"A Small Leak Can Sink A Great Ship"

Alex awoke to the sound of rain hitting her bedroom window and instantly became uneasy. She pulled her pillow around her ears and attempted to block out the desolate noise and fall back asleep. Although the rain now sounded miles away, it was still audible.

"Dammit!" She growled as she threw her blanket off and jumped out of bed.

While carefully avoiding looking out the window, she stomped off into the bathroom and splashed her face with ice cold water. The bathroom mirror was cracked in the upper left-hand corner, but her face was completely visible. Her dark brown hair hung limp around her broad shoulders. It was longer than it had ever been, reaching way past her shoulders. Her angular face was tan, but unhappy; her mouth seemed to be in a permanent frown and her would-be pretty green eyes looked too experienced, too lonely for her young age. At 28, she was anything but carefree and happy. Alex was a very edgy girl. Some people would even call her obsessive.

She shook thoughts of those people out of her head before she quickly pulled a brush through her long locks and brushed her teeth. Now with that out of the way, she went out into her small living room/kitchen area and stood, with her hands on her hips, looking around.

"Nothing. Absolutely nothing to do in this place..." Alex frowned even more deeply and walked over to the table next to her couch. She yanked open its draw and found a tattered book inside.

Titanic. "You have got to be kidding me." Alex tossed the book back into the draw and slammed it shut.

She walked over to the small refrigerator and glanced inside, then opened the rest of the cabinets, closing each one after she looked in it.

"Nothing. At all. Fantastic." Alex sat heavily on the sofa and pretended not to hear the rain pounding on the sidewalk outside. Eventually, her growling stomach drowned out the rain and she was forced to go hunt for food.

She pulled on her dark green raincoat and stepped out into the hallway, slamming her door behind her. The "23" on her door swayed from side to side, but remained attached. She glanced in both directions before walking towards the main entrance of Wilshire Towers.

Before she made it out the door, however, she noticed a young boy wearing a rather large businessman's suit intently writing. She planned on sneaking past him, but he looked up from his clipboard as she eased open the front door.

"Can I help you Ms...?"

Her voice cracked as she spoke, "Alex....but everyone calls me Captain."
She inwardly scolded herself for letting that one slip. She was supposed to be starting a new life here, not trying to relive her old one.

"Alright, Captain." He smiled exposing a missing tooth. "Where are you going?"

"...I was going to get something to eat."

"You should go to Jorri Rae's. Just go left until you reach the end of the street, then take another left and it's on your right. They have really good waffles." He smiled again then went back to scribbling on his clipboard.

Alex slipped out of Wilshire Towers into the rain. Once again she took a deep breath and squeezed her eyes shut, willing herself to forget everything. Soon enough she found herself at Jorri Rae's ordering a waffle and forgetting about the rain.

Walking the Plank

Alex slowly opened the door in front of her, holding her breath as she surveyed her new living quarters. After a rather long minute she deemed the small room acceptable, picked up her suitcase and stepped inside, closing the door firmly behind her and locking it.

There was a simple red couch, a wooden end table with a tall lamp on it, a worn out, dark blue rug, and a table opposite the couch where a tv set would supposedly go. She didn't sit on the couch to see if it was comfortable, or check the lamp to see if it actually worked, or even open the small draw on the end table to see what was in it; she simply dropped her suitcase and kneeled next to the dark blue rug.

Alex shook her head and muttered to herself while she swiftly rolled up the unwanted item and stowed it in a nearby closet, which was empty aside from a broom and dustpan.

"That's much better."

The way her voice broke through the silence in the room made her jump. She hadn't been expecting to be that loud, or to say anything at all. She was much more at ease in the silence nowadays.

"Speaking of silence, what is that damn noise?" she spoke in hushed tones this time.

Her eyes scanned the area the sound was coming from and landed on a dripping kitchen sink faucet. Her body noticeably tensed before she stomped over and halted the annoying noise.

She squeezed her eyes shut for a couple seconds before procuring her suitcase and, finally, going to unpack the few possessions she had left.