Part 2
‘Can my medication cause hallucinations? It never has before, but I did take a double-dose earlier and I’m completely exhausted. I also heard that voice repeatedly…Maybe this was why my Psych had advised I only take one at a time…’
Feeling seriously embarrassed now, I took a deep breath before attempting an explanation that might save some face with Val, who at this point might be wondering if I was a bit crazy.
“Sorry…I…uhh…thought I saw a huge spider behind you…but I think it was just the shadow of your hair moving along the wall.”
As she howled even harder, I was minutely relieved that she seemed to have bought my lie. Even if I’d likely just set back any chance of seeing her naked by several weeks, I was certain if I’d told her the truth that this would have been our last interaction.
“Well let me know if you need me to come over and squash any spiders for you!” She continued to cackle as she left 1737 and I could still hear her going as she descended the stairs. I don’t think I could have done a worse job at a first impression with a girl if I’d tried, but it didn’t look like I’d completely blown it. Hopefully she’d still be up for balcony tequila in a few days and I’d be able to turn up the charm then.
Thinking on this though, I realized that either accidentally or intentionally she’d given me no way to contact her. I assumed she lived on the first floor as that’s where we met, but didn’t know which unit. Everything had happened so quickly I hadn’t thought to ask for her phone number. Without her last name I’d have a hard time finding her on social media as well, so for now my only hope was to maybe run into her on the stairs again. Making a mental note to go for a few walks a day over the next week, I switched gears back to setting up my new place.
In my brief interaction with Val, I’d forgotten about my meager dinner and now found I was famished. I wolfed down the burger and fries with the voracity of a growing teen boy before setting to the task of assembling my bed. Being night was now falling and I’d already had a long day, I just wanted to get the bed and TV setup so I could put on a show to fall asleep to. Given my disorder, I’d always had a hard time falling asleep if I couldn’t distract my mind with something else so I owned a couple TV series on DVD in case I ever lost internet connection and needed to return to the dark ages before streaming. Tomorrow I would work on getting internet services setup as well as burning some of my signing bonus on furnishings.
It didn’t take long to dig out my bedding or to get the bed setup, and I placed my small TV in front of it on the only table I currently owned, a folding TV tray. I plugged in my Xbox and powered everything on, thankfully it appeared they had all survived the move. Then I threw in Season 2 of one of my favorite shows, kicked it off from the first episode, and decided I’d step out to the balcony to have a smoke before settling in for the night.
Night had fallen rather quickly over the complex, or maybe it just felt like it had given how busy I’d been. It was a warm summer evening, and I expected to hear the sounds of people out on their balconies talking, music playing, the usual ruckus for a Saturday, but I noticed it was eerily silent. When I was on the tour with Clara earlier I’d figured it had gotten quieter closer to Building 17 just because less people might frequent this area, but now I got the sense that sound just didn’t carry well in this direction.
As I took the last drags on my cigarette, I recalled I’d promised to send some photos of the new place to my parents. So, I stepped back inside, flicked on all the lights, and dutifully traversed each inch of 1737…attempting to capture every detail so as to limit the amount of questions I’d need to answer for my mom on the amenities. I knew she’d be particularly excited that I had my own washer and dryer so (unlike in my college years) I might avoid the piles of laundry randomly accumulating in corners. After several minutes, I was fairly confident I’d documented everything and it was as I tried to select the first few photos to send that I found I had no service in the apartment. ‘Bizarre’ I thought, as I’d obviously had service just outside the building earlier when my mom called, how’d I lose it just a few yards away?
Thinking maybe I’d just been on the very edge of the coverage area outside the building, I walked out to my balcony (which faced the parking lot), and stuck the phone just past the bannister. Unexpectedly, I immediately picked up three bars with LTE and my photos started to send. ‘What the hell…?’ I pulled the phone back across the banister and sure enough it showed “No Service” as soon as it crossed the threshold.
Being an engineer, this was the first thing that’d happened to me all day that I couldn’t quickly rationalize. I prefer to operate by the principle of Occam’s Razor (the simplest solution is usually the correct one), which is why up to this point I’d been able to explain any concerns away. However, this just wasn’t logical. There was no physical barrier to block EMF at the banister…why then could I repeatedly watch my phone go from nearly full service, to absolutely no service right at the boundary to my apartment? I felt the butterflies start to swirl in my stomach, and I knew that if I couldn’t find a coherent explanation quickly, the more insane explanations would start to dominate my thoughts with impunity.
