Well, she had a job now. That was the silver lining. A job meant money, and money meant more classes toward her eventual degree. Also food. Food was good to have too. Considering that all of the scholarships she’d managed to snag for her schooling covered a pretty sizable chunk of her tuition, she was only left to deal with minimal fees for supplies. Which, circling back to this ‘job’ she’d scored, would now be well covered with some to spend freely.

What was the job exactly? Oh, nothing big. She just needed to fill in as a ‘cook’ for a giant mutated cockroach she’d had a very weird dream and/or nightmare of. That’s all. Weird, right? Anyway, after her hallucination she found that she had indeed met Roach before, and that she had apparently agreed to work for him at some point. It was either the prospect of an easy job, or his sheer intimidating presence, that she agreed to it.

Glancing down at the address scrawled on the paper in her hand, with a slightly beat-up bronze colored key taped to it, she stared down the door in front of her. Honestly, she didn’t know what to expect from the other side of the door. Maybe he was eccentric and everything would be frilly, gold, or victorian?... maybe all three? Ugh. Maybe he’d be just an average joe...er… bug. Roach. Whatever! Steeling herself, she slipped the key into the lock, twisted, and gently nudged the door open with her foot.

Immediately, a strange smell leaked out of the residence that made her nose wrinkle. Ugh! What on earth was that? She poked her head in cautiously and her eyes widened in horror. There was… stuff…
everywhere! On the floor, the walls, the freakin’ ceiling!

Shelby inched the door closed again, hand still on the beat up doorknob, and seriously reconsidered this job prospect.
A few moments of tense inward reflection later, and she groaned loudly to herself.
It was good that she’d thought ahead and prepared for something like this, even if her mental vision of it hadn’t been this horrible. After all, when Roach had told her that under no circumstances was she allowed to clean anything, she’d gotten suspicious. And rightly so it seemed.

Unzipping her backpack, she fished out her supplies; donning thick latex dishwashing gloves, a heavy duty filter mask to protect her nose and mouth, and a thick rubber apron to keep her clothes spotless. Feeling sufficiently protected, she nudged the door open again, stepped in, and closed it behind.

Holy lord, it was even worse with the doors closed. Even without her glasses on she was sure she could see things crawling around on the walls and floor. Suppressing a shudder, she beelined for what appeared to be the kitchen, while she skin crawled and her brain shrieked at her to clean everything.

Hearing was nothing more than the mental identification of some sound wave, and as those sound waves bounced around they grew weaker. Most humans didn't pay attention to the quieter sounds, their lives too cushy to care about minor details, but the clicking of a key unlocking the door was enough to rouse a certain resident hidden deep within the apartment. His body currently curled up beneath his bed, the creature's tail began to curl up, looking sort of like a snake slowly stirring from a nap. He didn't wake yet, but Sylar was aware that someone was near his current home. It could be Roach, so his mind still lulled into the world between waking and slumber.

However the various noises that soon followed, the sound of a zipper, the soft clack of steps, and the ruffle of clothes all told him it wasn't Roach. It couldn't be Megan either, she'd left some time ago, which meant Sylar's mind had picked up on an unknown, an intruder, and thus the predator woke. His mutated eyes opened, and the blood began to pump through his veins as his world grew from black into a mixture of various temperatures.

His hands pulled him from beneath the bed, and the Boogeyman began to make for the kitchen, his steps quiet as could be. Creeping down the hall, the boy pulled his hood up, hiding his androgynous face from the light, and donning the mask of the monster. Who would be breaking into Roach's place? Everybody around here knew he wasn't to be bothered or messed with, especially since Roach's "dog" was quite ferocious, or at least Sylar tried to play that part.

The person was in the kitchen, light sounds and steps, a woman or small man? Sylar barely stepped from behind the arch to the kitchen, just enough to gaze upon the person who had entered his home, his sight clearly picking up on the image of a humanoid. Some pinky Roach had sent here for some reason? No human would be dumb enough to enter this place, but time to find out. Stepping into the archway, his form concealed from Shelby's sight as she focused on the kitchen before her, Sylar used a favorite trick of his.

