“You sent her away?” I asked skeptically.
“Yeah, Sammy. There’s only one lady I’m interested in spending time with tonight. Pull up a seat.” He said and patted the bed next to where he sat.
I looked around for something else I could sit on, but there wasn’t anything I could easily scoot up to the desk. I swallowed the lump in my throat and crossed the room. It wasn’t like he was going to be on the bed with me. Ryder was sitting in a big, black leather office chair.
“I’ve heard rumors that you’re kind of into the occult. I have a movie I thought we’d watch. I hear it’s terrifying.” He said and pulled up some sort of imageboard website.
I’d never been to the website myself, but I’d heard rumors. I wasn’t sure if I was comfortable with watching anything posted there, but Ryder was so excited. I don’t know how he knew that I was into horror and the occult, but I blew it off. Perhaps Riley had said something, or maybe Ryder was making it up. He had to be used to women just agreeing with him, and maybe it was a coincidence that I actually was kinda into the paranormal and occult.
“Is it a jump scare video?” I asked. “I hate jump scares.”
“I don’t know if I should tell you what it is ahead of time,” Ryder said with a wicked smile that crept across his face. “You might leave, but I think you’ll really enjoy this if you let yourself.
At this point, I’m completely freaked out. My skin was covered with goosebumps, and there was an icy chill that kept shooting from the base of my skull all the way down my spine. But, I couldn’t get up from my spot on the bed. I wanted to run, but for some reason, I couldn’t imagine not finding out what was on the video.
“I’ll watch,” I whispered.
Something in the air shifted when I said this. The air felt a little lighter, and I started to feel a bit warmer too. Just as Ryder was about to click play, someone knocked at the door.
“Damn.” He grumbled. “Give me a sec.”
Ryder minimized the window, and I guessed that was because he only wanted me to see what we were about to watch. It felt wrong, but it also made me feel perversely special.
Speaking of perverse. I noticed something that made my stomach churn for the second time in less than a half hour. One of the folders on Ryder’s desktop caught my attention. My eyes zeroed in on the words:
Kiddie Prawn
I shot up off the bed and prepared to bolt from the room as soon as he was done talking to whoever had summoned him out into the hallway. I got halfway across the room, and something in my mind stopped me.
“Maybe there’s a perfectly good explanation for it,” I whispered to myself. “Maybe it’s the name of some obscure band I’ve never heard of.” I rationalized. “I’ll wait. I’ll ask. I’m sure Ryder will explain.”
He came back into the room a couple of minutes later flashing me a huge, sweet smile. “Sorry, one of my dudes needed to ask a question. Now, let’s get this party started.”
“Ryder, I need to ask you something first.” I felt sick as I said this.
“Can’t it wait until after the video? I’m so excited to show you this.”
This probably should have been enough to make me leave, but for some reason, I just wanted to make Ryder happy. It was like I needed his approval. The tequila and his gorgeous blue eyes were almost magical in their ability to make me feel like agreeing with anything he said.
“The folder on your desktop… The one that says kiddie prawn. What’s that about?” My voice was shaking with tension.
“Haha. Oh, that. Yeah, I find some crazy stuff on this website. I’m just keeping those to turn over to the FBI. I don’t like that kind of thing; I swear.” He said, but his answer sounded scripted.
His lack of conviction was troubling. I wasn’t entirely sure that his excuse made sense either. Why would he save the pictures instead of turning them over to the authorities right away?
“Come on, don’t look so sad. This video is so cool, Sammy. You’re going to trip out when you see what I’ve found, and then, when we’re done watching it, I’ll send all of the kiddie files I’ve got stored on my computer to the FBI. I swear.” He said and gave me his best impression of puppy dog eyes.
“Okay.” I felt myself give in.
Ryder brought up the video and clicked play. As soon as the movie, if you could call it that, started, I knew that I should go. It was my last chance to get out of what I’d come to accept as a bad situation, but I had grown so apathetic to everything going on around me that I just sat there and watched.
A strange sense of déjà vu came over me as I looked at the woman, who looked exactly like me, sitting at a kitchen table. The film flickered, and there was a bit of static as if it was an old movie. It cut to the next scene where the woman, other Sammy, was tied to the table.
She was surrounded by five men. I won’t go into detail about what they did to her, but it wasn’t pretty. At some point, I started to cry, and it took all of my energy to keep from throwing up, but I couldn’t look away.
The final scene was the camera close on other Sammy’s face. Her eyes were dead and unmoving, but as the camera pulled back, she took a sharp breath. Then, blackness.
