The last two words sent shivers down your spine.
~
All your life, people had always called you pretty. Cute. Beautiful, even. Yet, through all your 24 years of life, you'd never had one boyfriend/girlfriend. No one seemed to look beyond the (h/c) locks that everyone thought was silky and smelled like strawberries/lavender, or your large, glistening (e/c) everyone seemed to love. You didn't see anything particularly worth pointing out about yourself anyway, and none of it made sense either. How could you be this notable, yet so lonely?

5 years now, living in the same unpainted and bland apartment. There was minimal furniture: one (f/c) couch, a wall mounted tv/flat screen on a tv stand, a couple of floor/table lamps around the place, minimal dishes, a bed in the bedroom, and various wall art around the place. It wasn't much, but it would do. It would have to do or else you'd be homeless. After all, you were an artist, so you began painting each room with very different and intricate paintings.

After a few hours of working on the wall mural you're working on in the bedroom, you hear your phone buzzing across the room on the end of the bed you'd pulled away from the wall. You run to get it before it stopped. You didn't recognize the number. "Hello?"

"Heya girly it's Ash calling from the work retreat!!" Your best friend excitedly shouts through the phone. You smile at her enthusiasm.

"Sounds like you're having fun on your "work retreat", huh?" You laugh. She's been your best friend since the kindergarten. She was the nicest cheerleader when she reached high school. Straight A's, all the boyfriends, countless friends, yet she stuck by your side since day one.

"Uh, hell yeah I am! They serve these free drinks that are infused with happy hormones or some shit like tha-HAHAHA!" She began to burst out laughing midway through her sentence for no particular reason.

"Ask, are you sure that's safe to drink? It's not drugs is it?"

"I mean, whatever it is, I like it. It makes me feel SO GOOD, GIRL. Like. SO. GOOD." She was over exaggerating her words.

"Well as long as you're safe. Stay with your coworkers, alright?' You advise. She snorts.

"Yeah yeah girl I know. Don't worry bout me. I'll bring you back a snow globe!" she hollers and hangs up. You roll your eyes. You pick up your thin paintbrush and begin to work on it again. It is a beautiful galaxy wall mural all along the walls and ceiling. Glow in the dark stars and planets, too. But you could only see any of it when it is pitch black. In the light, the was was dark gray with nothing on it. But when you turned the lights off, it turned into the Milky Way with thousands of stars and incredible detail in the supernova stardust clouds and whirls of the universe itself.

To ruin the moment, there was abrupt and harsh knocking on the door. You frown and go to the front door. Through the peephole, you see an older, silver haired man with a matching set of facial hair, and a well groomed short haired brunette who looked about your age. "What do you want?" You yell through the door, but still looking. The younger man looked directly into the peephole and you instantly spot the yellow blinking LED on the right temple of the man. Scared the shit out of you.

"DPD we just wanna ask questions about last night." The older man said. You unlock the locks and open the door. They both look over you with puzzled faces. You look down at your paint splattered clothes, arms and legs.

"What? I like to paint."