Sweet Tooth

Martha and James have been looking for a new apartment for the last few months. The housing market is outrageous right now and prices for rent, and mortgage are through the roof which has made this whole experience for them feel like an impossible task.

Martha is a newly graduated nurse who just landed her dream job in the Emergency department at St. Theresa's Hospital which is an inner-city hospital that receives all the high-level traumas within the city. She wants to get all the best experience and to establish herself as a competent trauma nurse. This new job however is hours away from where her and James currently live and requires them to move closer into the city. This is not too much of an issue for James. James is a photographer and works for himself and sees moving to the city as an opportunity to bring in more clients since work has been slow lately.

“James; I don’t know how we are going to find anything nearby the hospital” Martha expresses with frustration.

James responds trying to be as positive as he can. “I know it is difficult but there has to be something out there that we can afford. Even if it is something temporary until we build up some extra cash.”

The couple’s finances are a tight right now which is greatly limiting their options. It is important they move within a reasonable distance to the city for Martha to be able to commute to and from work safely. She is going to be working 12 hour shifts and the commute time before and after her shifts is something she needs to take into consideration when looking for a place for them to live. The couple has scoured endless amounts of realtor websites and apps. They have called local realtor companies and toured countless homes and apartments that are all far more expensive than they can manage to pay.

“There is an apartment for rent on craigslist that I found, it is a one bedroom one bath. It is 850 square foot space which is kind of smaller than we were hoping, but it has a storage unit we could use.” James continues “The neighborhood doesn’t seem too bad, and the commute would be about forty-five minutes from the hospital.”

Martha leans over James’ shoulder to get a look at the computer. “Well, it is pretty ugly, and we would have to see if they would let us at least paint the walls, but I have to start my new job soon and it is getting to a point where beggars can’t be choosers. Did they say how much it costs?”

James replies “No, but they say call for inquiries. We could just call and go from there.”

Martha slides James’ cell phone over to him. “Can you call them? You know I hate calling and talking to people.”

He chuckles as he picks up his phone. “Chicken shit, aren’t you supposed to be an adult?” He grins as he pokes fun at her inability to call people and have a conversation.

She reaches her hand back and gives James a soft smack on the back of his head. “Just call you idiot.”

James continues to laugh as he rubs the back of his head. “Alright, Alright! The abuse I have to suffer for your love.”

He dials the number listed in the craigslist ad. The phone rings a few times and a mans voice answers in a flat tone. “Hello…”

“Hi, my name is James. I saw your ad on craigslist for the apartment and I was wondering if it is still available?”

“It is… would you like to come take a look at it” The man on the other end of the phone speaks in an almost monotone voice. Barely sounds like this man is interested in having this conversation.

“Yes, my wife and I have some free time this afternoon if that works for you. Could we swing by around maybe five o’clock tonight and check it out?”

The man on the phone slightly coughs to clear his throat and begins to sound a little more enthusiastic in his response. “Of course, James was it? You and your wife are more than welcome to come take a look at the apartment. I will make myself available. The address is listed in the advertisement. If you need to cancel, please call back and leave me a message.”  

The man on the phone ends the call. James looks over to Martha. “Well, we have an appointment with the guy at five” He enters the address from the craigslist ad into the GPS on his phone. “Looks like the address is about an hour and a half away. We should probably get going soon so we can be there on time. Maybe a little early and drive through the neighborhood first to check it out.”

“Sure…” Martha responds. “I am just going to toss on some clean clothes and pour some coffee and we can go. Maybe we can see if there is somewhere nearby on the way back where we can grab some dinner.”

James slaps his thighs with his hands “Sounds like a good plan to me!”

Martha and James grab their phones and wallets and head out to go check out the apartment. The drive there is rather uneventful. They haven’t been to this town before so the decided to head over and get there slightly early so they could make sure this apartment wasn’t smack dab in the middle of the ghetto. They were desperate for an apartment but weren’t exactly looking to live in a bad neighborhood either.

Getting closer to their destination they are slightly early to their appointment, so they continue with their plan and drive around the area to check everything out. Surprisingly enough there aren’t a ton of homes in the area. No apartment buildings just single-family homes and multifamily homes spread out through the area. A decent amount of privacy as well in between the properties with every home sitting on about an acre of land with plenty of trees separating most of the property lines. It is quite a beautiful area.

Martha’s excitement quickly begins to disappear as her and James drive around the local neighborhoods. “James, I know this apartment is small but this area seems pretty nice, I highly doubt we are going to be able to afford this place.”

James trying to stay positive responds “It’s okay babe. Let’s just check the place out and hear what the guy is asking for in price. We desperately need a place closer to the hospital and once you bring in a couple checks and I get established and take on more clients we should be fine. If we like the place we can make it work. It is only 45 minutes away from the hospital and I doubt we are going to find anything closer to the city within our price range.”

Martha sighs “Okay” She is anxious. She has dreamed of becoming a nurse in the Emergency Room the entire time she was in nursing school. They allowed her to shadow a nurse for a day while she was in clinicals. Some of the other girls in class before her did not like that day long rotation in the emergency department. The department is often chaotic with a hundred things happening at once. Martha was motivated by that excitement; a baby being born in one bed with another person receiving CPR just on the other side of the curtain. She want’s to be where the action is and making getting this apartment is what is going to get her there.

They proceed to the address from the craigslist ad and arrive a few minutes early. James parks the car in front of the building. It appears to be a multi-family home with an overgrown lawn. A few newspapers lay out in the front yard; some appear to have been there for a while. Martha and James exchange smiles with one another and exit the car. They make it to the front door and knock. A man’s voice from the other side of the door yells “Come on in! The door is unlocked.”

