Loss.

We both fell asleep on the couch watching the news.
While we were busy talking about how much of an idiot that reporter was and talking smack about far people will go to make a buck, we failed to notice many red flags.
Aside from the town's name, we failed to realize how close this incident really was.
We failed to notice that this was pretty much taking place only a few blocks away.
We failed to notice my building none too far in the background.
It was late now, we got really tired. The TV had long turn to static

It was about 4 a.m.

There was a loud banging on the door

THUMP
THUMP
THUMP

Dave and I were fast asleep on the couches.

THUMP

Dave woke up before me. He went out to the door.

He was careful, no matter what, he always was. He made sure to look outside the peep hole and saw nothing. He shrugged it off.
"damn kids."

he sleepily went back to the sofa, but right before he sat down. It happened again.

THUMP THUMP

He went back over and saw nothing through the peep hole.

Dave heard a small noise, it sounded like stifled breathing.

He opened the door
"Listen! it's 4 a--"

He looked down and saw the mangled and twisted legs of Jason's neighbor, Stacy from down the hall, her torso left a trail of blood from her open door, she dug her nails into the floorboards and pushed her way in.
Dave, frozen in fear, felt her cold , hard touch grab his ankles and pull. Hard.

Dave fell to the ground while Stacy dug her nails into his body, crawling up his Torso.

"J-Jay..H-Help"
Dave Could barely say anything, he was frozen in fear.

I woke up around here, I saw the door wide open and grew quickly worried. I froze in shock. I saw Dave wrestling with the body of my now long-gone neighbor.

"jason! come on, don't leave me here!"

I saw Dave grabbing Stacy's neck, her jaws her chomping at his face, inches away.

"JASON! HELP ME!"
I ran over and kicked her hard in the stomach.
She felt no pain, I kicked her neck and that drew some of her body away from Dave. He crawled away quickly, able to slip away from under her weight.

I kicked her and stomped her head hard, until it was just bits of bone and gore.
Dave quickly closed the door and locked it.

I fell down a few feet from the corpse. Dave grabbed his face.

I just started taking things out of cabinets and laying them out on the counter. I lost track of what I was grabbing at one point.
Dave knew that this was my nervous tick, it was something I did when I was not feeling myself.

"Jason, I. If it weren't for you, I don't know"

"You're fine. I'm fine, you're okay, we're both FINE!"
I couldn't help but raise my voice.
Thoughts of my other friends and Charlie from work shot through my head.

"Was this real?"
I asked Dave. I was holding back tears at this point, but failing miserably.

"Yes."
"Yes it is."