I ran back through the apartment and threw myself out into the hallway. One bar…no LTE. Stepping back inside, no service. One bar. No service. One bar. No service. If I hadn’t taken a double-dose of my medication earlier I’m certain I’d have started a full-blown panic attack at this point. Unfortunately, that had been hours ago and the effects were definitely weakening. The implications of having no service in my apartment were now starting to worry me just as much as the ‘why’ behind having no service in my apartment. ‘What if I fall, break both my legs and arms simultaneously, and need to call for help? I’ll be left to starve to death!’
Before I could spiral down thinking of every possible scenario in which having no service in 1737 would assuredly lead to my ultimate demise, I again heard the soft voice in my head.
“WiFi.”
Did it sound a bit like Val? I thought I could detect a hint of her jesting in it and I started to relax. ‘Of course…you can call and text over WiFi…I’m not going to die because I have no service in my apartment. I just need to be extra careful on slippery surfaces until I get that set up and I’ll be okay.’ “Thanks Val,” I said, as I again excused the voice as a manifestation of my own mind…this time easing my concerns using her disarming tones. I decided that if I continued to hear it, from now on I would refer to the voice as ‘Val.’
While ‘Val’ had given me a solution for the issue of not having service in the apartment, she hadn’t given me an easy solution as to why. So I thought it best to attempt to organize my thoughts like I would if I was conducting an experiment and analyzing the data.
‘Okay, so that’s no bars in the unit. One bar in the hallway, but no LTE, three bars right outside the balcony and LTE. Does 1737 itself then block the signal? That makes no sense, an apartment can’t block cell signals…not unless the walls are lined with lead…and that doesn’t explain how the signal dies on the balcony.’ I thought.
I continued to ponder, ‘While I get a bit of service in the hallway, it’s not much. Is there something specific to the building causing problems? It had smelled like ozone in here earlier, is there some issue the electricians missed that could be disrupting my service? Clara had said she couldn’t keep anyone in here for more than a day, maybe in their haste they’d missed something? Or maybe the issue was in someone else’s unit and they hadn’t checked there?’
Then, I began to wonder…’what if there isn’t a scientific explanation?’ But my mind started to get foggy. Normally, I’d have sat and considered options until I could come up with a reasonable explanation in a situation like this, but I was overcome with a feeling that I shouldn’t think too hard on it. It was so strong, I began to wonder if I’d taken another dose of my medication and just forgotten about it…I was almost positive I hadn’t, but why was I so calm all of the sudden?
“You are safe here.”
That’s what it was. I thanked ‘Val’ again. I was safe here…right? Admittedly, everything hadn’t gone perfectly with the move. I might have been hallucinating a bit and I had no cell service in my new home, but quite unlike myself, I was able to shrug it all off for once as the distinct comfortability of 1737 enveloped me once more. Moreover, there was nothing I could do about it tonight, and my bed was looking more enticing by the minute. I typed out a text to my parents that read, “just realized, no service in new place, going to work on getting WiFi tomorrow, don’t panic if you can’t get calls/texts through for a bit.”
Walking out to the balcony, I stuck my phone over the banister and heard the sound indicating the message was sent successfully, then went back and locked the front door, clicked off all the lights, and headed for the bedroom. Typically, I’d brush my teeth before bed at least, but at this point I was too tired to care about it. No one would be smelling my breath tonight, and I’d get them good in the morning. I stripped down to my boxers and hopped into the familiar form of my bed from my parents’ house. After weeks in a hotel bed, it was fantastic to settle back into something I’d known and loved for years…I felt more at peace still. My eyes felt heavy within ten minutes of laying down and at some point I drifted off to sleep…
I heard Val’s voice again, but not in my head this time…it was like she was back in my room with me. The sarcasm was gone now, her tone was seductive.
“Thank you for inviting me in.” She purred.
