the way, did any of you lose any keys?" She said, biting her nails while eyeing the card.

"Nope." Her sister's voice filled her ears "There are not ours. Listen, baby, I have to go. Caleb is acting like a child right now and I have to stop him before our neighbors think I'm an abusive girlfriend or something worse."

Caleb started complaining on the other side of the line, saying stuff like "You are an abusive girlfriend." and "Help, send help, Mrs. Santiago!" and then, the line went dead. Anastasia felt like she couldn't breathe, if the card wasn't hers nor her sister's then, who the hell could have dropped it in her house?

Her hands started sweating and her mind tried to figure out who's was this and why was he inside her apartment. Maybe, the keys were Jade's but then she remembered that Jade hasn't visited for a week and the items weren't there yesterday. And her friend would have told her if she got a job there since the keys had the company's logo on them. She looked down on her hands and bit her lip.

There's only one way to find out if someone broke in while she was gone.

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She stood outside the building, looking at it in awe. It was huge, bigger than any other building in New York City. Tons of people walked out of it while few moved inside making her swallow hard.

She walked closer and then, entered the enormous building. Everyone inside the lobby was dressed in either a suit or a million dollar dress which made her feel a little out of place with her black skater skirt, green cropped sweater, and her black high heel ankle boots. She ran her hand through her red wavy hair trying to fix it and then, mastered her courage to walk towards the lady hiding behind a big desk.

She was looking down on a document and she cleared her throat trying to get her attention. The young lady didn't look up from the paper she was reading but she said, "We aren't looking for any more secretaries, miss."

Anastasia rolled her eyes and cleared her throat again before she said. "I actually want to talk to someone. I found these keys in my apartment and they have your logo on them along with this card."

"Maybe it's a relative's or someone who recently got a job here. Miss, I have a lot of work please let me be. Thank you." The young woman gave her a hard look before turning her attention on the paper.

Anastasia tried again to make her speak but after a while, she gave up. Maybe she was overreacting. These keys could belong to the plumber that came on Tuesday or something. But she felt like something happened recently that she doesn't remember. She took a deep breath to calm her nerves before she started walking towards the door.

Just as she reached the door, the keys fell from her sweaty hand and she reached down to get them. As she got up from her crouching position, she felt a pair of eyes on her. She looked behind her and her eyes locked with a beautiful man in his mid-twenties who was already looking at her with a hard look.

A small headache made her close her eyes and when she opened them, she noticed the man was now walking towards her, his eyes on her hands. She swore on her life that she had seen him somewhere before but she couldn't remember where. Those thoughts made her headache grow a little bit.

"Where did you get these?" he asked her, yanking the keys and the card out of her hands. She gasped when the paper card scratched her hand. Blood came out of the small wound and his eyes darkened.

"Are these yo --" The headache grew as she continued looking at him. His eyes widened when he saw her clutching her head in pain and moved closer to her. She stepped away from him, her back hitting the wall between the doors and a small pine tree.

The last thing she heard before she lost consciousness was him swearing under his breath.