Speaker 1: The summer of twenty twenty three marked a season of
drastic change in the lives of three and men. Keith
Warner and Jamer Sudden both graduated from different universities with
different degrees. In May, Adrian Darwin lost his father in
a tragic case of medical negligence, and he and his
mother were awarded a grandsum in the malpractice suit. All
three of these men moved to a small apartment building in
de Mooy to pursue various goals. None of them knew
each other or had any idea what they were going
to experience together. Keith moved in first after graduating from
Iowa State with a degree in graphic design. He was
hired by small insurance company. The building had three units turtle.
It was a split level, with two units upstairs and
one dwnstairs next to the shared laundry room. When Keith
moved in, an elderly woman named Mazel lived in the
other upstairs apartment and the basement was vacant. Mazel still
lived in the building when Adrian moved into the basement
a month later. Being slightly smaller than the other two,
the basement unit costs less and that's all Avian cared about.
His goal was to stretch out his dad's malpractice suit
money as long as he could so he wouldn't have
to work. He had dropped out of college with no
plans on returning, and instead put his time into streaming
video games. He hoped the money would last long enough
to get him rolling in all nine entertainments so he
would never have to work a job again. Jamir moved
into the second of stairs apartment, and the same day
Masl moved out to live in a retirement community. Jamir
hailed all the way from Ohio. Keith learned through a
brief conversation in the hallway that day he had moved
to the mind to be a paralegal at a small
law firm. Besides occasionally nodding to one another on the stairs, Keith, Jamier,
and Avian barely interacted with one another. Keith and Jemmier
were usually exhausted by the end of the work day,
and Adrian tended to be a night owl. He normally
slept while the others were gone and stayed up all
night playing video games live streaming to an invisible audience.
He hoped would somedaymity realize Jamier barely at a free
moment during the week, so he always did laundry on Sunday.
Most of what he needed to wash, would you, just
the underclothes he wore beneath his suit and dress shirts,
so he just tossed everything into a single oad. Each week,
he would let the machine run its forty five minutes
like a while he tidied his apartment, then throw his
clothes in the dryer while he made dinner. The other
guys did laundry whenever the idea occurred to them, but
their respect to Jemua's schedule. The ma'am was as regular
as a clock, which made it easy to stay out
of his way. One Sunday evening in early November, Jamiir
had started the washing machine and gone back up stairs
to deep clean his bathroom. He blasted music through his
headphones while he scrubbed the cocker round the shower. He
paused between songs because he thought he heard some one
knocking on his door. Judging by the attitude of each
meaty blow, it wasn't the first time whoever was out
there had knocked. No one ever knocked on the door
except to deliver a package or a foo but Jamier
had not ordered anything. Curius Jemier left the bathroom, smelling
like bleach to peer through the peep hole his basement neighbor,
Jamier had yet to learn Adrian's name, was standing outside
his door, looking impatient and flustered. The guy looked like
he had just rolled out of bed, with his hair
sticking up and smashed on one side. His eyes said
that puffy waxy looked that tense to linger after a
night or day of poor sleep. Jamir hurriedly and locked
and opened the door before his neighbor pounded again. Ay,
what's up, he asked, Ah, your laundry is flooding. Adrian said,
with shy contempt. What. Jamyr shook his head ever so
slightly and asked what, but he had already pivoted to
step around Adrian. The machine is like overflowing or something.
I think he broke it, Adrian's aid. Jamir did not
appreciate the lazy accusation. As Jamiir descended, Keith walked into
the building with a bag of groceries. He paused when
he saw Jamir coming down toward him. His eyebrows almost
touched when he noticed Adrian at the top of the stairs.
Is something wrong, he asked. Jamier, flustered answered, apparently I
broke the washer. O man, Keith said, let me drop
these upstairs and I'll come help. When Keith went to
the laundry room, he found Adrian standing outside it while
Jimmie slotht sopping wet clothes into a basket on top
of the machine. His feet were covered in bresh water.
The whole room smelt fowl, like a landfall on fire. Thankfully,
the uneven fore kept most of the water toward the
back of the room, near the drain. Drane goggled and
bubbled in the corner. As Jamiyr removed the last of
his sooking clothes, he gave the back of the machine
a brief inspection, then turned to his neighbors. He said, guys,
I don't think this is from the washer. He pointed
to the knob on the front. It was an elder machine,
the type where you turn a knob to whichever cycle
you want to run and it slowly turns back like
an egg timer. Shamir said it was almost finished and
there was still a bunch of water inside it. He said,
it's all right, man, either way, will just Jimmy Or
cut in as if he hadn't even heard him ar
this sex. I needed this stuff for a confident I'm
supposed to fly to tomorrow. When do you leave? Maybe
Chuck can still fix it to night, Keith aked. Chuck
was their landlord and seemed like a reasonable helpful guy.
I've got to be up at four in the morning,
and that if I can get everything ready to go tonight.
Jamr replied, I can't wait. I've got to go to
a laundromat. Go ahead, Keith said, I'll call Chuck. Jamer
pushed down on his wet laundry and streams of water
poured out of the basket. He dried his hands on
his pants, then held the basket away from himself as
he carried it to the door. He said, thanks man,
I appreciate it, and went upstairs. Adrian said he definitely
broke it right. No he didn't, Keith said, look. He
pointed to the girdling dream while he pulled out his phone.
Adrian squinted at the drain as Keith dialed the landlord
and stood stupidly with his hands in his pockets. While
Keith explained the situation over the phone. A minute later,
he hung up. O kay, he says, don't flush any
toilets or run any water down the drains. He's going
to be here in fifteen to take a look. What
about the washer, Adrian asked, that's not the problem. See
how it's bubbling over there by the drain. I think
the water's actually coming up. There must be some sort
of blockage down in the pipes. Adrian wrinkled his nose.
