Why?

“Trina! Over here!” Trina turned her head, and her heart threatened to leap out of her chest when she saw Steven waving his arm in a big, exaggerated motion, with a giant smile on his face. Trina fell in love with her boyfriend all over again as she navigated past the clusters of tables towards him. It had only been a few months since they started dating, but Trina was still very much in the honeymoon phase of courtship. The phase where everything that Steven did for her made her feel like she could fly if she just jumped off a chair. The phase where everything Steven said with that bright smile of his made her feel like she was made out of rainbows and sugar.

And how could she not? How could she dare to feel anything else when Steven’s whole demeanor would brighten by her presence alone? When he laughed with glee and spun her around in the air when she made him his favorite meal?

When he was clearly in love with her, just as much as she was with him?

“Steven!” Trina exclaimed happily when she finally reached him. “I haven’t kept you waiting too long, have I?”

“Oh, honey, you’ve kept me waiting since we said goodbye yesterday,” Steven said as he stood up and pulled her close. A second later, both of them were involved in a small, but tender kiss.

“Steven, we’re in a restaurant,” Trina chastised him with no actual heat or condemnation when Steven moved to kiss her again.

“Yeah, but there’s barely anybody here,” Steven said as he kissed her lips before gently moving her head down so he could peck her forehead, both actions which Trina didn’t fight him on. But after he spoke, Trina looked around and saw that he was right. She hadn’t realized at first because she had her eyes solely focused on Steven, but she could see only three other people in the small restaurant. And one of them was the waiter, who was currently taking the order of the other two customers.

It was...weird. Because while this local restaurant was indeed on the smaller side, it was very popular in their town.

Especially during lunchtime.

“C’mon, let’s sit down. I’m starving!” Steven said as he pulled out a chair for Trina. Rationalizing that even popular restaurants have their slow days, Trina sat down in it and looked at the menu while Steven sat in his own chair.

“Hmm...I think I-” Steven started to say before a yawn suddenly overtook him. In an instant, his bright, cheerful demeanor was dampened by exhaustion.

“Steven, are you okay? You look...that was a pretty big yawn,” Trina said, feeling a bit concerned. “You didn’t stay up playing one of your online games, did you? Or watch YouTube all night?”

“Not this time,” Steven said with a chuckle as he shook his head vigorously in a clear attempt to wake himself up. And while he managed to become a bit more alert, the smile that he wore wasn’t nearly as bright as before. “Something’s wrong with my apartment.”

“...Like what?” Trina repeated with a tilt of her head as she placed her menu down on the table. “Is it a plumbing issue?”

“That’s what I thought it was at first,” Steven said, sighing as he brushed his bangs back. “At first, the water would only trickle out of the faucet. So I had the landlord call the plumber, only for them to find squat. The faucets worked perfectly without them even trying! But I swear, as soon as they left, I turned on the faucet and...it started spurting out reddish-brown water.”

“What the…,” Trina said. “Did you immediately call the plumbers back?”

“I did. Luckily, they were still in the hallway but...as soon as they turned on the faucet again…” Steven said before he clenched his fists. “The water was clear! You should have seen the looks they gave me, Trina...I think the only reason why they didn’t flat-out insult me was that they were still on the clock. And the worst thing is, as soon as they left again, the water went back to that awful, disgusting color!”

“Oh, Steven,” said Trina as she placed her hands over Steven’s fists. Steven seemed to visibly relax for a moment before he unclenched his fists and took her hands in his. And even though Steven was going through something awful, Trina couldn’t help but be a bit happy that he leaning on her like this. “I’m so sorry...how long ago was this?”

“The first water issue? A couple of days ago. The new water issue? Since yesterday afternoon. The plumbers came to my place not too long after we got back from our hike.”

“Oh, that’s why you kept looking at your watch yesterday,” Trina said. “And here I thought you were just tracking how many steps you took. Wait, if your water has been reddish-brown, then what have you been drinking? And...how have you been cle-”

“Water bottles and wipes from the nearest convenience store,” Steven said resignedly. “And a heck ton of deodorant. I had been planning on showering after the plumbers fixed my pipes...but that clearly didn’t happen. Sorry if I put on too much.”

“Don’t worry, you smell great,” Trina assured him as she squeezed his hands. “I’m so sorry that this is happening to you. But we’re gonna get your favorite food in you, and then we can get through this to...wait. Shouldn’t the waiter have been here by now?”

“Yeah, especially since the restaurant is practically empty,” Steven said as he let go of Trina’s hands to raise his hand. Only to drop it down halfway a second later. “That waiter is still at that table.”

Trina turned around and saw that Steven was right. The waiter was still taking the order of the other two customers.

It was like they hadn’t even moved.