His tail dropped to the floor, and like a python crept forward, slithering back and forth as it came up behind the girl, before rising up just enough for the blade to touch the small of the girl's back. The pressure enough to feel similar to having a knife pressed against your clothing. As the blade pressed forward, a hiss escaped his mouth, that alien noise that no other creature on Earth could emulate.

"Who are you...And how did you get in?" The monster boy demanded.

The kitchen was equally horrifying, if not more so. There were what could only be described as things in the sink… she wasn’t sure if they had once been plates and food, or if there were some kind of new fungus growing within. A shiver raced down her spine and a cold sweat broke out on her brow. How did Roach expect her to cook in this kind of environment?

She eyed the cupboards with distaste, honestly afraid of what she could find lurking within. Then, something touched her. For a fraction of a second she was sure there was a bug or rodent trying to burrow into her sweater, before the pointiness of the object suddenly caught her attention. That was no living thing. That felt like a knif--

”Who are you... and how did you get in?”

Oh god… had Roach sent her over here and not informed someone else she’d been coming? Was this his roomate? His… er… no, brain, she wasn’t going there. Maybe he’d done this on purpose and it was all some weird elaborate trap? But why though?

Before her thoughts could runaway any further, she reigned them in and squeaked. Then, gulping, she attempted a reply. ”..I...I--uh, Roach sent me here?” The note was in her bag, along with the attached key. ”I’m supposed to cook for him... he gave me a key and everything!"

She contemplated throwing her hands in the air, the universal signal that she was unarmed and had given up, but was kind of scared any type of movement would get her shanked repeatedly in the back.

"My name is Shelby.... he didn't mention me?"

The girl tensed, Sylar's senses certain it was a woman after hearing her voice. Shaky and afraid, and sort of familiar? Maybe, Sylar wasn't sure, he didn't care to memorize people who weren't in the rare group he called friends. His tail hovered in the air, it's curved tip pressing enough to be felt but not enough to puncture cloth or skin, the oily venom within barely dripping into her clothing. She claimed Roach had given her a key, unlikely! Roach didn't work with humans, not unless they were expendable and later wound up dead or missing. Sylar knew this from his first experience here, but he needed to figure out who she was first.

He took a breath, that hiss continuing to escape through his fangs between sentences. Cook for Roach? With Megan gone, Roach did seem to be missing a housekeeper, but to hire another normal looking mutant, or worse a human? This struck Sylar as odd. He spoke, his voice hollow and genderless.

"Roach didn't mention anyone! Especially not some normie looking girl! You a mutant?...Or are you human?" The monster boy demanded, keeping his distance from her for the moment, though he could close this gap within a second, the girl's life in danger should Sylar choose so. Though more than anything Sylar just didn't like surprises, he was more annoyed than worried about her presence. He didn't know anyone named Shelby either.

Knowing Roach though...hiring a maid or servant of some sort and not telling Sylar would be within his usual antics, the bug probably laughing at the thought of Sylar scaring the hired help senseless with his "body guard" act. The boy took a few steps forward, his clawed feet clacking upon the tile with a repetitive sound. "Turn around, slowly." He ordered, figuring the girl would know what she'd gotten into once she saw the Boogeyman himself. "Roach didn't tell me about you, and now that I think about it. I'm betting he didn't tell you about me either." This was an easy enough truth to gather from the girl's response and surprise to his presence.

Once she turned to look though, things might just go from bad to downright awful for poor Shelby, as Sylar's monstrous form would be easily distinguished in the artificial light of the kitchen.

"I'm Sylar, and I'm Roach's guard dog." He said lifting his clawed hand up and pointing at himself with a bladed thumb.

Wincing, she fought the urge to argue her case and remained silent. If she weren't so terrified of Roach, she'd have words with him late for this! "Uh.." Did it matter that she was human? Oh god... what if she answered wrong?! "I'm whichever one won't get me stabbed?"

His demand for her to turn caused her to jump, but she complied anyway. Slowly she inched around. Her arms straight at her sides, fists clenched and knuckles white inside her gloves.

"Roach didn't tell me about you, and now that I think about it. I'm betting he didn't tell you about me either. I'm Sylar, and I'm Roach's guard dog."