He said, that explains why it stinks. I thought that
other guy used some kind of weird soap. Keith laughed.
He said, I'll hang out here in case Chuck needs
a hand, but there's probably not much to do here.
If you want to go, I'll make sure the water
stays in here. Adrian grunted a sound which was probably
meant to say thanks, then said I'm going to go
pick up some food. Chuck arrived promptly and shut off
the water. Keith stood by as the landlord snaked the drain,
handing him tools whenever he needed. Chuck confirmed keith suspicion
that the washing machine was fine, and said the water
had come up from the drain, although he never found
a blockage. The water just started draining out. Eventually, when
the water was gone, Keith helped Chuck set up a
couple of fans to help dry a room. I've got
a squeegee in my truck, Chuck said, I'll grab that
and try to get most of the water down the drain.
Help that helps with the smell. Gaw, that's fual. Keith
nodded in agreement. The smell had actually gotten worse since
the water went away. Sounds good, he said. If you've
got this under control, I think i'll head upstairs. I
was about to make dinner before. Yeah, yeah, sure, go eat,
said Chuck. Thanks for the help. If you're ever a
couple of days late on rent, I'll wave the late
sun good. Keith laughed and went upstairs. Chuck returned with
a squeege and started pushing the remaining puddles toward the drain.
The edge of the foam blade swept under the dryer
and knocked a small object across the floor. It skid
her to a stop next to the drain. Chuck paused
to grub it. The object appeared to be a pendant,
though it did not have any holes. The object was
a small face carved out of dark wood, It had
two small dots for eyes, which was surrounded by ripping circles.
The CoV lines gave the face the appearance of a
withered corpse. It had no nose and an oval shaped
mouth that looked like it was gasping in shock. The mouth,
like the eyes, was surrounded by more wrinkle lines. Chuck
set it down on top of the dryer while he
finished up. Adrian came home before Chuck left. All good
to go, Chuck shouted over his shoulder when he heard
Adrian on the stairs cale. Adrian said, o' chap picked
up the pendant and tossed it to his tenant. That
your was catching the wooden face. Adrian said, no, I've
never seen it. While it was stuck under the dryer,
thought it probably belongs to one of you. Maybe show
it to the others and see if it's theirs. Sure,
Adrian said, sounding disinterested. All right, well, have a good
night and let me know if this train gives you
any more trouble. Chuck said, Adrian repeated sure, and went
into his apartment. Keith thought he heard Jammick come home.
Later that evening. He heard his neighbor's door and lock open,
then shut again. Pete was heading to bed, feeling oddly
drained and craving rest. For Adriane, it was just about
my day. He usually woke up around one in the
afternoon and stayed up until four or five in the morning.
He spent most of that time gaming online or occasionally
live streaming. The midnight streams probably were not the best
way to generate an audience, but Adrian told himself he
was doing his best. Sometimes he blamed the loss of
his father for the way he behaved now, sometimes he
blamed himself. The night of the flood, Adrian felt more
tired than usual, but not enough to sleep. Rather than game,
he decided to settle in for a movie. He grabbed
a protein bar and a bottle of Seltzer water and
selected a movie from his Blu Ray collection. He turned
on his TV, up in the Blueway tray and slid
the disk in. When he turned his back, he heard
his Blu ray player proyer them were as at a
jay did the disc. Adrian rolled his eyes and pushed
the tray back in. He stared at the player until
it accepted the disc. Then his TV went dark. The
Blu Ray player stayed on, but the TV shut off completely.
Adrian inspected the power chords and verified that each was
plugged in. He turned the TV back on and the
screen lit up, but the blu ray player turned off.
Angry and ready to give up, Adrian turned off the TV.
Standing behind him. In the reflection on the now dark screen,
Adrian saw the clear outline of a man. He did
not jump or scream. He did what anyone would do
and try to make out what was really there. He
squinted and leaning close, but the harder he looked, the
clearer the man became, and the more he looked like
Adrian's late father. Adrian spun around to convince himself no
one was there. He needed a reflection, must be a
trick of the light, and sure enough, when he looked,
he didn't see anyone else. He turned back around where
his own reflection should have been. He again saw his
father's face gaping at him. Adrian caught his breath and
stumbled back. Before he could scream, the face vanished. His
oppressive tiredness put pressure behind him Adrian's eyes. It almost
felt like he was having an allergic reaction to something.
He decided the appearance of his father's face in the
reflection must have been an exhaustion induced hallucination. Although he
still had no idea why he felt so tired. He
considered going to bed and actually sleeping during the night,
but when he tried to close his eyes, he kept
seeing his father silently screaming more beneath his eyelids. If
he couldn't sleep, he had other ways of managing energy.
He took three steps into his small kitchen and went
a fridge frickin of died cook. Just as he gret
the handle, he thought he heard a subtle knocking from
somewhere in the apartment. He paused to listen. The soft
sound repeated precise in its rhythm. The laundry room was
on the other side of the wall behind the fridge,
so Adrian wondered if perhaps Jamier had some more last
minute laundry to take care of. Ignoring the knocking sound,
Adrian opened the refrigerator and reached inside Blindly, he knew
where his neat rows of cook were. While his head
was right next to the freezer door, something knocked three
times from inside. Adrian jumped back, watching the fridge door
close slowly on its own, its yellow wedge of light shrinking.
