The first thing Neneh felt this morning was the rather painfully pulsating in her head with the sounds of somebody walking down the stairs and the hallway. She thought about getting some aspirin or water to ease the hangover but decided getting up would be too much of a hassle. Just as soon as she had made that decision she heard somebody running back down the hallway and back up the stairs and then the faint noise of someone talking loudly in the hallway one floor above Neneh. This talking went on for only a few seconds but every second felt like someone scraping on the inside of Neneh's skull.
"Bhenchod" she mumbled, lifting herself slowly up from the floor to move towards the bathroom.
See, the night before Neneh decided to get drunk, or as she would call it; 'absolutely smashed'. So 2 empty bottles of wine, half a bottle of cheap rum, and a handful of angry texts to her mother later she fell asleep.
As Neneh was kneeling next to the toilet she checked her phone to see if her mother responded to her texts, not even a blue checkmark. "Bitch." She mumbled whilst putting her hair in a ponytail.
After staring at the still water for a couple of seconds Neneh suddenly got the feeling that maybe the hangover was not as bad as she thou- and there it was.
After she was done taking care of the little bit that was left in her stomach Neneh stumbled back into her living room, sat down and grabbed a cigarette.
After dazedly looking around for a lighter and lighting the cigarette she turned she grabbed the remote and turned on the television.
No reception.
Neneh tried to change the channel a bunch of times. No reception.
With a sigh she turned the TV off and grabbed her phone.
No internet.
She turned off WiFi.
No connection.
"What the fuck?"
Neneh felt her heart starting to beat heavily as she shot in a millennial panic mode. She went through her phone adjusting settings. Still nothing.
Whilst in total panic Neneh felt her stomach disagreeing with last night again and rushed back to the bathroom.
After a good fifteen minutes sitting next to her toilet trying to get her phone to work she went back to the living room, put her phone back on the charging cable and decided to take a shower first.
One cold shower later Neneh fully convinced herself that it must have been a network problem and that it would be cleared up as soon as possible, probably, hopefully, must be.
Neneh put on some pants and lit up another cigarette. Realizing she had only a few left she put on a shirt, a leather jacket and some boots, got out the door and walked out to the front door and checked her phone again. Still no connection.
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She turned around and walked up the stairs. To the third floor and walked to Henry's door.
"Henry, you home?" She asked, banging on the door. "My internet is down, can I borrow some cash? I'll pay you back as soon as I'm back online."
"What is all this fuss about?" Neneh heard from behind her, she turned around and saw missus Frost standing in the doorway with Henry behind her.
"Ah, perfect!" Henry exclaimed, seeing his chance to flee the situation. "I am sorry missus Frost but it seems that my assistance is required so i have to cut our chat short " He hopped past missus Frost into the hallway.
"Well I only wanted to borrow some cash since my internet isn't working." Neneh said.
"Well of course not, our apartment building is misplaced." Henry answered.
"What?"
"Yes, mister Belwick said something about a desert." Missus Frost chimed in.
"What are you two talking about?" Said Neneh, fairly confused at this point.
"Anyway, let's not make all this noise out in the hallway. It's still early and we don't want to wake up the neighbors. So can I also offer you a cup of tea as well, Miss Pathak."
"No, thanks but I still have stuff to do today. But what was that about a desert?"
"Well, I just went out for milk and instead of our front door opening in Gladstone Lane, it now opens into the desert."
"Desert? Henry, what are you on?"
"No really, go look for yourself." Henry answered. "I'll go with you." He quickly added, realizing he was still in range of missus Frost her tea invitations.
"Fine."
"You've got to be fucking kidding me." Neneh said in disbelief standing in the sand in front of their apartment building.
"I am afraid not. In any case, I think we should inform our fellow neighbors." Henry said calmly. He had been surprisingly calm through this whole situation, even surprising him. Normally even the slightest deviation from his daily routine was enough to startle him but this was so far beyond anything he was even able to expect or explain that he could not even get worked up about it.
"Henry, please tell me this is a dream." Neneh asked carefully. Unlike Henry she was not calm af all and still processing the weirdness of the situation. "I can't be in the desert today."
"Well to be quite frank, I also was planning on spending my day differently, strange how that goes sometimes." Henry answered casually.
"Strange how that goes sometimes?" Neneh looked in disbelief at the careless posture of Henry. "HENRY, WHAT ARE YOU ON ABOUT MATE, WE ARE IN A BLOODY DESERT AND YOU ARE ACTING MORE CASUAL THAN YOU WOULD IF YOU WOULD MISS THE BUS." She screamed.
"Well screaming is not going to help. At least I think so."
"PROBABLY NOT, BUT IT WON'T HURT EITHER, AND I GOT TO BE HONEST, I AM FREAKING THE FUCK OUT RIGHT NOW."
A window on the second floor opened up. Opening it was a short man in a gray undershirt, gray hair that went more around his head than on top of it and a gap between his front to teeth.
"Could you please keep it down a bit I am trying to sl- WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS."
"Ah Jacob, great timing, you're up. You see, it seems that someone has misplaced our apartment building."
"Well that's a bit of an understatement now isn't it?" Jacob snapped back at Henry.
"Well then, what would you call it?"
"Call what?"
"This situation."
"Guys. I don't really think it's important what we would call it at the moment, I think it's more important to figure out how to get back." Neneh interrupted them. "Now I suggest we get everyone together to figure out what happened and how to make it unhappen."