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The Haunting Tenant

By Luis Andrade

David was tired of living in a cramped apartment with 4 other guys. Every day, David was abruptly woken up by one of his roommate's loud noises making a mess in the kitchen. Later in the day, another one of his roommate's will constantly complain on how lonely he is and how he hard his job is. Later in the evening, the third roommate will watch tv as loud as possible, making it impossible for David to rest after a hard day at work. And to top it off, the fourth roommate will arrive at midnight and play the drums all night long. It was hell for David, and he was determined that when he finished paying his student loans he will get out of that madhouse as fast as possible.

The day came, the last payment of David’s loans. As soon as the payment went through, David was satisfied, not only for finishing paying his loans, but for finally being able to afford a better place. No more loud cooking noises at 5 am, no more complaints nor loud tv, and definitely no more loud music playing in the middle of the night. He could finally have some peace at last. He quickly researched online for a place to move to. He didn’t care much about the location, nor how big was it, he just wanted something he could afford and somewhere where he could be at peace. And so he did.

A week passed and all his stuff was already packed and ready to go. David found a decent apartment midtown, in a building with a recent vacancy. The building was old, and the location wasn’t that bad, so David decided to move there. He put all of his boxes in his car, said his roommates goodbye, and hoped he never saw those monsters again.

He was genuinely excited. His first night at the new place. He arrived at his new apartment and midday, and quickly unpacked his stuff. He felt at last peace, when he layed down on his bed and felt at home. The apartment had been occupied for years, but recently the tenants had left town. The apartment was pretty spacious, with 2 bedrooms, a nice living room and a pretty modern kitchen. Night came, and David felt excited because he hadn’t had a good night of sleep in months. He quickly fell asleep until some footsteps woke him up. Was it a dream?

“Anybody there?”

Silence.

David was so tired that he went back to sleep. Days passed by, and David never thought on that night again, until in the middle of his third night in his new apartment, a loud noise woke him up. He again was too tired, but this time he stood up, and had a peek around the apartment. The door was shut, but he felt a strange presence inside his new apartment. Nervously he went and reached his cell phone, turned on the flash and searched for the intruder. David started sweating, and nervously went back to sleep.

After a few nights, the incidents keep repeating; strange noises in the middle of the night, and when he went and tried to find where they came from, he found nothing. Until one night, David was woken up by a human scream. Terrified he went running to the living room when he spotted a white figure. The ghastly human-like figure was floating and when David and the figure made eye contact, David sighed and said, “Man, at least this is not as bad as my last apartment, believe me” as he went back to sleep, accepting his new roommate situation.