When the door closed, he felt behind himself for the
nearby light switch and turned in the kitchen light. He
watched the freezer with growing an dissipation. The knocking head
sort sounded like an eyes maker, but Adrian's freezer did
not have one. Adrian punched himself in his shoulder and
stepped forward, telling himself brave lies. Before he could back out,
he aanked open the freezer door, and at that very
moment both bulbs in the light fixture hanging from the
ceiling pot and went dark. Upstairs, Keith had fallen into
a restless sleep. Somehow, he was still consciously aware of
how hut he felt. He had kicked off his covers,
so he was just laying on the mattress in his underwear.
Yet still he felt sticky and uncomfortable. It wasn't just
hot in the room, it was strangely humid, and since
it was late fallen Central Iowa, the humidity felt entirely
out of place. Keith wanted so badly to sleep, was
sleeping in fact, yet he felt like real rests was
far far out of reach. He decided, and a sword
of dream stake, to get out of bed and bring
in a small fan he usually kept under his desk
for the rest of the year when it actually was humid.
When he opened his bedroom door, a wretched smell brought
into full awareness. It was smoky, but not like a
camphire or even cigarette smoke. It had pungent talks under tones,
melted plastic, burning hair, and rotten eggs. He had never
experienced a ghastly before and wondered, if this is what
one smelled like, is that why he felt so tired.
Keith had long been terrified of dying quietly because of
carbon monoxide or something similar. It scared him so much
that he had installed his own sea awful monitors in
each room of his apartment. His eyes still had not
djusted to the darkness, but in his panic, he did
not think to turn on the lights. After redressing, he
stumbled through the apartment blindly, with his hands outstretched, holding
his breath as long as he could. He found his
way through the kitchen and into the living room. Just
a few feet from his door, he tripped on something
and fell to his hands and knees. On instinct, he
looked back. Despite the thick darkness, he could clearly see
the anguished face of a woman lying still on the
floor behind him. Keith tried to stand, but his knees
were too weak. He rolled and shuffled his way toward
the wall, away from the prone figure on his living
room floor. Her open jaw was slightly crooked, her eyes
had rolled up into her head. How long red hair
lay tangled in a chaotic pull round her head. A
small green light glowed at him from a cross the room.
It was one of the sea Awful monitors, and the
green light mentyeat was clean. He's reach up for the
light switch. It was somewhere above then. He could have
easily found it with his eyes, but he dared not
look away from the dead woman on the floor. His
fingers finally found the little switch. He had to stretch
them as far as they would go to push it.
He noticed, just before the lights came on, the second
body laying face down on the woman's other side. It
appeared to be a man. Then the switch clicked, the
lights came on, and both boardies vanished. It was at
this sudden disappearance, not the bodies themselves, that Keith finally screamed.
Averan slammed the freezer door shut and ran to his
front door. He truly hoped Jimmire was in the laundry room.
He wanted to be around another person, a living person.
He did not care who. The light in the laundry
room was off. If someone had been in there, they
had already left. But Adrian realized he hadn't heard anyone
go upstairs, and he had been listening quite intently. He
turned on the light and saw the washer and dry
gaping at him with their open hatches, but otherwise the
room was empty. Something thunded upstairs, and this time Adrian
was absolutely certain it had come from one of his
neighbor's apartments. He went to the stairs to listen, and
that's when he heard Keith's terrified boy shout no. Keith
and Adrian met in the stairwell, where they stared at
each other for a few extended seconds. Keith knew Adrian
had hurt him yell, but Adrian's face showed not concern
but a grim acceptance. Keith hurried down the stairs and
stood by the front door. Are you on your way
out or in? He asked Adrian, trying to act cool.
Adrian followed him with his gaze, but did not respond.
First traded and nervous. Keith asked, why are you looking
at me like that? What outside, Adrian said, and gestured
toward the door. He followed Keith into the cold. Neither
of them had coats on. They shoved their hands into
their pocket and locked into perpetual shrugs. So what is it, Keith, act,
it's something we're going on in your apartment, Adrian asked,
sort of. I guess I was asleep then I woke up,
because well, maybe I was still just Rosie and it
was dark. I heard knocking earlier, Adrian said, interrupting Keith
before he wasted more time. Adrian was cold, he wanted
to cut to the chase, and I saw my dad.
He's been dead for a year. Keith bit his lip,
then quietly said I saw dead people too. After he
spoke more confidently. There must be some kind of gas leak.
My alarms didn't go off, but there's got to be
something in the air to make both of us hallucinate.
Adrian said, yeah, maybe is the other guy back yet?
I heard him come home before I went to bed.
Keith groaned, we need to check on him. He grabbed
the door handle. Don't go back in there. Adrian warned,
but Keith didn't listen. If he moved quickly, he could
check on Jamier and get back out before the gas
had any effect. He went straight to Jamire's door and
not hard then listened. Something bumped inside jemyrk Keith shouted
through the door, you need to get out of the building.
There's something in. Another bump and a much louder that'd cut
him off. Keith knocked again. Try that. Adrian said he
had come up behind Keith without him noticing, and now
he was pointing at Jamier's smart doorbell. Keith pressed it
and heard a ring inside. No one came to the
door or made a sound. Adrian pushed his way past
Keith and pressed the doorbell again. This time he held
the button down. He leaning close to the camera and said,
is there anybody in there? Then he stepped back to
wait next to Keith. Should we call nine hundred eleven?
Keith acd A rustling noise came through the doorbell speaker.
Then Jammus drousy voice asked, what's going on, Jammier. You
need to get out of the building. We think there
was a gas leak of something. Keith explained, you gotta
be kidding me, Jammuir groaned, Guys, I'm not home my
friend who manages a hotel by the airport. Let me
do my laundry here and set me up with a room.