I opened my eyes quickly and saw her form above me. By the weight on either side of my hips I knew I was being straddled, and I felt her press herself down onto my crotch. Instinctively, I put my hands on her hips and found she was wearing lingerie, I could feel garters and stockings with my fingers and there were high heels touching my ankles. Her hands grabbed my chest and slid up to my shoulders as she brought her face close to mine…and then our lips met. I should have been shocked, frightened even. I was fairly certain I’d locked the front door…How the hell had she gotten in? But as she stuck her tongue in my mouth, the only thing I felt was arousal…no…passion. I had never been this consumed by another person in my entire life. I wanted to be one with her.
She kissed down my neck, then my chest, then my stomach, and then she was pulling ‘it’ out of my boxers. She placed ‘it’ in her mouth and began moving her head up and down, giving me the most intense euphoria I’d ever known. So intense, I knew that I wouldn’t last long, and in minutes I was telling her that I was about to finish. When she heard that, she only increased her efforts, and shortly I passed the point of no return. As I did, I looked down and caught her eyes.
They’d turned black again, as black as night…and they were full of malice. All the pleasure I was experiencing disintegrated in an instant and was replaced by the same dread I’d felt earlier. She still had ‘it’ in her mouth, which began to form another, too-large smile and her razor teeth were resting lightly on either side of my shaft. I knew what was coming but I was powerless to stop her as she slammed her jaws together. Blood shot out from where ‘it’ had been and I screamed in agony, in fear, in despair. I screamed and screamed and screamed as blackness pressed in around me until I knew no more.
When I awoke she was gone, but the memory wasn’t. It was so vivid, and holy shit, my crotch actually felt wet! ‘Fuck, had it been real?!’ I plunged my hand beneath the covers in a blind panic, found that ‘it’ was still attached, and breathed a huge sigh of relief. However, I was shocked to find that the wetness I was feeling was actually…semen…I’d had a wet dream. But that was impossible, I hadn’t had a wet dream since high school. My heart was racing as I tried to pull my mind back into reality. Slowly, I started to talk myself through it. My name was Dan, I was in my old bed, but I was in my new apartment, my show was still playing on the TV, and it was…2:57am. It had been a nightmare…an exceedingly confusing nightmare…
With that established, I was able to center myself enough to know I now needed to get out of bed and get myself cleaned up. Shaken, I felt compelled to turn on every light in every room I entered until I deposited my soiled boxers in the washing machine. Being I was already up and heading for the restroom, I thought I should brush my teeth too, so I grabbed my small travel bag from the hotel as well some towels from the same bag I’d had the bedding in.
I quickly rinsed off in the shower and toweled dry. Luckily I still had some clean boxers in my travel bag. I put on a fresh pair, then stepped in front of the sink to wet my toothbrush. This was the first time I’d looked in the mirror since I’d left the hotel and I had to do a double-take. I looked…thin. Much thinner than I should have looked from one day to the next. In my final year of college I’d added a senior sixteen on top of my freshman fifteen, which had left me a bit ‘puffy’. However, my face now looked almost like it had three years ago, and my gut wasn’t hanging over my boxers as much. I wondered if they’d installed funhouse mirrors in this place or if I’d somehow dropped fifteen pounds in one day of moving. Real or facade, it was a welcome change.
Once I’d finished brushing, I began the process of shutting off every light in sequence on the way back to my room, picking up the pace with each one before diving back into my bed. I’d never really been afraid of the dark, but after my nightmare and having seen some shit earlier that day, something told me I didn’t want to look into the dark corners of the room. Unfortunately, I was now pretty awake for three in the morning, and wondered if I’d be able to get back to sleep.
When I shut my eyes the first time, I saw Val’s face…the black eyes, her bloody teeth. I gasped and sat bolt upright. “Just a dream,” I told myself.
“Yes…Just a dream Dan.”
I thanked ‘Val’, as I started to feel drowsy again. When I laid down closed my eyes a second time, her features had returned to normal and she carried an impish expression, very pleased about something.
“Don’t worry, I have you always.”
If I had another nightmare that night, I didn’t remember it…at least not well. I believe I dreamt something, but all I could recall was a phrase.
“The head is on the bed.”