They open the door and walk through into a foyer. There is a coat rack on the wall to the right and just a few feet further are a set of stairs that lead up to a second floor. To the left of the stairwell there are two closed doors. One probably being the entrance to the bottom floor residence of the building. The door opens and a man stands in the doorway. Obscured by shadow it is hard to get a good look at him. “Hello, my name is Rocco, I am the one you spoke with. The unit is the upstairs; would you like me to show you around?”

“Sure, we would love that!” Martha responds

Rocco gestures towards the stairs “Alright if you could close the door behind you we can go take a peak at the place.”

James closes the door behind him and Martha and begin to follow Rocco up the flight of stairs. Rocco leads them up the flight of stairs, opens the door to the apartment and walks through the door. As James and Martha follow in behind him Rocco flicks a light on into the apartment. They get a decent look at the man. He stands at an average height probably around 5’10. He looks like he is roughly late fifties early sixties as far as age goes but who can tell. His head is shaved bald and has a clean-shaven face. His skin is pale gray like they guy has never spent more than half a minute outside before. His eyes appear sunken as if he hadn’t slept in a while.

 So far things look just like the photos they saw online. It is an unfinished apartment with a large room that is likely to be used as the living room, a small kitchen but it has all your basic needs such as a fridge, oven and stove, some cabinets, a small dishwasher, and a single basin sink. There is a small hallway that turns right and leads to two doors. There is a bathroom just off to the left, it is small but functional with a full bathtub and shower. At the end of the hall is the bedroom. Probably large enough for a queen size mattress and maybe one end table.

Martha turns to Rocco and asks “Sir, thank you for allowing us to check the place out. I have to ask; how much are you charging for rent?”

The man begins to smile. Making eye contact with Martha he responds “Right now I am offering to rent this place out for twelve hundred dollars a month. Water and electricity included.”

Martha and James exchange looks with one another. “In today’s market that seems quite cheap for a place that’s located next to a major highway that leads directly into the city. We have looked at other places similar in size with rent costs as high as eighteen hundred per month without included utilities. Is there something we should know about this place?”

Rocco begins to respond to James but continues to keep his eyes on Martha. “I own this place outright and I am not burdened by the debt of the building. I have no need to drive up the cost. I could just use the extra income to aid in some home repairs and yard maintenance.” Rocco continues “There is also a basement that can be used for an ample amount of storage. I do not have much down there. If you would like I could step out for a moment while you two discuss?”

“Yes, please that would be very kind of you.” Martha responds.

Rocco exits the unit and closes the door behind him to allow the couple to talk. James asks, “So babe… what do you think?”

“I don’t know, the price is nice. A forty-five-minute commute to and from work doesn’t sound too bad. We still need to look at the storage, but I think this might be the best option for now. At least until the market drops again and we can afford something a little bit better.” Martha pauses for a moment. “Does the landlord give off weird vibes to you?”

James shrugs “No I haven’t really noticed anything out of the ordinary. He just seems like some old man.”

Martha wants the apartment but something about the landlord is giving her some doubt. “Okay well let’s check out the basement and then head back home and we can sleep on it and see how we feel tomorrow about it. If we still want to go through with it, we can call him back and make this happen.”

The couple exit the apartment and make their way down the stairs. At the bottom of the stairs the look to the right an see the door that leads to the basement. James calls out for Rocco “Hey Rocco, is it okay if we go check the basement?”

Rocco calls out from the darkness of the open doorway he came out from earlier “Be my guest! The door is unlocked.”

James walks through first. He reaches for a light switch located on the wall to the right and flicks it to the on position. No light turns on. James is ready to get this over with and reaches in his pocket to pull out his phone and use its flashlight. He turns on the flashlight and begins to lead Martha down the stairs into the basement. They get to the bottom of the stairs and the door at the top of the steps slams with a strong force. This startles Martha and she falls down the remaining stairs taking James with her.

Martha hears a loud crashing noise hit the ground below her. She was lying on top of James and he wasn’t moving, Martha becomes overwhelmed with panic. “James! James!” she shouts. The flashlight on his phone must have broke or turned off because it was pitch black in the basement. Martha continues “James! Say something!” Still nothing. James motionless body lies on the floor. She reaches her hands down to start feeling around. She reaches for James’s head and feels a hot pool of liquid on the floor which she assumes is blood. She screams at the top of her lungs “HELP!”

Martha springs up and finds the stairs again in the pitch-black basement. She sprints up the stairs as fast as she can and attempts to open the door. The door wont budge and she begins slamming the door as hard as she can with both of her fists. Screaming for help from anyone who will hear. She stops screaming to take a breath for a moment. She is completely overwhelmed with fear and has tired herself out. She hears a creaking noise on one of the steps behind her. She turns “James?” She barely gets the word out before an something with overwhelming strength grabs her by the hair and violently pulls her down the stairs.

Kicking and screaming the whole way down the stairs she is dragged all the way down back onto the cool basement floor. Struggling to break free from the unknown assailants grasp but it seems to be of no use. “What do you want?! Who are you?! Please let me go!” Martha begins to plead with her attacker. She feels a heavy weight pin down her hips as if someone were sitting on top of her. Her arms are pinned to the floor over her head.

Martha now immobile being held down by immense strength Martha pleads once again to her attacker frightened voice “Please, why are you doing this?” Martha staring up into the darkness towards the unknown attacker. Martha’s heart is beating so hard she can feel her eardrums pulsating as she lies there helpless. Two gold circles become visible in the darkness as the attackers eyes begin to glow.

A cold dull voice responds “Because frightened little girls taste the sweetest”