Keith and Adrian looked at each other. Do you have
a cat or something? Adrian asked, No, Jammiir sighed. Listen,
I'm going back to sleep. Please leave my apartment alone.
Call the fire department if you think there's a problem.
We've been in here too long, Keith said to Adrian.
Adrian nodded, and they went outside together shivering. Adrian said,
you know, a hotel doesn't sound so bad. You're just
going to leave, ask Keith. Adrian shrugged. What am I
going to do about a gas leak? I just called
Chuck in the morning. If I were you, let him
deal with it. Adrian left Keith standing and staring at
their empty apartment building. He kept envisioning that little green
light on the sea autall monitor with no one inside
to worry about. Keith couldn't bring himself to dial nine
hundred eleven. He couldn't afford spontaneously go to a hotel,
so instead he texted a few friends until he found
some one who was awake a couple of text on
a short deeper ride. Later, Keith was sleeping safely for
the night. The following morning, Chuck inspected the building before
Keith left for work. He was obviously out by the
false alarm, but he believed Keith had truly believed there
was a problem. Keith did not know Chuck well enough
to divulge the visions he had experienced the previous night,
but he did says had felt funny and that Adrian
had heard weird noises. Chuck laughed after instructing Keith to
call him if he noticed something wrong again. Keith wasn't
quite sure how he felt about spending the night they yet,
so he checked with his friend and confirmed he could
spend another night on his couch just in gaze. Then
he went to work that evening. When Keith came home,
he stayed alert for anything out of the ordinary. Every
shadow that moved in the corner of his eye made
him turn violently. Any creak or pup made him pause
to listen. He had never realized how much noise the
building made. Around seven, Adrian came back and knocked on
Keith's store. I assume it all clear, Adrian said flatly, yeah, sorry,
I would have texted you, but I don't have your number,
Keith replied. Here, Adrian passed his front to Keith. They
exchanged numbers. Then Adrian said, I'm staying at the hotel again.
I know he's at this place. Is okay, but well,
I just came back to see how it is and
grab a few things. I'll probably be back to morrow.
Sure I'm not staying either, said Keith. They held each
other's eyes for a moment, understanding what they refused to
say aloud. They were scared the things they had seen
the previous night were haunting their memories. They had both
been hoping for a tangible explanation for their visions. Hearing
that the building was safe and sound actually bothered them
more than if there had been a leak. They separated
to collect their necessities. Adrian turned on every light in
his apartment as he changed his clothes and back to
Cephor tomorrow. He felt hungry, but dared not go near
the fridge. He also refused to look at the dark TV,
no matter how hot he felt the gaze of something
staring at him from the direction. Keith also changed and
packed a new set of clothes. After packing his toothbrush, toothpaste,
and skin cream, he was ready to go. He had
also turned on most of his lights, so before he
could leave, he had to walk through and shut them
all off in his bedroom. Right after he turned off
the light, he suddenly felt extremely uneasy. He took a
deep breath, silently, told himself the uneasy feeling was all
in his head, and exhaled softly. Behind him, his breath echoed.
Keith looked around, convinced someone was standing directly behind him.
When he saw no one, he ran. Each of his
footsteps was repeated as if some one were chasing him
through the apartment, mimicking his gait. The pursuing footsteps sounded
like they were gaining on him. When he reached the
living room at the front door, they caught up. Leave
me alone, Keith shouted backward as he fumbled with his keys.
His voice echoed faintly throughout the sparsely furnished living room,
then faded to silence. Keith was breathing hard. The sound
of his breath rumbled in his ears, and the two
was echoed behind him. It felt like all the blood
in his veins had congealed. His hands went cold and shook,
His head felt faint, His legs threatened to buckle and
cape beneath him. With the very last of his will power,
Keith unlocked the door and practically fell into the hallway.
He hurriedly shoved his key into the lock and twisted it,
not to keep anyone out of his apartment, but to
keep whatever had followed him in behind him. Jamerror's door rattled,
but in the split second it took him to turn
toward it, the door had settled. Adrian was already down
on the landing, watching all of this with visible concern.
He god Keith asked, projecting his own fear on to
his neighbor. Are you agent, rightfully retorted, Keith tried to shrug,
but just shivered. Instead, he said, let's go. Earlier that day,
while Jamir was waiting to board his flight, he was
attacked by a sudden migraine. He didn't have anything with
him to battle the pain, because he didn't normally get
headaches of any sort. In time, the pain in his
head escalated until it incapacitated him. With nausea, head spinning
and splitting. Jamiir ran into the airport bathroom. He was
still stuck there when they announced his flight for boarding,
and there he remained until after his plane departed without him. Strangely,
the migraine lifted almost as soon as the flight took off.
He explained the situation at the customer service desk, and
they told him they could waitlist him for a flight
the next morning. Jamir asked them to do that, even
though he would miss at least half of the conference.
He called his friend to see if he could stay
another night at the hotel, but his friend wasn't going
to be working the night. While on the phone, Jamir's
migraine returned. It wasn't as powerful as before, but still
distractingly painful. He decided, since he now had an open
day to kill, to go to urgent care and get
checked out. The doctor and nurses could find nothing wrong
but send him home with some mild pinkillers and told
him to go to the emergency room if things worsened.
Chemio's next stop was at his firm to explain the
situation to his bosses. They were understanding. After seeing his
doctor's note, they told him he should still try to
make the flight the next day if he could. The
conversation alleviated some of Jamir's anxiety about the situation, which
helped him feel better. He stayed late to work on
a few things before heading home to the apartment. He
felt no desire to reten to There was just nowhere
alls for him to go. When he arrived home, the
small parking lot was empty. Heath and Adrian were both gone.