"No, he didn't. I was just supposed to show up and--"

She caught sight of her aggressor fully, and the words died on her tongue. He had a hood up to shadow his face, but even with the half-assed disguise she could tell it was him just from his tail alone. She'd seen that tale once before, and it had appeared at least twice after in two rather unwanted nightmares.

"AAAIEEMMFPH" She shoved her hands over her mouth and her shriek of horror warbled off into a hybrid scream-groan. Her brain shut down momentarily, too. Ohmygod... the sewer monster knows my name!.... I know HIS name!! OH GOD.

"... I swear I didn't know you lived here..." God, fate really had a morbid sense of humor.

The girl stuttered, and tried to mask her fear with humor. A common enough tactic when someone was afraid, Sylar knew that, his natural understanding of fear psychology probably better than most doctors. It'd have been cute too if Sylar wasn't a blind humorless mutant boy. "Clever, but I'll warn you that playing cute will get you gutted. Keep to the truth." He said with menace, the point of his tail pressing forward just a little bit as he finished his words to prove the point.

The girl followed his commands, and turned to face him, though to be honest save for the movement of her body her image looked exactly the same to Sylar, a humanoid blob made from various shades of warmth. However her little jump and indescribably noise caused him to tilt his head a bit, her reaction not completely normal with that of fear, but more like...recognition? His tail began to retract back towards his body, slithering through the air as it did so, before curling up behind the boy's back, bladed tip still pointing at Shelby with sinister intent.

The boy stepped forward, closing the distance between them slowly. The girl said something, but Sylar had stopped paying attention for the moment, his senses suddenly trying to figure out the various stimuli they had picked up. He spoke, his voice a whisper rather than that earlier tone of threatening intent. "Don't move." He said as he stopped right in front of her, his brain putting the puzzle pieces together. And then out of no where, like a dog the boy leaned over, pressing himself uncomfortably within Shelby's bubble of space as he began to sniff, his nose wrinkling as he picked apart her scent.

It was...vaguely familiar? Had he mugged this girl before, or met her at some point? Was that why Roach had hired her? Another prank to pull on the sewer boy and ruffle his feathers? No maybe not, Sylar couldn't quite place her scent, considering the last time they'd met he'd pretty much just seen her as an annoyance to be dealt with, rather than a person. Her voice also began to ring a bell, prompting the boy to speak once more as he pulled back to look her over.

"Have we met before?" He said, his voice far too normal to fit with the flow of the conversation as he derailed all the momentum that had been building until now.

Keep to the truth. Right. She could do that... if she managed to somehow not pass out first, that is.

He said don't move, she squeaked and stood frozen. Like a weird roman statue of some kinda goddess of cleanliness. He sniffed, staring at her, and sniffed some more. She realized belatedly that he was sniffing her like some sort of animal. Beads of sweat rolled down the back of her neck and goose flesh cropped up on her arms. She really wanted to wriggle away, make a break for the door, and just get the heck out of dodge. Then mail her resignation to Roach and pray he didn't come eat her, since the stupid bug apparently knew where she lived.

Instead she remained standing shock still, as ordered, and spent the tense nerve-wrecking time closely studying the features of the sewer mutant that had threatened eat her at one point. In her own skewed personal opinion, she'd consider him beautiful in any other light. With him intently sniffing her though, the twisted beauty only served to make him all the more terrifying.

Randomly, she kinda hoped she didn't reek of latex. She hated that smell.

His voice spooked her out of her thoughts and she focused on him fully again. Gulping, she weight her choices inside her head where, unless he was one of those freaky mind-reading types, she felt relatively safe.

Keep to the truth, he said. Yet, he didn't seem to recall her in the same light that she recalled him. The truth was steadily becoming lighter on the scale in her mine. Time to come up with a creative lie!

"...B-briefly, yes." Or half-truth. "A long while ago..." Where though? She didn't know anything about him... other than he lived in a sewer, and apparently with her newest employer. What had be called himself before? Roaches watch dog?

"We didn't really talk..." Avoid mentioning places... avoid mentioning dates and times! Be as vague as possible! "I d-didn't think I'd ever run into you ever again." A tremble raced up her spine, and she swallowed nervously.