Try as I might, I couldn’t deduce why it was sticking with me. But, with the amount of shopping I had to do that day, I decided that it wasn’t worth worrying about. Besides, I’d survived the night, awoke feeling acutely well rested, and decided that I was simply going to chalk everything strange from the previous day and night up to a combination of too much medication and exhaustion from moving. It was a new day, and everything was definitely going to go back to normal.
The one positive thing that came from my incredibly weird sex dream/nightmare (sexmare?), was that I had unpacked most of the items I needed to quickly get myself ready to head out for the day. I took a shower, brushed my teeth, dressed, and made up my mind that fast food breakfast would be slightly better for me than the chips and soda I had in the apartment. They would also have coffee, which I was now starting to curse myself for forgetting would not be provided like it was at the hotel. I was just grabbing the keys to my truck when I heard a very soft knock on the front door.
I froze…who in the hell would be knocking on my door at this hour? I’d just moved in…the only people that knew I was here were Clara, my parents, and Val…’Maybe it’s Val!’ That’d be the perfect start to my “normal” day. Although I wasn’t quite sure I was ready to look her in the eyes after the ‘special’ dream I’d had about her the night before. Of course, Clara had also said something about maintenance coming over to look at the HVAC, so it could have just been them. Taking a peek through the peephole I saw that sadly, it was not Val, and it was also most definitely not someone from maintenance.
Standing on the other side of the door was a very old woman, who by the looks of it couldn’t have been a day under 90. Her short, white hair stuck out at odd angles, and her eyes were sunken deep into her sallow face. She wore a tattered nightgown and was so thin my first impression was that I was again hallucinating, this time seeing a tiny skeleton right outside the door. She reached up to knock again but I opened the door before she was able, as I was afraid her knuckles might turn to dust from the impact.
She gasped, then jumped back a bit and I noticed she was very…twitchy…She had the look of someone that’d “seen some shit” and her eyes were darting wildly from my face, to the inside of 1737, to the hall around her. It dawned on me then that she’d probably gotten the wrong apartment and had been very startled to see me. Maybe she’d even forgot where she was supposed to be going? Whatever the case, she didn’t say anything, and wrapped herself in her own arms like she was cold, all the while her eyes darting.
“Excuse me ma’am, maybe you’ve got the wrong apartment? Where were you trying to go? Maybe I could help you find who you’re looking for?” I said, attempting to sound caring. I did truly want to be helpful, but the woman was…unsettling…and I was also willing to do anything at that point to get her away from my front door.
Suddenly, her eyes snapped to meet mine. She locked on my face, as if she had only just now noticed I was there. Her expression became remarkably stoic, determined even, and she stopped fidgeting entirely.
“You need to leave.” She said in a raspy voice.
“Excuse me?” Now I started to wonder if maybe she had dementia and she used to live in this apartment. Maybe she’d snuck out of a nursing home to come back to her old place and finding me there had confused her even more?
“You. Need. To. Leave.” She repeated, this time much more forcefully, annunciating each word to ensure there was no confusing what she’d said.
“I’m sorry ma’am, I’m not sure if maybe you used to live here or what, but I just leased this place yesterday and moved in, so I’m here to stay for a while.”
“I live there.” She pointed to the apartment across the hall, then pointed a bony finger straight back at me, and again repeated, “you need to leave.”
‘Okay, so it looks like maybe she’s my neighbor…so maybe she just hates having new people in the building?’ I couldn’t fathom why she’d want me out of this place already…I hadn’t thrown a wild party or anything. Sure I’d made some noise while moving, but I couldn’t believe she’d be so upset about that and she’d want me out right away.
“Can you please elaborate for me? I’m not sure what you mean by ‘you need to leave’.” I inquired.
“She’s getting stronger.” She croaked.
‘What the hell was that supposed to mean? Who was ‘she’, and what did ‘her’ getting stronger have anything to do with me needing to leave my apartment?’
“Okay, now I’m really lost ma’am, and I actually do need to leave, I was on my way out to do some shopping to furnish the place.” I said, now beginning to lose my patience. I got a strong whiff of vodka on her last words.
“NO!” She yelled. Her expression had changed…she looked terrified, and the effort of shouting was too much for her as her knees began to buckle. I reached forward to catch her, but before I could…Val had grabbed the woman around the waist and was pulling her to her feet.
