The Residents

Charlie Craddock saw the teens sneaking into the building through a first-floor window. He watched the boy pull himself in, then reach down and grab the girl by the hands, helping her up. She slipped a couple of times, squealing and giggling, until she finally rolled through the open window.

Charlie didn’t much mind kids exploring. After all, they were kids, and the building was big, dark, and intimidating. Mostly abandoned, it naturally drew daredevils or curious wanderers, especially with rumors that it was haunted.

Kids had been sneaking in for years—until the city cracked down after a tragic accident a year ago. Charlie and a few other residents had witnessed it, and ever since, he tried to keep watch, running off anyone who ventured in. Still, he wasn’t always successful.

The two teenagers were here now, and Charlie was watching. The girl giggled a lot. The nervous kind of giggle. Maybe it was the boy that was making her nervous or the fact that they had just broken into a creepy old building where they weren’t supposed to be. Of course the boy, being a teenage boy, played right into it. Tapping on the opposite shoulder to startle her, making his fingers creep up her back like a spider. Or just stopping suddenly and saying “Did you hear that?” It all scared her, or at least she pretended it did.

The teens moved from the first floor room where they had broken in, to the hallway where they could see down the entire east wing of the building.

“Oh my God, this is huge.” The girl whispered as she looked right and left down the hall.

“This is nothing, there are four floors above this and an entire other wing. Austin, Brad and I made it all the way to the top floor one time. It’s cool, you can see for miles from the top floors.”

“You guys are stupid. Weren’t you afraid of getting caught?”

“Who’s gonna catch us?” The boy shrugged.

Well, me. Charlie thought just as Walt Taylor appeared beside him.

Charlie wasn’t much of a socializer these days but when he did feel like talking it was usually to Walt. They had both worked at the mill until it burned down so they had that in common, plus a love of baseball and a cold beer though neither of them could remember the last time they had enjoyed either.

“Whatcha doin’ Chuck?” Walt whispered in Charlie’s ear.

“Them kids just sneaked into the building. I’m watching them.”

“Again? You fixen to scare ‘em off, right?” Walt asked.

“I don’t know, they ain’t doing anything yet but I’m keepin’ an eye on ‘em.”

Had they bothered to look, the teens may have been able to make out the vague shadows of Charlie and Walt hidden in the darkness at the end of the corridor, but they were focused on exploring other parts of the building.

“You figure they’ll head upstairs?” Walt said, with a somber tone to his voice.

“I suppose so.” Walt knew the dangers in the building. It hadn’t seen maintenance in years and the stairs were particularly treacherous. Walt knew as long as they stayed near the side by the railing they’d be safe, but in the center, the stairs were weak, and dangerous.

“Come on, let's explore upstairs.” The boy said, as if on cue. He took the girl by the hand. “It’s cool. I’ll show you. Come on.”

“What’s up there?” She let him pull her forward toward the large staircase at the end of the corridor.

There’s a bunch of rooms up on the fifth floor that face the sunset, we’ll go watch the sun go down and then we’ll leave. “

“You sure we won’t get caught?” She asked.

“I’m sure. He said confidently.”

Charlie whispered quietly, “Buddy, you’re already caught.”

Charlie and Walt followed the teens as they made their way up the stairs, hanging back so as to not let their presence be known. He thought they might run into one of the other residents upstairs and that would convince them to leave but figured it wasn’t likely since most of the other residents didn’t come out much this time of day.

There weren’t many residents left in the building as most had moved on. The ones that stayed usually kept to themselves although one could occasionally hear someone bumping around in their room or moving furniture.

A few of the residents were louder than others and annoyed Charlie. Crying Carla, Denny the motorcycle guy, Mean Ben. He tried to avoid them most of the time but some were more sociable than others.

Like Denny the motorcycle guy, Walt didn’t know his last name and he was younger than the other residents. In his late twenties Walt guessed, and he was all about motorcycles and girls - a bit of a daredevil.

Carla McCutchen, sad lady, always crying. Charlie felt sorry for her but didn’t want to ask what her problem was for fear she’d make him sad too.

And mean Ben. Everyone just avoided him, or tried to. He would go out of his way to yell at you if he saw you. Fortunately he spent most of his time in the lower level. You could hear him banging things around and yelling sometimes.

