Children of a Lesser God

Chapter 218: Roommates

As Laz pulled up to a dilapidated one story building, he couldn't help but frown a bit at the sight. It wasn't as though the building was in bad shape... more like it was just a bit run down. The blue siding looked old and faded while the white paint on the patio was peeling. The wooden front door looked new and reinforced, but Laz got the sneaking suspicion that the only reason it was like that was because something happened to the last door. You don't replace just the front door unless you have to. Laz was following some instructions and brought his bike down the shared drive way that was barely wide enough for a compact car. As he got behind the place, he view of it changed a bit.

The drive way went back pretty far, past a tall wooden fence that was impossible to see though on either side. Using his spiritual sense, Laz could tell that there was a rather nice garden area behind where the apartment was.

Since Laz was already checking, he took a look at some of the other places around him and noticed that they all had large garden areas, many of them more elaborate than the place he would be staying at. As Laz got to the end of the fence, he finally found some open space. In fact, it looked like all of the gardens ran up to a one lane road where there was enough room for a car to park on both sides and still allow a decent size pickup to come through. Taking a closer look, he also noticed that this was where trash was kept for pick up as well.

Laz found a free spot behind the garden and then made sure the coast was clear. After that, he grabbed out a decent sized tarp and draped it over an old bicycle that he pulled out of his pouch before moving the motor cycle into the pouch. There was no way in hell he was going to leave it on the street, but he had to make sure he had something back here as a fall back to answer questions later. Some people were way too observant. He finished his preparations by taking out a decent sized backpack and slinging it over his shoulder. There wasn't anything in it really minus a few changes of clothes for cover, but showing up to a place to live without luggage would look very wrong.

Seeing that everything was set, Laz made his way back to the front of the apartment house. There was a door in the fence, but it was locked up and Laz didn't have a key. As Laz got to the front, he noticed that the house was actually divided into two sides with two separate doors. It looks like someone had taken the house and cut it in half. He quickly pulled out a piece of paper from his jeans pocket and doubled checked the address he had been given while making double sure the numbers matched. Nothing more embarrassing than knocking on the wrong door.

Just as Laz got done knocking, he heard a scream from inside followed by some heavy foot steps and the door slammed opened. A large man with a beard opened the door and looked down on the noticeably shorter Laz.

"Who are you?" The man asked with a frown.

"UH... I'm suppose to live here?" Laz said, not understanding what was happening.

"Oh? Which one are you?"

"Uh... Lazlo. But you can call me Laz."

"AH Laz. Got it. You're on the list. Come on in. My name is Benjamin, but you can call me Benny." The man with the beard seemed to lose his rough nature and was now smiling while holding the door open.

"Oh. Uh Thanks."

"Ha ha. No problem. Guess the temp agency didn't tell you anything either right?"

"Yeah... No. No they did not."

"Well. It's not so bad. I live locally so I was here first. Edward over there, or Eddy as we are calling him, came in a few hours before you. And we are just waiting for one other guest. Looks like we are all going to be roomies for the next several weeks."

"Roomies?"

"Yeah. We all took up jobs and are being housed here. There are other places around town that I saw are being used for the same thing. Not sure how they was able to get so many places to house us people, but it doesn't matter I guess. This one is far from the nicest of the donated spots, but the one plus is that it's one of the closest to the French Quarter which is where we will be working. So at least we don't have to worry about getting there or catching a bus."

"Ah. Got you." Laz was starting to get an idea what was happening. He wasn't sure what he expected but he had kind of hoped to have gotten a place to himself. Thinking about it though, that was expecting way too much for a temp worker. At least there were only three other guys to deal with in this place and he wasn't stuck in a bigger place with more room and more people. There was something to be said about only having to deal with a few others.

"Here's the living room, furniture came with the place so don't break it. Uh, kitchen, here. Hey man, if you can cook, you will be the hero. Me and Eddy know how to use the microwave and that's about it. Bathroom's decent size there. Make sure you use the damn fan if your going to bomb the place and these two rooms are the two bed rooms, two beds in each. Least we won't have to work with bunk beds, right?" The more Benny talked, the more Laz felt like he was a nice enough guy that just had a rough exterior. Benny even had a scar on his face from his hair line down to his eye brow that made him look even that much fiercer, like a guy you shouldn't cross. But the more he talked to Laz, the more Laz got the feeling that the guy was just like a big brother type.