Squeaking out a noise far too high pitched for my own liking, I leapt back in shock. I hadn’t seen or heard Val come up the stairs…Her sudden appearance took all the wind out of me and I concluded I must have been so focused on the conversation that I never saw her approaching.
“There now Mrs. Robertson” Val said soothingly. “Let’s get you home.”
Mrs. Robertson looked far from comforted. What little color had been left in her face had drained entirely, and her formerly sunken eyes were protruding from her skull.
“Please…don’t…” she gasped, but that was all she managed to say as the last of her energy evaporated, and she slumped in Val’s arms. ‘Crazy woman,’ I thought. She had just nearly collapsed in the hallway and was now trying to refuse help even though I doubt she could stand of her own volition at this point.
“Thanks,” I said, turning my attention to Val. “I wasn’t sure what to do…she just came knocking on the door this morning and was trying to tell me that I needed to leave…like move out I think. I tried telling her that I had just moved in, but she wasn’t taking no for an answer and I thought maybe she was lost or confused or I dunno what.”
“Oh don’t worry about her…she’s nuts. Used to give me all kinds of shit…called the cops on me a few times. Said I was too noisy, too promiscuous, too…just fun basically. I think she just hates fun. I thought I heard her ‘gentle’ tones, so I decided to come save you.” She smirked.
“Go ahead and do your shopping, I’ll get her settled back home…had to do it a couple times before when she came knocking on my door. She’ll be her usual pain-in-the-ass self after a few hours rest and won’t remember how nice I was to her at all.” Val said as she dragged Mrs. Robertson toward her door. ‘How sweet of her to help this old woman,’ I thought, who sounded like she’d never given Val anything but trouble.
‘She is helping her, right?’ I watched the pair as they moved away from me. Though Val had said she was just taking her home to rest, something felt very off. She’d basically appeared out of nowhere to drag this woman away, and far from looking empathetic, Val’s face showed disgust when she looked at her charge.
“Sure, but maybe…do you need any help?” I said as they were nearing the door now. Part of me felt like I shouldn’t let her take Mrs. Robertson into that apartment alone.
“Nah vato, you run along now…I have her.” She shot me a sly, victorious smile as they disappeared through the void and I was pretty certain I heard the deadbolt lock behind them.
Left alone on the landing, for a second I debated going over and knocking on the door…something about that smile did not seem right at all. Then I thought again of Occam’s Razor. ‘What? Was Val going to hurt Mrs. Robertson in there after definitely just leaving a witness behind? Also, Val’s given me no reason not to trust her besides things I’ve seen in probable hallucinations and dreams. And to boot…she’s hot! Hot women don’t just go around murdering old ladies.’
I relaxed and placed my keys in the lock, dutifully informing 1737 that I’d be back soon, just wanted to go grab a few things to spruce up the place. Luckily for me, a rather large Swedish furniture store had just opened about an hour from the apartment, so I hopped in the truck, set the GPS on my phone, and headed out. There was a fast food restaurant between the complex and the interstate where I picked up a quick breakfast and some much needed coffee. As I pulled out of the restaurant, I remembered that I’d wanted to try and get WiFi ordered for the new place. The nightmare and Mrs. Robertson’s visit had driven the thought completely out of my mind, but now I knew I’d need to spend the bulk of my drive doing the one thing everyone dreads most in this world…speaking to customer service at a cable company.
The documentation on the new complex had mentioned that they only use two companies for their cable/WiFi services, so I searched the number of the first one and dialed it. After ten minutes of sanity testing frustration culminating in me screaming at the automated system, I finally managed to get a real human on the phone and discuss my WiFi needs for the apartment. We talked through the bundle options and at first I planned on just getting WiFi (as I stream everything and I’m not much into sports), but when the rep mentioned a bundle for home phone and WiFi, I thought about how I had no service in 1737. In the era of the smartphone I never thought I’d see a landline again, but having a contingency in case of emergency was my default operating state, so I decided I could probably accept the small monthly up-charge. For a minute, I weighed calling the other company to see if they might have any better deals, but the thought of having to start this whole process over again made my skin crawl, so I just told myself this was a great deal and signed up.
