Chapter 7: The neighbors

Ada's POV

I got to my feet ,and just started putting some of the things in the apartment that might be useful into my space when the knocking came again. It sounds light, unhurried, as if whoever it was didn't want to wake the neighbors, or was testing whether anyone was home.

Leo and I exchanged a startled look. I walked over and pulled the door open, and a woman of about seventy staggered back two steps, shoved by the door itself, her graying hair plastered in a mess against her temple.

Apart from Mrs. Casey next door, I wasn't close with my neighbors, only nodded to each other in passing, and this old woman I'd seen maybe a handful of times in the hallway.

So I asked, puzzled, "Can I help you, ma'am?"

"Well, hello, dear." She tilted her head up and smiled at me, as though this were nothing more than an elder's kindly concern for a child. "I was down at the other end of the hall just now, and I heard some noise coming from your place. Are you all right?"

"I'm fine. Thank you for your concern. It's late now, you should go home and rest."

She didn't move.

"I understand you must be busy these days. Anyone who wins the lottery has a mountain of things to deal with." Her voice suddenly rose. "My son's gotten himself into some trouble. We've been neighbors a long time. Could you lend me some money? Not much. Just three hundred thousand."

Leo, who had put on his coat and was ready to leave, came up beside me, frowning.

"I don't have any spare money to help you with," I said. I patted his shoulder and turned back to the old woman.

The crack in her ingratiating smile showed for a moment, then she softened her voice again. "Dear, you know I'm not one of those busybody old women who make trouble. You've lived on this floor a long time, and we've never once given you any grief—"

"I'm sorry, but I think we're just ordinary neighbors." I cut her off calmly, gathered my things, and headed straight downstairs. Leo shut the door and followed.

The old woman made her way down the stairs, trembling, one hand on the railing, her shrill voice chasing after us: "You got that money off a pile of dog shit — pure dumb luck! Three hundred thousand! Just three hundred thousand! You could have helped me and you chose to be inhuman about it — you mark my words, you'll get yours!"

Three hundred thousand. That was almost enough to buy me another estate. I didn't have the time to tangle with her. There was only a month left before the outbreak, and there was still a great deal to prepare.

By the time we came out of the building it was nearly eleven, and the lamp by the entrance laid a dim halo of light across the steps.

Leo walked me to the car, but his steps slowed. I looked up and saw several people in house clothes gathered around his car, and even from where I stood I could hear them whispering.

"What are you all doing around my car?" Leo stepped forward and put me behind him, blocking the stares that swung my way.

"Relax. We're all Ada's neighbors." The middle-aged man at the front spoke up. "We heard you won big recently. We're really happy for you."

So you had nothing better to do at eleven at night than lie in wait for me in the parking lot? I curled my lip. Even an idiot could see what they were after.

The man stepped aside, revealing the others behind him. "We all live in the same building. I'm right upstairs from you, we've run into each other in the hall a few times. Remember?"

"I'm on the first floor," another man chimed in. "We've met too! Just a few days ago!"

"We talked the day before yesterday," a woman pushed her way forward. " You asked me if the elevator had been fixed."

They all started clamoring at once. Leo's face grew colder and colder. He took my arm and tried to hurry me around them toward the car.

But the door was already blocked. Someone had planted themselves right in front of it. They clearly weren't going to let us leave easily.

"Miss Reyes." The woman from the third floor caught hold of me, her smile deepening. "Look at you, all alone, with all that money. You can't possibly spend it all, can you?"

God, these people were exhausting. I seized her hand and bent it outward, and she yelped and stumbled back half a step.

"I'm not asking for your money," she added quickly. "I'm borrowing it. My son got into college. I just need to borrow a hundred thousand for tuition. We'll pay you back little by little."

The man from the first floor leaned in. "Could you lend me three hundred thousand? I'm a little short for the wedding. You wouldn't want my girlfriend to leave me, would you?"

Then more voices pressed in on me.

Someone needed money for a family member's medical bills, someone had credit card debt, someone just mumbled something about being "a little tight and needing some cash to tide things over."

In the dark, those faces looked faintly shiny under the yellow light. I looked into eyes like starving wolves', the eyes of predators fixed on a lamb waiting to be slaughtered, as if it were a given that I'd agree to their request.

"Are you done?" I said. "If you're done, move. We're getting in the car."

The woman from the fourth floor shifted half a step toward the door, planting herself in front of the handle, her smile stiffening. "Ada, we're all neighbors. Just do us a favor—"

"How can you be like this?" someone burst out before she could finish, unable to hold back any longer. "We're talking to you nicely, and that's the attitude you give us? "

"You can't spend all that money anyway. What's a few tens of thousands to you? It's nothing to you, and it would solve a huge problem for us!"

Leo had had enough of their shamelessness. He grabbed the arm blocking us and swung the man aside; the man staggered two steps and collided with the person beside him.

I took the chance, pulled the door open, and got into the driver's seat.

The passenger door swung open right after, it's Leo. The moment he was in, I locked the doors and the windows.

"You're not going anywhere!" The people in front of the car shouted furiously. "You think a few bucks means you can treat us like dirt?""

I was working out how to get the car out of the circle, then I noticed that one of the people at the back wasn't right.

His whole upper body suddenly folded forward, as if someone had punched him hard from behind. His fingers clawed at his own throat; his body convulsed in agony; a terrible black fluid ran from around his eyes and ears.

And the people around him, blinded by jealous rage, kept repeating their accusations and curses at me. No one but me noticed the man twisting in that grotesque posture.