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It was around mid October when Carla started looking for a roommate for her flat, since university had turned out to be not as financially manageable as she had hoped in the beginning. Her parents had originally planed to send over enough money for her to be able to only focus on getting her degree, but thanks to her second worst enemy in life, fate, her mother had gotten laid off, because of business expenses the company was trying to save.
And so of the few options she now had to continue her education, sacrificing her privacy to save some money seemed to be the least agonizing. Her mother always used to say that life is fair, because after every misfortune, there's a miracle to make up for it. That was before she lost her employment of twenty years, yet Carla chose to simply ignore that, so it could still have a somewhat comforting effect on her.
She likes to think that in said moment, the universe smiled down on her calmly and forthwith sent hell to her doorstep, so she'd never be so naive again.
Ron was lying lazily on his cousin Tony's stained, old mattress, refreshing the website he was on for about the twentieth time, as finally there was a result on his page. 2 bedroom flat, subjectively functional bathroom. If further details are needed or you're interested, contact me. Sure seemed like a better living situation than in this overpopulated dumpster of an apartment.
"Hey, Ricky. You might get yourself your own mattress soon!", he yelled through the tiny corridor of his family's home, having gotten up just as swiftly, as he'd send a visiting request to his future roommate. He got no answer as about half of his cousins were occupied with observing the latest bug wrestling fight on TV, which he usually would have never missed, but now and again you needed priorities to get somewhere in life, even if he was unsure if he should trust the source said advice was from. But it sounded smart enough to be true.
At first they could tolerate each other and their respective quirks, since their shared love of not being homeless and not having to sell your soul for money was the main motivation for either. But with each passing Sunday noon, the roommate harmony got torn apart more and more, caused by the most frivolous evil of all: The TV programm.
Since they both only had this single day free from responsibilities, it was a given they'd try and make most out of it, while doing as little as possible, which laying on the couch and indulging in mindless, yet satisfying shows and movies was perfect for. But there was no shared happiness in this household as, besides the space issue on the couch, where one person already took up more than there was couch, Ron and Carla despised the other's taste with a deep passion and after a month they were beyond the point of hiding it.
And so began the eternal war for TV privileges. It was downright nasty.
So nasty in fact, that one day, after another yelling match between the two, there was a knoch on the door. Firm and loud. It seemed like a confident hand had knocked, as far as they could judge a hand. Out of reflex, Ron asked the knocker to come inside. With owlish eyes and a confused frown Carla motioned to the door and then to him, silently asking why he'd ask a stranger to come inside before checking who it was. Especially since they were probably the worst neighbors in the apartment complex and it wouldn't suprise her, if they had made some to them unknown enemies.
She wasn't raised as politely and particularly not as trusting as Ron was, though her father tried very hard to. Life just hadn't been as kind enough to her up to this point. He looked back at her just as puzzled, although for different reasons. What did she think was going to happen, by merely inviting a visitor in?
"For the record, this is definitely your fault.", Carla hissed in the dark, hoping Ron was close enough to be attacked by her. All she felt was a kick to the shin and a weak whisper. She could tell it was him, because of that awful lisp of his, that made it even less understandable.
Now they had to die in the back of some bug dealer truck, just because Ron couldn't keep his so-called judo moves to himself, when the surprisingly upfront hitman, that their crazy and apparently secretly wealthy neighbor hired to finally get the two roommates to shut up, had tried to kill them quickly. In fact he ticked the hitman off so strongly, that she decided to take her time with killing them, instead of the merciful death she had intended to give the two, since she had thought the reason to be ridiculous. Now she got the sentiment.
In the midst of it all, Ron seemed to have felt personally betrayed by the revelation, as the neighbor oftentimes had borrowed spices from them and he had thought of the lunatic as a friendly acquaintance at least and fellow bug wrestling enjoyer at most. And now Carla had to leave the world just like she entered it, basically blind, surrounded by huge bugs and with the most annoying yapping from some imbecile taking up all the space in her brain. Her parents went to the cheapest hospital they could find.