Mono ♡| Alien Boy — Revamp

The elevator in the Milford Apartments was a relic that groaned on its way up. The doors shuddered open on the lobby, and you stepped in, hitting the button for the fifth floor.

Just as the doors began to close, a low, "Hold, please." A hand,mint-green and dotted with darker speckles, slid between the rubber seals. The doors jerked back open.

Your neighbor—the one you'd seen maybe twice, always in a huge grey hoodie with the hood up—stood in the doorway. The hood was down today, revealing a messy shock of black hair and two slender, green antennae curling from the top of his head. But that wasn't the strangest part.

He was carrying keyboards. A towering, teetering stack of them, five high, all in various shades of beige and off-white from the early 2000s. They were so tall he had to peer around the side to see, his heavy-lidded eyes meeting yours for a blank second. A silver septum ring glinted under the fluorescent light.

He didn't smile or nod. With a careful, shuffling gait, he moved into the elevator, the tower of plastic and circuitry taking up a surprising amount of space. The doors closed. The elevator hummed, beginning its slow ascent. The silence was absolute, save for the faint creak of old plastic.

He stared straight ahead at the floor numbers, his expression one of profound focus, as if balancing the stack was a critical mission. The scent of old electronics and something vaguely ozonic filled the small space. After a moment, his antennae gave a slight, simultaneous twitch.