“I guess they're having a real time deciding on what to order,” Steven said as a rare, annoyed expression crossed his face before he groaned into his hands. “Ugh, why can’t they hurry up. I just want food with my cute girl.”

“Oh, honey,” Trina said, her heart twitching with emphatic pain as she got up and wrapped her arms around her love securely. “It’s going to be okay.”

“But when?” Steven whined into her arm as he snuggled against Trina. “I’m so tired…”

“Is anxiety over the pipes making you stay awake?” Trina said as she brushed his hair with her fingers. She started to wonder if they should just leave and order takeout at her place or something. It wasn’t like they had ordered yet.

“No. I mean, it’s not helping, but...it’s the noises,” Steven said as he gently held Trina’s arm and picked his head up just enough so that Trina could see his beautiful eyes. Eyes that held no small trace of fear in them. “And it definitely isn’t coming from the pipes.”

Everything went silent in that moment. No restaurant music, no noises from the cars outside, no talking from the other people in the room. Nothing.

“...I believe you, but how are you so sure?” asked Trina as she instinctively held Steven a bit tighter. Because there was no doubt in her mind that Steven was right, he was her precious other half. “Are they...scratching noises? Like mice?”

“No, it’s the sound of a girl...crying. Whining. Like she was in actual pain. At first, it was muffled, but then it got louder and louder, until last night, I finally had enough. I got up in the middle of the night to knock on one of my neighbors' doors. No one answered, but I could still hear them crying, so I thought that it might have been my other next-door neighbor. No one answered. But another neighbor heard me, and that’s when…”

Steven pulled away from Trina’s hug and gently yet firmly grabbed her hands as he looked straight into her eyes.

“I found out that both of my next-door neighbors had moved out within the last month. Those apartments are empty. And...I’m the only one who can hear the crying.”

Trina felt a shiver slowly go up her spine, like a spider that dipped its legs in icy water before crawling up the middle of her back.

“Steven...maybe I’m crazy or stupid for saying this, but...I think…” Trina said as she held Steven’s hands tightly as if he could disappear at any moment. “I think you’re haunted.”

“You’re not crazy, or stupid,” Steven assured her with a shake of his head before kissing her fingers. “Because...I had been thinking that too. And maybe I am. It’s just that…”

He looked back up at her and cupped her face with one of her hands. And despite Steven’s revelation, Trina’s heart couldn’t help but become enveloped in his warm and gentle love.

“I’m not affected by bloody water or phantom crying anywhere else, just my apartment. And I’ve been in that apartment for a few years now, so it isn’t the apartment. Which means that I’m personally being haunted. But if that’s the case, why only at my apartment?”

“Maybe...it’s one of the empty apartments that are haunted,” Trina said as she placed her free hand over Steven’s hand that was cupping her face. “And now they are somehow haunting you because you’re close by.”

“That...sounds more plausible than something haunting me because I did something I shouldn’t have. Because I literally can’t think of anything I did that would end up in me being haunted like this. I don’t-”

Screech! Bang!

Both Trina and Steven jumped as they looked out of the windows. Trina covered her mouth with her hands when she saw the smoking car crumpled against the lightpost. She couldn’t see the victims from here, but she knew there had been more than one person in the car because...

There was too much blood splattered on the car windows to belong to a single person.

“Oh my-” Steven said, his eyes wide with shock as he stood up shakily. Before he could have the chance to say anything more, another car crashed into the first car. Then a third car crashed into that one, then another, and another, until all Trina could hear and see was breaking metal, screeching rubber, fire, and death.

“W-What…” Trina stammered, not even sure what she was trying to say as she looked around her, searching for what she did not know. But the waiter and the two customers from before were still there, in the same exact positions as before.

Like they were made out of stone.

“H-Hey!” Trina called out as she raced towards them.

“Trina, wait!” she heard Steven call out to her just as she reached the waiter.

“What are you do-” Trina started to say as she grabbed the waiter’s shoulder and turned him towards her. Her breath got caught in her throat when wide, blank eyes stared through her, and the dent in the left side of his head, full of blood, dirt, and glass, was all she could see.

Black blood started flowing out of his eyes, nose, and mouth before his head tilted back with a sickening crack, and the rest of his body crumpled to the ground like his strings had been cut.

Trina screamed with all the air in her lungs as she stumbled backwards, her heart beating rapidly as she looked over to the two customers.

The only difference between them and the waiter was that the seats and table stopped them from collapsing onto the ground in a bloody, broken heap.

“Trina!” Suddenly, her arm was being pulled, and Trina could now only see Steven’s terrified face. She reached out to him with her free arm, intending to never let him go once their bodies connected.

Trina didn’t want him to-

A skeletal hand grabbed the back of her shirt and pulled her away from him.

Steven’s desperate howling of her name was the last thing Trina heard before she was pulled into the darkness.