This girl smelled no different than any other frightened sheep, or at least that's what Sylar thought. Women smelled better than men sure, but humans all smelled the same to him...like meat. It was an uncomfortable thought, but he didn't let it show on his face. Confidence in the bad guy act, had to keep it up lest he lose his faith from Roach. This girl though, still struck him as someone he'd met up close before, which it seemed he'd just forgotten it.

He tilted his head once more as she stammered through her explanation, her heat beating a mile per minute. Sylar could pick up on subtle differences in people thanks to his unique senses, but with her heart like this he was pretty sure she was being as honest as a scared human could be. Or she was an excellent liar? Probably not. He shrugged a bit.
"That so? You seemed familiar." He mumbled between her statements, as she continued to explain their connection. It would make sense, Sylar tended to spend most of his time with Roach focused on the bug man and his antics, ignoring people they might interact with, that could explain the familiarity.

The girl had misled Sylar a bit, but it's funny how twisting the truth just a little bit can produce the most believable lies. "Well nice to meet ya again human. I don't care much for your kind, but if Roach sent you here, that means you have some value." He said flatly, walking away from the girl now and moving towards the fridge. Considering the way he'd caught her before she could get at anything, she probably hadn't seen the inside of this fridge yet, and really nobody should. This humble appliance held some of the most horror movie deserving items if you took a moment to identify them.

However Sylar managed to simply pull out a can of soda, his body craving some sugar for the moment. He turned back to look at her, his own appearance matching the apartment some, grimy and horrifying were two words that might come to mind. "As long as you don't bring any trouble here, I'll be guarding you too, till Roach says other wise." Sylar didn't really care to make friends with a human, but if Roach had some purpose for the girl, best to keep her mostly unharmed till Roach was done with her. Sylar began to fiddle with his can of soda, revealing that in fact the nightmarish Boogeyman might have some issues.

Namely it was very hard for a blind person with knives for finger to open a pull tab can. He tried a few times, before getting a bit frustrated and simply jabbing his finger down through the top, creating a nice big opening with a horrific grating noise as claw punctured tin. He took a drink and a breath. "So Shelby, how'd you wind up working for the Boss?" He said, his voice flat and boyish, the tone most close to what Sylar really sounded like.

He backed out of her space, she hazarded a breath or two, and stepped back to lean against a counter for support. Her heart was racing a mile a minute, with no intent of slowly down anytime soon. Not when certain death was over there rummaging around in the fridge all non-nonchalantly.

"...Nice to officially meet you too." She knew his name now, which at least made him seem more human. Not that it was gonna change anything. Even if he wasn't really some horribly manifestation of her worst fears all clumped together into a vaguely boy-shaped figure, he was still a very dangerous mutant. That aspect of him, at least, refused to be budged.

She ignored his fiddling with the soda in favor of turning and staring blankly into the sink. She still had a task to complete, but she honestly hadn't the foggiest idea what Roach expected of her.

"I don't often go looking for trouble, so that shouldn't be a problem. I'll keep my nose clean."

A sudden pop and hiss, combined with the creaking metal from his opening his can, caught her completely off guard. She nearly jumped straight out of her skin, almost sent an errant cup crashing to the floor with her elbow, and hand to scramble to grab it before it started the journey. Good god, she was going to die of heart failure at this rate, many many years before she was naturally supposed to!

The sound of his voice, not hissing or tinted with a threat for once, also caught her off guard. Enough so that she turned to stare at him pointedly, before blinking and sucking a trembling breath in. "I...eh.. funny story, that. I had a dream about him..." It was still embarrassing and confusing, and couldn't make hide nor hair of it... but it was the truth. Considering her half-truth from before, her instincts told her to bury it under as many actual truths as she could.

"..Like I was in some kinda cartoon, where he was chopping veggies and tossing them in this big cauldron, all the while talking too me. Then he tosses me in and asks me what kinda spice I taste best with. I think I said paprika... but I don't really remember. It was a pretty fuzzy dream." She chuckled mirthlessly, swatted her loose bangs from her face, and adjusted the mask on her face until it stopped pinching her nose.