He wondered if they had ever come home After the
previous night when they had visited his door, they had
both looked so scared down camera he what ever was
going on. The landlord, Chuck, had texted him earlier that
day to say the building was safe and there were
no leaks to worry about, so he went inside. Opening
the building door, he heard the familiar rattle of the
washing machine when it hit the peak of its cycle.
One of the machines feed was slightly uneven and made
the whole thing shake when when it really got going.
The rattle normally had a distinctive rhythm and always was
accompanied by the sound of sloshing water and sobs. Tonight,
it rung hollily, with each tilt, sounding not unlike a
rumbling predator down in the dark, Shamir hurried to his door.
His roller coaster of a day left him exhausted but
also wired. He hadn't had any caffine, but his brin
felt like he had just fed at twenty ounce mercano.
He crafted a small snack out of the pantry, then
sat down at his desk to play video games until
he felt tired enough to try. Sleeping. Hissing, and screeching
creatures pan to whichever side they were virtually attacking from
filled Jimmy's head urns. But after an hour or so
he started to know the sends to his left, which
did not fit. They were soft, muted noises, but loud
enough to cut through the cacophony of an interdimensional bloodbath.
As the game loaded a new scene, Jamier lifted the
left headphone off his ear. He held it away to listen.
As the loading barn neared eighty percent, he heard it
a muffle scratch coming from around the corner. This particular
corner led to his bedroom. It was also directly above
the washing machine downstairs. He glanced down eighty nine percent.
He removed his headphones and ordered to stand and glance
around the corner. When he looked, he felt silly. The
hallway was empty, but he felt vindicated When the tiny
clawing sound eventually repeated, He wondered if a mousewort SHIPMNK
had gotten stuck in the wall. He slipped his headphones
back on just as the progress bar reached ninety nine percent.
Jemier played lossy. During his next round, the sounds from
the wall were growing unnaturally loud inside his headphones. When
he listened with his naked ear, they sounded soft and normal,
but it was like the headphones piped the sound in
whatever he put them on, and they were getting stronger,
not louder, but deeper and denser. No longer did they
sound like a small rodents calls. They started sounding like
porn hoofs, then just once of a heavy boot in print.
Jemier quit the game, removed his headphones and closed his laptop.
He tried to close his eyes to listen better, but
the first long slide of the wall made them spring
back open. The half inch of dryol between him and
whatever was moving in the wall off with little comfort.
The noises started moving. They had already risen to the
ceiling and now was skittering across it. Sometimes they sounded
like rat claws, but dispersed with booming thuds of something
much much larger. The sounds passed over Jamier's apartment door,
and he heard them continue outside. For the first time.
He wondered if the sounds were being made by a
neighbor and were reflecting somehow. He opened his door to listen.
He's store, directly across from him was open. The skittering
noises were now inside Key's dark living room. Hey are
you home, Jimier hesitantly asked, the door slam shut. O, K,
you don't have to be a jerk about it. Jemier
returned to his own apartment. He made himself a hot
cup of camell tea and prepared for bad As he
drank it. He set his alarm to give himself time
to get back to the airport, but he was already
pretty sure he was not going to make the flight.
But tea had been enough to upset his stomach again,
inducing him with more nausea, but fortunately no headache this time.
He said a quick prayer, then fell into a RESTful sleep.
Of all the things that might have woken Jamir in
the shody apartment building, neighbor noises, the outdate of friends
the draft which continuously bled into his bedroom. Jamir never
would have expected the smell to be what disturbed his sleep.
He woke because the noxious order of melting plastic made
him knat to puke. He barely had time to stumble
across his room to the small trash can in the floor.
There he dry heaved over and over with no result.
The smell only seemed to get worse each time Jamir gagged.
He realized, after a minute on the floor that he
probably needed to leave. He remembered the weird texts from
Chuck about their not being a gas leak. Maybe the
old guy had been wrong. Jamir wiped his mouth, even
though nothing had come out of it, and stood slowly
to avoid passing out on his feet. He noticed the
edge of a dark figure standing in his open doorway.
Jamir cried out and fell on to his bed. He
always slept with the door shut. He hadn't opened it
since going to bed, yet it was yawning wide open now,
and yes, he could clearly see one side of a person,
a woman, standing there as if patiently waiting for him
to come out. Who is that, Jamid demanded. He tried
to make his voice sound deep and powerful, which may
have been easy if he hadn't just been heaving over
a trash can. He hurriedly picked up and turned in
the flashlight he kept on his Gniston in case of
power adages. The figure vanished as soon as the white
circle of light cut through the doorway. Jamier took a
few steps at an angle, trying to find the figure
he knew he had seen. He started to wonder if
something else in the dark apartment had caused an illusion.
He turned to the bed and shut the flashlight off.
This time, he actually hoped he would see the figure
so he could decide what was creating the distinctive shadow.
But the figure did not return with the darkness. Almost
as a reflex, Jamier switched the flashlight back on instead
of lighting up. The glass circle at the end of
the flashlight shattered into a hundred shards and shot across
the room. Chamir shouted and dropped the broken light. It
rolled until it stopped against the trash can. Then what
appeared to be a giant spider crawled out of the
shattered end. Jamir climbed up onto his bed, gaging how
far he needed to jump to get past the black
creature and the fore in order to escape. But the
thing which crawled out of the flasklight was not a spider.