Once we had the package all planned out, the rep told me he’d need to transfer me to the local office to set up an appointment for a technician to come out and install everything. After a few more minutes on hold, I was speaking to someone named Rick and he was pulling up the details of my account on his computer.
“Okay, let’s see…looks like I’ve got your new service details right here. Home phone and internet bundle, 750mbps, and yea we work at the complex all the time so it should be an easy setup. Let me check our schedule here. I think we can be out there tomorrow sometime between noon and 4pm, will that work for you?”
Of course it was a four hour window but luckily for me, the first day at my new job would be an orientation session and it was planned to be a half day just to get in, pick up my laptop, take a badge photo, and sit through a few meetings discussing basics like payroll and benefits. So I said, “You know, I only have a half-day tomorrow, so I think I can actually make that work…I’ll try to be home as close to noon as possible.”
“Great! Okay let me just see which unit I need to send the tech to…okay 17…oh, holy shit…” Rick trailed off and then went completely silent.
“Hey, Rick, did I lose you there?” I asked, thinking maybe he’d dropped the phone or something, explaining his expletive outburst.
“Um…no sir…I’m sorry about that. We just…haven’t set up service in that unit in a couple years… If they’ve had anyone else living in there in the interim using another company’s service…it’ll just take a bit more work for the tech to switch things back over to our service.” He said, but didn’t sound very confident in his own words.
Confused as to the sudden shift in demeanor I asked…”Okay, well is the tech still going to be able to come out tomorrow and get the work done?”
“Yea…Yes. Sorry, yes we can still get it done tomorrow.” He’d shaken off whatever concerns he had with my apartment and gave me a confirmation that I’d have WiFi by the next afternoon, so I thanked him and hung up…grateful to be done talking to cable companies for the day.
It’d taken about half the trip to the furniture store to get the WiFi sorted and after I hung up, I found my thoughts drifting to Val. I felt a longing to get back to her that made no sense. I’d only met her the day before and we’d just had two relatively short interactions. I tried turning on a podcast to distract myself, but I couldn’t focus on it at all and eventually just turned it back off. That sense of urgency I’d felt the previous day to get back to my apartment returned and I decided I was going to speed run my shopping trip.
Upon arriving at the store and without really paying attention to if anything matched, I picked out an entertainment center, couch, coffee table, end table, dining set, bedside tables, and a dresser, somehow managing to stay just under budget. I had to get a bit creative when it came to loading all this into the truck, but fortunately I had enough room and ratchet straps to be mostly comfortable that I wouldn’t lose anything on the interstate. Even so, though I desperately wanted to speed all the way home, I took it slow and daydreamed about Val much of the return trip.
My mom called while I was on my way back to say she’d reviewed the lease and everything checked out just fine. She also said her and dad had looked through my photos, thought the place looked perfect, and couldn’t wait to come visit once I’d gotten everything all setup. Of course she wanted some more photos once I built the new furniture and asked if I could be a bit more careful on the pictures in the bathroom and bedroom as those had been blurry in the first set I’d sent over. I promised I would, we said our goodbyes, and I got back to daydreaming.
Figuring I’d spend basically the rest of the day assembling my adult Legos, I picked up a large pizza on the way home. Then, as I was making the last few turns back to the complex, I spotted a liquor store on the corner right near my place. Thinking back to my conversation with Val, I decided to stop in and grab a bottle of tequila in case she stopped by again. When I walked in, I saw the attendant (a woman maybe in her mid-fifties) give me an inquisitive review while I made my way to the tequila aisle. I grabbed a mid-tier bottle as I’d just blown most of my money on furniture, but I also didn’t want Val to think I cheaped out on our tequila night. I grabbed a couple six packs of some local beers I’d been wanting to try as well and made my way to the counter.
“That everything?” Asked the attendant.
“Yea I think so, how’re you doing today?” I responded.
“Oh…just living the dream.” She chuckled. “Haven’t seen you in here before, are you new to the area or just visiting?”
“I’m new to the area actually, just got an apartment in the complex up the hill there.”
“Oh really? I’ve been looking at getting a place up there for awhile but they never seem to have availability. How’d you get in, If you don’t mind me asking?” She queried.