"Anyway... I must have met him before sometime, but I don't remember. Dude knows where I live though, and stopped by to tell me 'You've got the job!'" She tried to mimic Roaches voice, "I'm just supposed to cook, I guess. Enough meals for a week or two, that will fit in the freezer." Her voice dropped again, trying to catch the tone the giant bug has used on her, like she was a slow child.

"And you are absolutely not allowed to clean anything!" Hands on her hips, waggling one finger at Sylar as she pretended she was Roach and he was her... until she realized how ridiculous she must look and dropped the act.

"Eh... yeah. So that's it, and here I am."

Sylar ignored her greeting, since he'd just said so out of the general flow of things. Sylar cared deeply for his friends, but humans and strangers didn't even register with the boy, to the point that he was naturally cruel if you weren't obviously a mutant or child. The girl said she wouldn't be trouble, which Sylar hoped for, but really when Roach was connected trouble just found it's way to you. The girl jumped again when he opened his drink, making Sylar think she was quite skittish. Not that he cared, but it might be fun to pick on the easily spooked girl a bit in the future.

"Good, I don't need extra work, and I'm sure you don't want to get on my bad side." He said with a bit of force, just to get it across that she had best stick to the promise she'd just made. Not that Sylar couldn't handle probably anything this girl would get in to, he just didn't like having to work save when Roach asked him to do so.

She had a dream about Roach? Just what drugs was this girl on? "You...dreamt about Roach?" He mumbled a bit as she explained her dream, an odd image of Roach cooking the girl while having a friendly conversation with her, to the point of even asking how to prepare her? Yeah, this chick was crazy, made sense now that Roach would hire her to cook at his apartment. The boy shrugged as he finished his drink and crushed the can before tossing it at the nearest garbage can. "You're a weird one ain't ya?" He said in response to her dream description.

She made some odd gesture as she explained she wasn't allowed to clean either, though Sylar was too disinterested to even miss the joke. "Roach likes the place the way it is, keeps a lot of his kind around." Though he couldn't see the insects very well, Sylar knew the stench of a cockroach, and the apartment was never without a heavy stink of the bottom feeders. "He tell you what to cook?" The boy asked, a serious question considering Roach was an active cannibal and trying to raise Sylar into one as well when given the chance.

If the girl knew the kinds of things that went on within this apartment, would she run out of fear, or stay out of fear for what worse things could happen?

With a strained smile, she replied to both his question and statement in one go. "Yep... you don't even know the half of it."

She glanced around the kitchen, wincing at each new thing she spotted. "I'm not one to argue, so believe me when I say i'm not touching anything I don't have too." Which, if she were lucky, would include the sink. How she was supposed to wash dishes, though, she'd have to figure out soon.

"No, he didn't." And that was the third reason she was nervous. "From what I've gathered though, he's eccentric. I doubt anything normal will suffice. I'll just have to come up with new stuff."

Turning from him, she moved to a cupboard close by and leaned down to pry the door open and peek inside. She expected pots and pans, and thankfully they were clean... she did not expect the small stampede of cockroaches that scrambled out. She jerked back from the sudden movement, but when she realized what it was she calmed.

"I'm just gonna assume the bugs are his?" It would make sense based off of what Sylar has said, and who Roach appeared to be as a person. She absently wondered just how many of these these she'd have to shoo out of the kitchen on a regular basis.

Sylar couldn't see the mess he lived in with Roach, but he could certainly smell it. And considering the boy spent most of the past few years living in a sewer, and he still thought this apartment had a funk to it, yeah probably a bad sign. He wouldn't mind the girl cleaning up some, but Roach probably didn't want any of his "family" upset about their habitat being altered. She called Roach eccentric which brought a short chuckle out of Sylar. "Yeah if the boss is eccentric, than I'm mildly unnerving." It was a cold joke, but Sylar's humor was deadpan at best.

So Roach hadn't told her about his and Sylar's unique dietary requirements, unfortunate for Shelby he thought. He pointed at her for a moment and spoke sternly. "My advice would be to stay useful then. Otherwise you might end up in the fridge rather than using it." His statement was cryptic but certainly gave up that should the girl make a rather obvious blunder she just might end up on the wrong end of the fork. Sylar hadn't given in to the habit like Roach did, but he'd already had his first steps so to speak, and eventually he'd stumble and fall into it as well, and if Shelby wasn't careful she might end up being the first meal.

