III. Two heads think better than one. Part 1
1126 Words
Tuesday, January 8th, ten o'clock at night. Building one. Room 1215, adjacent to the second-floor kitchen.
"It seems to me that she should be behind you, and not vice versa," Claudia commented.
"Thank you," Benjamin replied. "I suppose."
Astrid crossed her legs and sat against the wall that separates the two beds at the headboard, and at the foot of the next bed, respectively. Ramcés stretched him, settling himself in the small and weary red chair that every room has. Alexandra leaned on the edge of his bed, paying more attention to the conversation, while Claudia lay down on Benjamin's right side with the pillow under her neck. The latter embraced both legs and rested his face on his knees, having as support on his back, the wall next to the entrance door at the foot of Astrid's bed. There was silence for a few seconds, but it didn't last long.
"But doesn't she know you like her?" Suddenly, Alexandra took a chair and sat down to Benjamin's left, next to the doorposts.
"I don't know," Benjamin said, almost in a hiss. "Could we change the subject?" He trailed off for a moment, his thoughts fluttering violently within his consciousness.
"No, it's interesting," Astrid protested. "Keep telling us about her," she asked affably.
"But what else can I tell you?" Benjamin opened and showed the palms of his hands, they were empty, with a look on his face of some discomfort.
"I don't know," Astrid replied persuasively. "Whatever you want."
Benjamin thoughtfully stared at a floating-point in the room. He frowned thoughtfully, puzzled.
"This has happened before..." he mentioned as he got out of bed.
"I mean, with your ex? That's what you mean?"
"No, no." He looked dazedly around the room. "This... This conversation, this situation in general."
Everyone was looking at him out of line now. Astrid was smiling nervously; Claudia wrinkled her nose and lowered her eyebrows in confusion; Alexandra's eyes opened like two freshly washed kitchen plates, with a singular brilliance of loss; and Ramcés, he laughed a little to hide the fact he has no idea what the f**k is going on.
"I've lived this moment before," Benjamin said, still standing, his arms not quite extended to the front and his palms spread.
"How a deja vu?" Claudia asked.
"Right!" He flicked and pointed at her with his whole hand. "Like a deja vu."
"Do you remember what's going to happen now?" Astrid questioned.
"The lights... the lights are going to go out, and the fire siren will begin to sound," he explained, waving his arms to aid in intonation. "We'll all go down to the lobby and they won't let us out of there for a long time."
"Benja... What was it, bro? Are you high? "Ramcés joked.
"I don't smoke," Benjamin answered. "And this I have seen suddenly... just now."
"Really?" Alexandra's tone was suspicious.
"Three... two... one." Ben instinctively looked at the ceiling for answers.
The ovoid lights in the room were turned off at the end of the count, as did the air conditioning, which gave way to a wave of intense cold that disturbed the quality of the momentum of the current temperature. Alexandra's scream made everyone jump; even Benjamin trembled at the unexpected response to such a forewarned event.
"What the f**k was it?" Ramcés exclaimed, immediately getting up from the chair where he was resting.
"Oh s**t! What happened?" Claudia asked, as she slowly got up from Astrid's bed.
"Is everyone okay?" Astrid asked, groping Ramcés's arm for physical support, avoiding tripping over the soda glasses on the floor. "Ale, are you okay?"
"Yes, I'm perfect" she hastened to reply. "I panic for a minute, but I'm fine now. Benji, where are you?"
"Here." Benjamin was on the side of the bathroom, crouched, rummaging through the baskets of groceries. "Do you have candles?"
"Yes," Astrid replied. "In the pantry, on top of the closet. Benja..." She looked at him still incredulous, with a frantic smile painted on her face. "How did you know this would happen?"
"I told you... deja vu," he answered as he opened the doors of the small ocher pantry that emanated an aroma of roses and jasmine from the meadow as if freshly cut and packaged for plastic mass production. "And it was the clearest and most accurate I have ever had in my life."
"What have you had?" Alexandra said as she gathered herself sitting next to Claudia. "How many like this have you had before?"
"Like this one?" He produced a small cream candle with a short flannel wick. "None. But I usually have them since I was little. I've had so many that I can't count them on my fingers."
"Haha. Seriously!" Ramcés laughed, also uneasy from the door. Such a prison guard had stood next to her, guarding that no one came out or entered.
"But the siren is missing," Alexandra said. "Benji also said that..."
Biiiiiip! Biiiiiip! Biiiiiip!
The fire alarm created a premature silence among those present. They all turned suddenly and looked at Benjamin with curiosity and fear, while the latter lit the scented candle with cinnamon lighter that he always carried in the pocket that goes next to the heart of the jackets.
"f**k off... how the hell did you know that?" Ramcés said with a grimace on his face, as he opened and held the door and indicated the rest to come out, with his right arm.
"Yeah, Benji... creepy!" Alexandra said, shivering like the rest from the immense current of air that spread the cold from one pole to the other. "You are a fortune teller... or a witch, like Harry Potter."
"Harry Potter isn't a wizard?" Claudia put in wryly.
"The same nonsense is..." Ramcés answered, laughing coldly, stirring up some faces to indignation.
The five of them went down together to the lobby, where the rest of the residents of building one also gathered at the request of the office. The guards, who were obviously not enough for a situation like that one, moved rapidly from one side to the other, unable to maintain order.
"Well, I guess you were wrong here," Astrid commented. "You said that we would all meet here, but there are only those of building one, those of five are locked in their building."
"Yes, I'm sorry. I just saw a lot of people clustered here, and I heard the alarm in the background, "Benjamin answered.
"Are you sorry?!" Alexandra said. "Hey, but if you knew everything that was going to happen, how are you sorry..."
"And do you know what's going to happen now?" Claudia approached him cautiously, slowly dictating the question.
"No," he sighed. "I have no idea what will happen now."
- Writer