He realized what he had perceived as spindly legs were
really claw light uttered fingers, and the rest of a
hand trail behind them where's shoulder should have appeared. The
arm just kept extending. It was covered and sagging, pale skin,
and dotted with moles of various size. The fal smell
in the room grew more prison than ever Chammyir had
to get out. His mind raised for a solution. The
reaching arm blocked him from the door. He could try
to jump over it, but he had no idea how
fast it could move. When its finger tips reached his
bed sheets, they started to drag them off the bed,
wadding them up on the floor. This finally gave Jimmy
a revival idea. He took hold of his comforter, which
the disembodied hand had yet to reach, and toss it
on top of the stretched arm. A deep growl rumbled
the whole room. Chamier leaped over the writhing comforter and
sprinted through the doorway behind him. The comforter rose into
the air. Whatever was beneath the nearly filled it. It
was much larger than a single arm. There, Jamio snatched
his keys off his desk and left his apartment. He
didn't stop running until he reached his car, got inside
and locked it. He started the cough of the heat,
then sat in the driver's seat, staring up at the
shadowy building. The parking lot was empty besides him and
his car. Keith and Adrian had both stayed somewhere else.
Jamir supposed he now knew why. Keith pulled into the
parking lot just before six sou he could shower and
change before heading right back out for work. He was
shocked to see Jamire's car park there, even before he
had noticed the man asleep inside. Understandably concerned, Keith rapped
lightly on Jamuir's window. Also understandably, Jamier jumped out of
his sleep like a startled rabbit. Whoa hey, it's just me, Keith,
your neighbor. Jamia held a hand over his pounding hat.
Oh man, what time is it? He asked? What? Keith
replied loudly, sorry, Jamia rolled his window half way down.
I was just wondering. He looked at the clock on
his dash well never mind. I thought you were flying
out of town. I was supposed to you, but I
got sick at the airport. So did you lose your
key or something? Ah? No, I just something weirds going
on inside, right, I'm sure you noticed. Adrian and I
bounced out too. Yeah, where'd you guys go? Last night?
I crashed on a friend's couch and Adrian slept in
some hotel. Listen, we both had strange experiences a couple
nights ago. You know when we ran your bell. Yeah,
you guys seem pretty freaked out. We were we eat
all well, we both saw dead people. Did it happen
to you too? Maybe? Jamuir looked like he didn't believe
he was actually having this conversation. I think I saw
it like a person and then a hand. I saw
a hand. They were silent until jam ere ast. Hey
did the building smell we were to you, like burning
plastic in rotten eggs? Yeah? Then chucked tested for a
gas leak that came by yesterday morning. All clear that
something's definitely going on. Oh he is Adrian. Adrian rolled
in looking like he hadn't slept it all. Keith guessed
that he probably hadn't considering the guy usually didn't wake
up before noon. Keith told Jammuir to follow him and
jobbed over to Adrian's car before he shut it off.
Adrian seemed perfectly content to sit in the world warmth
of his vehicle while Keith reelid what Jamiir had said.
Jermiir added the details when he finally got out of
his car to stand against the cold here do we
call for something like this a priest? Well before we
jumped to that, Have either of you noticed anything else
different in the past few days, Jermier asked, I mean,
obviously this place wasn't haunted a few days ago, If
that's what you want to call it, I don't believe
in gos. Adrian stated, I thought Keith said he saw
dead people. Didn't you tell me you saw your dad?
Keith act, I saw something that looked like my dad, sure,
but that could have been anything, a trick of the light,
a hallucination. I've got a picture of him in my head.
It just got projected outwards. So you spent two nights
in a hotel because of a trick of the light,
Shamir asked. Adrian refused to answer. O K you know what.
Jamyer opened Adrian's card door and stood so he couldn't
close it. We're going in there, all of us together.
We'll go into each of our apartments as a group
see if anything's wrong, then we can all go back
to our days like normal. If something still seems wrong
to night will make check Guey's second opinion. Goat Keith
and Adrian still looked apprehensive and neither responded, O kay
any batter ideas? Jeramir asked no. Keith finally answered, I
have to go inside to change anyway, Let's do it.
Jerimir's confidence served the neighbors as they separated into their
respective apartments, but their searches uncovered nothing. Adrian was left
alone for the day when the others left for work.
Normally he would sleep, but he didn't think he could.
He decided if he was staying up, he should at
least try to be productive. He could use his time
with the building to himself to get ahead on laundry
while he vacum chores he couldn't well his neighbors were sleeping.
Adrian gathered his loose coals into a basket and carried
it into the laundry room. A sinus burning smell kept
hitting him as he loaded his clothes into the washer.
He vaguely recognized it from the first night of the
so called haunting. At first, he assumed smell had been
trapped in his dirty clothes. He held his breath for
each armful of laundry he shoved into the washer. But
between shoving one armful and grab another, his eyes found
the floor drain. It made Adrian remember the flood and
how the foul water'd smell. He wondered if Keith or
Jamia had realized the spell was the same one that
had accompanied this so cold hauntings. Could whatever's messing with
our heads have come up from the drain? It is
fortuitous that Adrian pondered this particular question at the very
moment he picked up the pants he had been wearing
the morning of the flood. With a dry plink, the
little object Chuck had given him fell to the floor.
He hadn't given it a very close look at day,
just enough to tell if he recognized it then It
had entirely slipt his mind. Looking at it now, it
did look familiar, but not because he had ever seen
it before. The expression on the wooden carving's face was
the exact expression he had seen on the reflection of
his father in the TV. Was it crazy to think
this tiny wooden object was the source of their problems.