The girl went back to her cleaning, turning from Sylar as she started exploring the kitchen. Sylar rarely cooked in here, considering his lack of sight, but he was in here often enough to know they had the basic equipment of a home kitchen to be used. She shifted the flow of the conversation and mentioned the bugs once more, and Sylar shrugged. "Yeah...though I'm fairly certain they might just be Roach too." Sylar wasn't exactly sure what Roach's powers were fully, but he knew the man had an astounding information network and it seemed to be based off these little pests, meaning they might just be the small parts of Roach he left everywhere he went, or maybe he was like their King.
"Best to just leave them alone I think." The bugs tended to avoid Sylar as well, though pretty much every living creature did, nature could sense the predator it seemed.

... dude actually had a sense of humor. Albeit a dark one. She tried not to openly stare at him from over her shoulder, pulled a pot out, and stood.

The fridge comment caused her to blink, actually stare at him, and then glance at the object warily. Was that some kind of mob lingo threat? Like wearing cement shoes, or sleeping with the fishes? She quickly decided she didn't want to know.

"... I'll keep that in mind."

He commented on the bugs, which added a new level to the crepe factor surrounding this whole job. The bugs were part of him?... did that mean he could spy on her too? She tossed out the notion of ever using the restrooms in the dirty apartment immidiately. "duly noted."

Suddenly, one back pocket of her jeans started vibrating. Then, DUN DUN... DUN DUN... DUN DUN DUN...

"Shut up, you stupid phone!" Reaching back to turn it off, it didn't occur to her what her what her choice of ringtone could end up meaning, if anyone were to recognize it...

The human was obedient enough, maybe Roach just picked one he knew would cow to his and Sylar's demands easily rather than some grandiose prank like Sylar was expecting. He'd spent too much time and effort here though, and the sugar from the soda wasn't helping to alleviate his daytime sleepiness. Perhaps he'd curled back up under his bed and nap till the sun began to set.

He moved away from the fridge and made like he was going to leave the kitchen, his clawed feet clacking softly against the floor as he passed behind Shelby, his attention fading away from the room as he yawned. And then he heard her phone go off, a completely natural occurrence considering the modern era they both lived in. But something about it struck Sylar, that odd sense of familiarity again. He stopped beneath the archway of the kitchen doorway, his tail swaying a bit behind him as he tried to remember where he'd heard that tone before.

Sylar didn't pay much attention to phones, after all he couldn't use one for various reasons. But that sound was familiar, he knew he'd heard it before. He turned slowly, his eyes masked beneath the shadow of his hood as he stared at Shelby and her phone. The dull light of the kitchen reflected off his metallic fangs as he spoke.

"I know this sound..." He said flatly as he tried to put the pieces back together. Hadn't he heard this sound when he'd picked on a girl who'd been down in the sewers? Was this the same girl? He tilted his head as he stared at her with dead eyes. "Tell me again...how'd we meet?" He demanded.

Her eyes rose from innocently silencing her phone, to find Sylar frozen in the doorway. She blinked, about to open her mouth ask him what was up, when he started to slowly turn back.

Ohsh*t!

Dread instantly pooled in her gut, and she stiffened visibly. Her heart rate kicked back into a frenzy, and she found herself holding her breath again through her mask.

"I know this sound..."

Ohsh*tohsh*t!!

She felt a cold sweat break out on her face and neck, and stood equally slowly to back away a step or two. She bumped into the counter and froze, one hand reaching behind to steady herself before she could tip over from the sheer panic washing through her, while the other hand brought up the pan she was holding like a shield in front of her.

"Tell me again... how'd we meet?"

She would have died right there of heart failure if she were a weaker person. But, as it were fear didn't kill her on the spot, it just made the connection from her brain to her mouth slow and stupid. "...I swear to god I didn't know you lived here..." It came out barely a whisper, but it virtually admitted everything.

Her pent up breath left her in a great whoosh, and she trembled and waited for him to reply.