“That’s my taxi,”
said Jad, shoving a few last articles of clothing into his bulging suitcase.
“Any more questions before I go?”
“I think I have
it,” said Andrew, looking over the page of notes in his hand. “Garbage goes out
on Mondays, water the plants twice a week, plumber coming on Thursday to fix
the garbage disposal... No worries, I’ll take good care of your home. I just
hope you can enjoy your trip to Singapore without getting too bogged down with
work.”
“Thanks buddy. I’m sure you’ll be fine here, and I really appreciate it.” Jad had to sit on
his suitcase to zip it shut.
Andrew helped him
pull the zipper around the last corner. “You’re actually doing me a huge favor,
Jad. I needed a place to stay and I can’t believe I get to live here for five
months. This place is awesome! I don’t know how you found a house like this for
such a low price.”
Jad struggled to
pull the huge suitcase off the bed. It hit the floor with a loud boom! “Yeah,” he said, “I really got a
deal on it. I was lucky to get in right after the last tenants passed away.
They were pretty old.”
“Oh, did they die
in a hospital?” asked Andrew.
“Nope.” Jad spoke
through gritted teeth as he tried to drag the suitcase across the room. “They
died in this bedroom, right about where you’re standing.”
Andrew looked
around his feet. “Right here?”
“More or less.”
Jad moved behind the suitcase to push it into the hallway. “The wife died
somewhere in that corner after her husband chopped her up with an axe, but he
hung himself in the bathroom.”
Andrew followed
him down the hallway and took a sideways glance into the bathroom as they
passed it. “Really? Did you know about that when you moved in?”
“Oh no,” Jad
said, stopping when he reached the stairs. “I knew about the other victims, but
I didn’t find out about the most recent tenants until I had been here a few
days.”
Andrew grabbed
his arm. “There were other murders?”
“A few. Two
tenants ago, a guy stabbed his wife to death in the kitchen, then blew his
brains out with a shotgun in front of the fireplace. The tenant before him had
a dinner party and fed everyone rat poison in the dining room. And the police
reports are a little sketchy, but it appears the tenant before that guy used this house to do science
experiments on people he kidnapped around the neighborhood. Apparently he
buried his victims in the basement, but they never found all the bodies.” Jad
gave the suitcase a kick and it thundered down the stairs. “Before that, it’s
hard to say which stories were real murders or just urban legends.”
“Um, Jad—“
Honk! Honk!
“I'd better hurry. It
sounds like the driver is getting impatient and I don’t want to be late for my
flight.” Jad ran down the steps and strained to drag the suitcase to the front
door. “Oh, before I forget, sometimes you have to jiggle the toilet handle to
get it to stop running. And the switch for the porch light is by the window.
And you might hear some creaking and moaning at night, but it usually stops
after a couple hours. It’s okay if the walls bleed a little.”
Andrew ran down
the stairs after him. “Wait Jad—“
“Oh yeah, I
almost forgot.” Jad reached into his pocket, pulled out a set of keys and threw
them to Andrew, who caught them as he reached the bottom step. “Don’t worry,
Andrew, I trust you completely.”
Honk! Honk!
Without another
word, Jad used all his strength to heave the suitcase off the floor and into
his arms. He stumbled for a step or two, then ran out the door.
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