Adrian was a fan of horror movies and had seen
numerous films in which an object had some sort of
curse or attachment, but those concepts had always been nothing
but fiction to him. He didn't believe in ghost or
demons so that people could case nanim objects. He wasn't
even religious, but the resemblance between the two faces, one
carved in wood and the other reflected in pilite, was undeniable.
Then it struck him the expression must have been subconsciously
buried in his mind, so that when he started hallucinating,
it conjured their particular expression. And the terrible smell must
have been some chemical that came up in the flood.
Maybe some of it did get on his clothes and
thats why he smelled it later in his apartment. And
it would make perfect sense that some sera chemical was
causing him to see things. And if all of this
was true, the load of laundry he was about to do,
sho it solve all the problems? He would recommend the
others washed the clothes too. Adrian spent the rest of
the day cleaning his apartment, washing or getting rid of
anything that he might have touched when wearing the tainted clothes.
He set the carving by his computer to research it later,
just out of curiosity. Keith and Chamier came home at
similar times. Adrian had texted both of them about his theory,
so they took turns doing laundry at evening. Taking some
action made them feel better, and since nothing happened throughout
the evening, they both managed to go to sleep before ten.
Adrian stayed up as usual, although he did not expect
to stay awake the whole night. He knew his brain
and only had a couple more I was left before
it shut off. He sat down at his computer, not
sure where he was going to let it take him.
Then he noticed the carving next to his hand and
remembered he was going to search for it online. He
wanted to find out if it was some random gift
stoor trinket, or something with any real meaning behind it.
He woke up his computer and logged in. Instead of
his desktop background, he was met with a picture of
his father taken shortly before his death. He looked on
and pale, laying in a hospital bed. The Roman forgerp
at the edge of the photo was supposed to be
injecting life saving medicine, but beknownst to anyone, it was
actually killing him. Adrian didn't have any particularly strong affinity
for his father, he had never truly loved the man,
but even he recoiled that the injustice captured in this photo.
He tried clicking off of it, confused how it had
even showed up in the first place, but the photo
would not go away. Adrian could not even tell what
program had been used to open it. It looked like
the photo was just hovering on screen all on its own.
Then his father's half closed digital eyes opened and flicked
toward him. Adrian gasped and rolled his chair backwards. He
knew his image well, it was not a video. After
he stopped, his chair lurched forward again and rolled until
the arms ran against the edge of the desk with
enough force to slam Adrian into the desk to from
the computer. Adrian's father's voice said, believed, son, what what's happening?
Adrian shivered. His father reached out a trembling hand, the
one with the room and four inserted at the elbow.
When he found he could not reach far enough, he
ripped the room and four out of his arm and
stretch so close to the screen that Adrian feared his
father's hand might actually come out of the computer, But
the dead man's fingers had stopped just on the other
side of the glass. Believe Son, he repeated, But this
time he had it. Believe in the devil. All of
the keys on Adrian's keyboard exploded into his face. They
tore tiny cuts all over his cheeks, forehead, and forearms.
When he tried to shield himself, his mouth struck him
in the temple, and he spun sideways in his chair.
He felt the mechanism below his seat and lock, allowing
the chair to tilt backwards. It leaned all the way
back under his weight, then shot straight up again on
its own, nearly spilling Adrian under the floor. He yelled
as it tilted back a second time with violent speed,
then shot him forward once more. This time he did fall,
slamming against the remains of his keyboard and landing hard
on his hands and knees. He crawled away as a
chair continued to rock up and down. The noises below
were Keith, who shot out of bed in a panic.
The smell was back, even more powerful than before. Its
rank toxicity made Keith norsus. He ran into his bathroom,
lifted the toilet lid, and was blasted with water as
brackish as what had come up the laundry room drain.
It also bore the foul stench. The taste of it
dripped off the back of his tongue and ran down
his throat. Keith landed hard against the wall and turned
only just in time to avoid vomiting all over himself.
His expulsion mixed with the murky water on his bathroom floor.
He ran to his front door. Some on or something
was hammering it frantically, but the two bodies he had
seen on that first night was standing in his way.
They were manifestations of his biggest fear. He had been
terrified of dying in a ghastlyek ever since he was
a child, and some neighbors down the road ah. Keith screamed.
He now recognized the two faces in the ghosts. He
had known them decades ago was a little boy. He
ran back into his room and shut the door. It
boomed as what sounded like a full human body was
thrown against it. Then the grating sound of finger nails
biting into the wood scratched from the top of the
door all the way down to the bottom. When the
sound stopped, the tips of five fingers slid under the door.
Heath cowed behind his bed, searching for anything he could
use as a weapon. All he could think of in
the moment was a hard g ofver babble his parents
had given him when he moved out. He hadn't so
much as cracked the cover, But now as the heaviest
object near him, the Bible came to mind. It was
laying under a layer of dust beneath his bed. Keith stood,
picked it up and dovet the hideous fingers creeping under
his door. He brought the bibles thick spine down in
the nalled knuckles and felt a brief snap for the
fingers vanished with a hiss, Heath, Keith, you'n there. Chaimer's
voice barely resonated through all the walls and doors. Clutching
the Bible out in front of himself, Keith flipped on
the light and carefully opened his bedroom door. No one
was waiting on the other side. Hang on, he shouted
back to Jamir. He hurried across his now empty apartment
and peered through the people. When he was sure his
neighbor was actually on the other side, he opened the
door to He expected Jamiir to ask what was going on,
to say he had heard sounds coming from Keith's apartment,
but instead jam Ere turned, pointed back at his own
apartment and asked, who the hell is that. Keith could
see the outline of a hunched woman faintly traced by
a bleeding light from the hallway. Only her eyes were
truly illuminated, appearing to glow white in the darkness. Please
tell me you see or two, tell me I'm not crazy,
begged Demir. I see her, Keith said, and then he
began to realize the woman seemed familiar. Mazel, is that
you the woman? Halt? This is my home and Jamiere's
door slam chat, hey hey. Jamir ran forward, pounding at
his door. After he found it locked, he spun toward Keith, demanding,
who's mazel dear. Keith's eyes were wide and aimless. He
looked totally lost. She's the lady who lived there before you.