“Oh no problem, I actually just got really lucky. I needed a place and I checked online yesterday, saw they had one spot available…called up, got a tour, and pretty much signed the papers on the spot. Crazy story really…apparently there was a couple from outside the US living in the unit for just a month or two. Then two weeks ago they just up and left without saying a word to anyone. Left most of their stuff behind too. Weird, right?” I explained.
Her eyes had widened when I mentioned the couple. She knew something…I could see it in the look she was giving me. As she ran my card, she asked, “is it unit 1737?”
“Uh…yea…yea it is…How did you know?” Something was off, and I began to feel very creeped out by the way she was staring at me.
“The couple that lived there before you…first few weeks they lived here they came in together a lot…buying expensive wine for dinners…seemed really happy…we chatted quite a bit whenever they came in, nice folk. Then I saw him less and less but…she kept coming. Eventually she was buying at least a bottle of liquor a day…sometimes two. We get a lot of troubled folk in here, so I don’t ask a lot of questions usually, but she was different. I could tell she wasn’t just buying this stuff to get through he day…she was scared. One day I just felt I needed to ask if she was okay and then she broke down on me…”
“Broke down?” I inquired, now seriously regretting starting a conversation with this woman.
“Yes…completely. She said there was something evil in her home. She saw shadows in the corners of the room…at night she’d hear terrible screaming…but the worst was the headless woman who appeared in the mirror. Her husband didn’t believe her and was enamored with their new place…said he’d never experienced anything of the sort…in fact he almost never left the apartment anymore. She was worried she was losing her mind. Then she just suddenly stopped coming in…I hoped she’d gotten herself some help. Sounds like maybe her husband finally heard her pleas and they got out of there…hope she’s okay.” She wrapped up her story and finished checking me out.
Chills ran down my spine as she bagged my items. Clara had of course told me that the previous couple had left very unceremoniously, but there was no mention of “evil” in the apartment during the tour. ‘Maybe this attendant was the only person the wife had told her story to?’ I wondered. ‘After all, Clara had sounded like she had no idea why the previous couple had left, just that one day she got a call from another country that the lease needed broken. I need more information…I just moved into this place…had the woman said anything else?’
“Evil…you don’t really believe that do you? Did she say anything else? I mean they’d just moved to an entirely new country…probably didn’t have any family or friends here…maybe she was just stressed and wasn’t getting much sleep…seeing things maybe?” I tried to reason with the woman.
“Sorry dear, that’s all she told me. All I can say is, given what happened in that place…I wasn’t surprised when she told me somethin’ ain’t right in there.” She handed me my items.
“What do you mean, given what happened in that place?” I asked frantically as the panic was starting to set in. It sounded like this woman was telling me that at one time something terrible happened in my apartment and at least one of the previous tenants thought the place was haunted. Now I had never ascribed anything that’d happened in my life to the paranormal, but I also had never completely discounted it as a possibility. As someone with a myriad of anxieties, I understood that I was effectively afraid to not be afraid of it. My thinking was I needed to afford it a healthy respect, else it’d come for me when I got too confident that it didn’t exist.
“Hey man! I got places I need to be and you’re holding up the line!” Came a shout from behind me. I nearly vaulted out of my skin. I’d gotten so engrossed in our conversation, I hadn’t realized there was a line bundling up behind me. The attendant gave me what she thought must have been an encouraging smile and said, “sorry, I need to help the next customer…good luck with everything.”
‘No…no I need more answers.’ I stood for a second hoping she would change her mind, but the next customer was pushing their way up to the counter. She greeted him and started scanning his items…our time was up. Sheepishly, I grabbed my purchases and headed for the door. Ten minutes ago I’d been in a decent mood…I had gotten everything I needed to start furnishing my place…was going to spend the rest of the day drinking and assembling furniture…maybe even hang out with Val a bit if I got lucky and she stopped by. All of those thoughts were now replaced with an ever-increasing cacophony of darkness. ‘What had happened in my place? Did someone get hurt? Did someone die? Did someone leap off the balcony?’
I raced back to the apartment, planning to search for any news stories about the unit as soon as I parked, but as I pulled up to the building…I saw something that drove that idea straight out of my head.