1/6 - Stuff Keeps Going Missing

I have no idea how long this has been going on for.

I don't think I really noticed it at first. It was just some little things that I started to notice this far into it all.

When I first started to notice it, it was when some bigger things started happening a few months ago.

I had been rushing to class, running late because I couldn't find my laptop for the rest of my life. I ended up leaving without it (the community computer sucks by the way). But when I got back home it was sitting neatly on my bed.

I live alone, no roommates, no family and none of my friends have keys.

Whatever. I'm a sleep-deprived, ADHD college student. I sleep on the couch half the time because I'm too tired to get to my bedroom. I probably just missed it with my early morning brain fog, it's happened before.

Then I wasn't able to find my house keys on my way to work one day. So I just left without them, grabbing the one pair of shares that were buried in my sock drawer from when I first moved in.

When i got back, they were hanging on their hook right next to the door, the little bell attached to the lucky cat charm on my keychain jingling as the AC blew it around.

It was all little things like that when I first started noticing it. Like someone was snooping around or I was just being my typical clueless self.

But then bigger things started to happen.

Like the time I came back to a freshly made bed with clean fresh sheets on it. Something I had been procrastinating on doing for weeks now, sleeping on the couch instead.

There would be new milk and fresh groceries in the fridge and pantry whenever i arted running low on things.

If I really sit and think about it, things have been off for maybe a year or more.

Lights would be on or off when they hadn't been before.

Vases of flowers would have their water topped off when I had been forgetting to do so for ages.

Electronic devices would be turned off after i forgot to, or fully charged whenever i got back home.

It seemed a little normal, oh I guess I forgot I did that, things at first. But now it was just weird and kind of creepy.

I was thinking about one night being unable to fall asleep, when I heard it.

It sounded like my apartment door opening. The soft thud and click made it closed.

The jingle of keys being hung up.

The whisper of feet as someone moved around.

The soft noises of someone trying to clean up quietly.

I heard the murmur of the TV (which I had forgotten to turn off before going to bed, again) turned off and the little clinks of dishes being put away.

Who was in the house?!

And why were they cleaning?

I was too scared to really do anything, sure this intruder seemed nice enough to pick up after me, but who knows. They could be armed!

So when I heard footsteps getting closer to my bedroom, and the door handle being gripped and twisted, I rolled over and shut my eyes, pretending to sleep like a little kid who's been caught staying up too late.

Someone sat down on the bed next to me, curling up around me over the covers.

“Hello sweet thing.” Was all he whispered before gently kissing my ear.

Then he just started talking. About his day, about his school and his work, about the things he did for me.

The groceries he got for us (us?), the little things he had fixed in the apartment and what he had taken to make copies of (explains how he got his own keys then i guess.), and then he started asking me questions.

How my day was, how i was feeling, if i had remembered to eat or drink today. How my schoolwork was going, if that rude and creepy guy from work was still bothering me.

I know that whoever it was didn't really expect me to answer or be awake, that much was obvious, and I know I should have just pretended to be asleep and let him think I didn't know anything about this so I could handle it all in the morning.

But I turned to look at him over my shoulder and just asked, “Who the hell are you?”