The couch creaked under me like it wanted to give out. Springs shot up through the padding, one pressing into my lower back no matter how I shifted. I didn't bother trying to get comfortable as it was obvious that I won't be able to with how bad the condition of it was.
With my phone in hand, and the batter at 12%, I was scrolling on the Lunar draw app, currently speaking it was 6.00 PM sharp.
And there was two hours left to big announcement to the Lunar Numbers.
At 8 PM, it will go live so much so it will make it on National TV. YouTube. Twitch. Instagram. TikTok. Even Facebook for the boomers.
Every platform was ready to stream it like it was the Super Bowl for the broke. Like one lucky bastard out there was about to ascend into godhood.
But what most does not know is that one lucky bastard was about to be me.
But as I hype myself up, I heard a knock on the door. I did not need to ask who it was, I already knew.
However this woman was serious when she said she will be here on the dot.
Three short raps could be heard from the door, sharp, loud, and clearly impatient.
And as soon as I reach, I opened the door.
Denica stood there, arms crossed.
Hair pulled back into a half-messy bun she wore when she meant business. This time around she was wearing a dark blue hoodie, a skin tight black cut jeans that showed her figure clearly, meanwhile she wore a pair of black white sneakers on her feet.
She also had a cigarette behind her ears.
And beside her was a guy Theodore has personally never seen in his life.
The guy standing next to Denica didn't look like he belonged in this part of town.
He looked like the text book definition of a cartel.
He had tattoos everywhere, creeping up his neck and down his arms. He also had also had a series of thick gold chains around his neck.
He was also wear a blue and yellow huwuain floral shirt, half unbuttoned to show off more ink. Aviators, even though the sun was long gone. And he didn't smile, one bit, like Denica who was a latina this scary looking man that was easily 6'4 in height was a muscular Latino man that looks like he was in his mid thirties.
He just stood there, hands in his pockets, and his shoulders loose as he bent down to meet Theodore eye to eye.
"This him?"
He asked, tilting his head at me.
"Is this the fucker that owes you money, big sis?"
Denica didn't answer him. Rather she just gave him a shove pushing him back from Theodore as she said.
"Go back downstairs, Ricky. Don't you have better things to do tonight?"
He scowled.
"I'm just saying...
"Ahora."
He started mouthing off in Spanish.
And Denica answered back, annoyed. The words bounced off my ears like usual... at first, they were fast, tangled, and full of attitude.
Then something strange happened.
They slowed down.
Or maybe I sped up.
Either way, I understood them.
Every insult, every warning. Denica was telling him to relax. That I wasn't worth dragging into anything right now.
That if he ruined her night, she would gut him.
It clicked.
All of it.
Like I had known the language for years but just forgot.
Testing the waters, I spoke.
"Está bien. Tengo el dinero, no hay problema."
Denica froze the moment those words escape from my mouth.
Ricky on the other hand looked like I had slapped him with a fish.
"You speak Spanish?"
She asked, suspicious, but more suprise than anything else.
I shrugged as I made up an excuse on the spot.
"My mom was Spanish. I barely use it anymore."
Total lie.
But I said it like I was bored of telling the truth.
She narrowed her eyes, then held out her hand.
"The rent."
I turned, walked back to the counter, grabbed the envelope I prepped this afternoon. Seven hundred ninety bucks in cash. Rent for this month and what I owed from last.
She opened it and counted, slowly, fingers gliding over each bill just to make sure everything was there.
When she finished, she gave a dry nod.
"Nice everything is here...good, good.. Try to keep up next time."
"Yeah."
I muttered as greet them good night.
And they turned to leave. But at the door, she paused.
As she began to speak to me in Spanish and again I understand as if always knew how to talk this language
"If you can speak this fluently, I might have work for you. Something quiet. You've got that soft, harmless look. Might be useful."
I raised an eyebrow, knowing damn well Denica keeps with the wrong company.
But I replied to her saying.
"I'll think about it."
She smirked clearly satisfied about something, and Ricky grunted something under his breath as they went downstairs.
I shut the door, leaned back against it.
My heart was still pounding.
Not from them...but from what just happened. The language, the instinct, the way it just... unlocked that ability to just understand a language I have never once spoken, or bother to learn in my life so fluently.
Was this it?
I wondered in excitement.
Was the vampire thing finally starting to happen, was I still mutating or was the mutation complete.
If so, is this what convergence feels like?
Or better yet what kind of power is this?
I didn't have answers, but I would be lying if I said t his wasn't exciting. Because for the first time ever, I have done something inhumane or supernatural in nature.
But that aside my attention soon shifted as I changed the trajectory of my focus else where. I was excited but not desperate, I will research I to a later day for sure though.
With that in mind I walk back to couch and put my TV on to pass the time.