The teens stayed near the railing and made it to the fifth floor where they snooped around a bit – popping their heads into some rooms only to find them empty. It was still exciting, sneaking around where they shouldn’t have been made the girl feel adventurous and the boy cool.

After a while of snooping they found a room facing the west with a mostly clear and intact window. They sat down to watch the sun set. All the while with Charlie and Walt looking over them like a couple of guardian angels.

“They will get to see a beautiful sunset.” Charlie said.

He didn’t want to scare them or embarrass them, and it wasn’t really his business what they did, though he did think she was too young to be off in a place like this with a boy by herself. He pondered a bit how to get them to leave and eventually decided since they were there because it was a place they could be alone, he’d just let them know they weren’t alone.

Charlie figured a knock or two down the hall might do it—just enough to remind them they weren’t alone. So down the hall Charlie found a good solid door and gave it two solid knocks.

The girl jumped and squealed and immediately put both her hands in front of her mouth. “Did you hear that? Oh my God, someone’s here!”

“It’s an old building, it makes sounds. It’s fine.” He tried to put his arm around her.

“No. Stop, I heard something."

“I know I heard it too, it’s nothing.”

“Are you sure?” she asked

“I’m sure.”

The sun was beginning to set and the building was filling with shadows. From one of the shadows Walt had positioned himself out of view of the teens but where he could see what they were doing. He looked down at Charlie and shook his head to say, Nope, no effect. The boy had his arm around the girl.

This time Charlie banged hard on the door.

“Shit. There it is again!. Let’s get out of here.” The girl said.

“Babe, listen, it’s nothing, it’s just an old building. Old buildings make noises—that’s why people think they’re haunted all the time. Look, that was the same noise as last time. If someone were here, there’d be a lot of different sounds.”

Walt raised his eyebrows and nodded. “Yea, kids got a point.”

Walt stayed in the shadows and slowly moved down the hall to where Charlie was.

“It’s not working—they’re still sittin’ around like they own the place,” Walt said. “Hell, would you leave over a couple of knocks if you were them?”

“Aw, probably not,” agreed Charlie. “Better just tell them they gotta go. It’ll scare the hell out of them when they see us. They’re not expecting anyone to be in here.”

“The looks of you two would scare the hell out of anyone,” Denny the motorcycle guy appeared behind them. Denny was younger than the other two men, maybe late twenties. No one knew his last name, and no one bothered to ask. Any conversation with Denny invariably turned to motorcycles, dares, or some stunt he and his buddies had done that nearly got them killed—or in one tragic case did.

“So what’s going on here, you two old geezers just watching kids explore? Looks like things are about to get interesting down there, if you know what I mean,” Denny said with a grin.

“That’ll be enough of that talk, Denny,” Walt said. “They’re too young. They don’t belong here.”

“Denny, just go away. We’ll handle this,” Charlie said.

“Handle what, man? Let them be,” Denny shrugged.

“Denny, shut up and go away. Walt and I both agree they shouldn’t be here. We’re just going to let them know they should move on.”

“Just when it’s getting interesting, you old farts decide to ruin it. I’m outta here, man,” Denny said as he made some kind of gesture with his hand and fingers and disappeared. Charlie thought it was probably meant as an insult, but didn’t care.

Charlie and Walt talked a bit about what to do. The knocks on the door didn’t get them to leave so maybe we need to be more obvious. If they hear footsteps they’ll know someone is here and they’ll disappear, hopefully realizing this is not where they should be.

Charlie stepped out of the room he and Walt had been in and began walking down the hall toward the teens, exaggerating every footstep—thump, thump, thump. He glanced back at Walt, who gave him a thumbs-up. They had to hear it, he thought.

And they did.

“There’s someone out there!” the girl whispered. “We gotta go!”

The boy nodded, disappointment flashing in his eyes. “Yeah… I heard it too. Okay, let’s go.” He took her hand, and together they moved toward the door. Peering out the doorway they saw no one, as Charlie and Walt kept to the shadows. The teens headed for the stairs.

Charlie watched them. This was not where they were supposed to be. They needed to move on.

Walt whispered down the hall to Charlie, “Psst. They gone?”

Charlie peered into the empty corridor. “Yep… disappeared at the stairs. Just like always.”

The two men exchanged a glance, the silence stretching. Then Walt muttered, “You think they’ll be back?.”

Charlie’s eyes gazed upon the empty stairway. “I hope not.”