Jamier banged on the door again while asking was she
see nell or something? Adrian's door slantchat and his pounding
footsteps rose toward them. Jamir didn't seem to notice as
he tried fruitlessly to re enter his apartment. It's thus,
Adrin yelled. In his open hand, he held up something
for the other two to see. I think it's all
coming from this thing. Keith reached for the item, then
held his hand back. He didn't know what might happen
if he touched it. Instead, he leaned in to observe
the object in Adrian's palm. It had the same loves
open mouthed as the dead people in his living room.
Chamir Keith said, forcing urgency into his voice. We need
to leave right now. We gotta go. I'm not leaving
this crazy woman alone in my apartment. Jamr retorted, dude,
she's not real. Adrian explained, none of it is. I mean,
it's real, but it's not really what it just come on.
He led the charge down to the door, followed by
Keith and a resentful Jamir. In a parking lot, he
explained how Chuck had given him the little item which
he continually referred to as the tutum after the law
drew room flat. I don't think there was anything wrong
with the pipes, he said. I think some would. He
tossed his totem down a drain or something and it
ended up under our building. I think he brought itself
up here, and now we have to get rid of it.
Jamiir had his phone out and was dialing nine hundred
eleven absently. He said, O KA, cool, so throw it out.
I got to get rid of this crazy lady. The
police won't do anything, Keith said, pointing to the numbers
entered on Jamier's phone. Shamir looked at him like he
was crazy, but he did not press the call button.
Not even he could explain why. He hesitated. Keith continued,
No one that we've seen is really there. Adrian saw
his dad. I saw people I haven't even thought about
in year's and you saw. But that's not right. Mazel
isn't dead. I don't think that matters, Adrian said. Look
how he's reacting. It looked like her to do this
to him. It figured out the best way to mess
with each one of us. For some reason, it really
wants us to stay out of our building. Okay, fine,
so again, just throw the thing out already, Jamir said,
referring to the totem. We can't just row it out.
Adrian said, that's probably how we ended up with it
in the first place. Somebody else just tossed it away.
We need to put it somewhere a won'ever get out.
Jamir recommended to burn it, and Adrian showed them his
other palm. It bore a bliss of red spiral. He
told them he had pit the totem on his stove
to try and in the curse, and as soon as
he turned in the heat, he was burned. The totem
was unmocked. That was when he had run out of
his apartment to find them. You know what, fine, we'll
do your thing, and if that lady's still up there
when we get back and culling the cops get back.
Keith acht, Wait, where are we going? Who's got keys?
Jamiir asked. Adrian reached and threw his pocket and shuffled
round his cow's amber. Lights blinked, indicating it was now unlocked.
Chamier said, great, take us up the road aways. They
were fixing a sidewalk when I drove past earlier, there
might be new cement. Keith said, that's perfect, as he
let himself into Adrian's car. They move together about quarter
mile up the road. Jamiir held the totem through his
hoodie so Adrian could drive with his one good hand.
They found orange cones indicating where the new concrete had
been poured. Man, they got that and just under the limit.
Jemmy remarked, it's going to be too cold in like
a week. Lucky ass, Adrian said. They all got out
and walked over to the new sidewalk. Just press it in.
Jermir asked, I don't know this was your idea, said Adrian.
Jamier shrugged and gently nudged the totem into the fresh cement.
It had already begun to harden, but probably thanks to
the low temperature, it had not fully set. The totem
sunk in, first just creating a dent, then finally filling
in over the top. Jami barely pulled his hoodi away
in time to avoid getting any cement on himself. His
action left a blemish in the otherwise smooth surface, but
he didn't think the damage would be bad enough to warrant,
the crew ripping out the panel and starting over. They
waited for a few minutes to see if anything would happen,
then left the cursed totem behind. Everything had returned to
normal back at the apartment building. The only thing that
was not exactly how they had left it was actually
a blessing. Jamir's door was unlocked, as if nothing had
transpired between them. They membered each other good night and
went to their respective apartments. Then each of them slupt
soundly for the first time in three days. The next morning,
things were still wonderfully ordinary. Shaermer left for work before
either of the others woke up. He felt he needed
to make up for missing his conference to show his
bosses he was still committed to the firm. On the
way there, he intentionally drove past the sidewalk where they
had buried the totem. There were the orange combs scattered
all across the road. A city truck had already arrived,
and a man in a bright orange vest was scratching
at his peenie while talking loudly on his cell phone.
In front of him, a single square of concrete had
been obliterated. It looked like it had exploded, sending rocky
chunks of concrete all over the area, even ruining some
of the rest of the brand new sidewalk. Jaimyr considered stopping,
but decided not to incriminate himself. What could he do
to help anyway, If the totem was laying somewhere over there,
it's not like he would be willing to take it back.
Hopefully it landed somewhere it would never be noticed by
a passer by. Hopefully the winter's snow would come soon
and bury it, and when the snow melted, it would
carry the totem down the drain. Chamyer shivered. He reminded
himself that he was free of the curse and that
it wasn't even his fault. It had become their problem
in the first place. He prayed that whoever found it next,
or whoever it found next, would know how to get
rid of it, really destroy it for good.