"Alright. So me and Eddy took this first room, mostly because we didn't hate each other when we met and we had no idea what the other two were going to be like. Looks like you get the roll of the dice here for when the last one arrives. Kind of exciting huh?"

"Yeah. So where is Eddy so I can say hi?" Laz asked..

"Ah. Yeah. Well, that leads me to my next point. The place here isn't big or well decorated but we got lucky in one case." The big man Benny then lead Laz through the last door that lead to the outside garden. The garden itself was pretty decent, with lights up on the fence around the perimeter along with several reclining lounge chairs and even a fire pit. The grass was well maintained and there were several smaller trees giving the entire area a peaceful feeling. A stone path wove it's way from the entrance, looped around various spots in the garden before marking it's end at the back door that Laz had noticed earlier. Laz could understand what Benny was talking about earlier, the garden really did make up for the lack of living space in the house. The house itself was nothing more than a converted double shot gun style design while the garden looked more elegant, showing off a real Creole style, especially with the lighting and pathways.

When they finally walked off the small back deck into the garden, Laz noticed another young man standing around and talking to a couple of girls who also happened to be in the back garden.

'Already?' Was Laz's first thought, thinking that Benny and Eddy had already talked some girls into coming home with them. But seeing how they were acting and the way they were walking around to, Laz quickly discarded that notion. He quickly figured it out.

'They must be the residents of the other side of the house.'

"Benny, you're back. Hey, Let me introduce you to our new half roommates. This is Angie, Steph, and Madison. Looks like they are waiting on one other guest themselves. I see you brought our new guy with you?" Eddy looked you, 21 or 22. He didn't have beard but had some wild long brown hair that screamed a free soul. On top of that, he was wearing board shorts and a vest that gave him an earthly feel. Benny, by comparison, looked like a survivalist type; big, muscled and grizzled. There were probably two people who couldn't looked more different. On the plus side, it seemed like Eddy was easy to get along with as well. Having not lived with another human in a few months, Laz was glad for that.

The girls themselves were all somewhat different as well. Angie was a dirty blonde with a gentle smile and tanned skin. Steph had dyed blue hair and looked like she wanted nothing more than to not be here while Madison seemed the most outgoing. She was a Burnette with a brilliant smile, a sweet laugh and an almost nauseating outgoingness. As soon as she saw the two men walk over, she starting introducing herself to Benny and Laz even though she already had been. Benny did his best to talk to her although it was clear he wasn't used to talking to girls too often. Something that you wouldn't expect from someone his age.

Laz had taken off his hoodie to be more polite, causing the entire group to look at him weird. Laz's skin was no longer the grey color he was bother with for a while. After having burned off the grey mist and strengthening his inner bones and organs, his skin regained a rather white, healthy sheen. In wasn't as pale white as he was before, but it was certainly not a normal tanned color either. If anything, it looked almost baby like, something which Laz was helpless about. As far as he was concerned, he wasn't handsome, but that was only his opinion of himself. His face had grown sharper with finer, strong lines as he had aged past 18 now, causing him to truly look like a man. His blue eyes clashed firmly with his shoulder length black hair. All of this was accented by the bit of black stubble he had on his face. He might not of thought he looked good, but to the others, he had an almost model like appearance. Even Eddy couldn't help saying 'damn.'

The interesting part was that after Laz took his hoodie off and tied back his hair slightly, he felt a fluctuation come from one of the girls, a fluctuation he knew all too well. One of them was an infected and was hiding it. But Laz wasn't going to say anything. After he finished tying back his hair and swearing that he would get a hair cut the next chance he got cause he never wanted it to get that long, Laz ended up doing his best to join into the conversation and get to know these people.

Just as he was beginning to get a feel for these people though, the back door that Laz and Benny came out from opened again. This time, a man dressed all in black with a weird, wide rimmed hat came out and walked into the garden, startling almost everyone. Laz had already been aware that someone had managed to open the front door, despite it being locked.

"Hey, who are you?" Benny called out, knowing he had locked the front door.

The man didn't say anything at first but just looked around before staring each person in the eye one by one. Sadly, he made the mistake of look into Laz's eyes for too long before flinching back, a bit shocked at what he had seen.

"Interesting..." The man said to himself. He then addressed all the people gathered.

"My name is Abraham and I guess I live here now."

"It seems that this was going to be my new roommate," Laz thought. He couldn't help but feel a headache coming on.