Run
Something inside of me begged me to run from the room. I didn’t move. I just sat there and waited for Ryder to say something.
“Wasn’t that so cool, Sammy.” He said like an excited child on Christmas morning. “Can you believe how much she looked like you?”
“Was that real?” I asked through a sob.
I was ugly crying, but my mind was telling me that only Ryder could make things better. I had to trust him.
“Oh, Sammy. You’re crying.” He said and kissed the tears from my cheek. “Baby girl, you are so beautiful.”
I won’t go into detail about what happened next with Ryder either. Let’s just say it wasn’t one of my prouder moments, but at that time, I welcomed any distraction from what I’d just seen. Never mind that it was Ryder who’d caused my distress. I laid back on the bed and told myself that he really did like me.
The next morning, I woke up in the hallway outside of my dorm room. For a moment, I breathed a sigh of relief thinking the whole thing was just a nightmare. Then, I found the note pinned to my shirt.
Never come back slut. Love, Ryder.
Lesson learned.
Chapter One
“I don’t have a lot of cash on me,” I said and fished around in my purse. “Hang on, let me see if I can find my checkbook.”
“I don’t usually carry my checkbook with me either.” The real estate agent said with a patient smile. “I use it so little anymore.”
“Ugh, it’s not in here.” I felt my shoulders slump in defeat. “There’s a branch of my bank two blocks from here. Can you wait for me while I run over there? Pretty please.”
“I’ll drive you over. We can finish the paperwork in the lobby.” She said kindly. “I like you best of the potential renters I’ve met, and I frankly don’t feel like showing this place again today. You mentioned that your dad would cosign for you. Do you think he could meet us there?”
“Dad lives one town over, but let me give him a call.”
It turned out that my dad was in the middle of some very serious hedge trimming when I called, but Mom told him that he had to come sign the papers.
“You promised, Jacob.” I heard her chide in the background.
“Is this really the place you want, Samantha? You could always come home for a little while. You don’t have to find a place right away.”
“It’s perfect, Daddy. The price is right, and it’s in a great neighborhood.”
“But what about the apartment, Sam? Is it a dump. A great price usually means the place is a dump.”
“Jacob.” My mother scolded from the background.
“Fine. I’ll be there in twenty minutes. But, I want to meet you at the new place and not at the bank. I want to see where my baby girl plans to live before I sign my name on the dotte
d line.”
I gave him the address and got into the car with Becky, the real estate agent. She took a moment to call all of her other appointments and tell them that the place was rented.
The drive to the bank took less than five minutes. Becky sat down at one of the banker’s desk and started to chat while I waited in line for a teller. I figured she must know a lot of people in banking since her regular gig was selling houses.
She’d told me right off the bat that property management wasn’t her specialty, and that she only managed two properties. One of them was the house that my new apartment was located in, and the other was a small apartment building with five units on the other side of town.
“This is actually the first time I’ve shown this place.” She told me while we walked through 707 Overwatch Lane. “The woman who lived here before had been here since the mid-eighties when the current owner moved out and split the house into two apartments. He resides in California now, and he called my offices looking for someone to show the place and collect the check once a month.” Becky said.
“What happened to the woman? Did she die in the house?” I asked, and I wasn’t sure if I was terrified or excited by the prospect.
“No, nothing like that.” She said quickly, but I got the feeling that she was either hiding something or didn’t really know the answer. “I think she had to go live in a home. Crestview or something. It’s out of town. Near her family, I believe. The owner didn’t elaborate too much.”
The way she answered my question gave me pause, but not enough to make me consider changing my mind. The apartment was everything I’d ever dreamed of as a teenager obsessed with vampire novels.
Once the banking was done and I’d handed over the two grand needed to cover the first and last month’s rent plus deposit, Becky and I went back to the house to wait for my Dad. He arrived a few minutes later with my mom in tow. My parents and Becky had made acquaintance before she handed me the keys.
“I’ll let you show your folks around. I’ve got to make a call concerning a showing I’ve got tonight.”
I already felt like I was home as I inserted the key into the lock and opened the front door. The hinges gave an eerie creak, and my mom jumped a little. I had to giggle, but the slightly unnerving vibe of the place was one of the things I loved most about it.
“This place is somber.” My mom observed from the entryway. She seemed reluctant to step farther into the house.
“This place is huge.” My dad mused. “What’s wrong with it?”
“Jacob.” Mom scolded again.
“Well, a place this big only renting for a few hundred dollars a month should sound the alarm bells. Did the real estate lady say why it was so cheap?”
“She didn’t say much about the rent other than it’s probably lower than you’d expect because the décor is pretty dated.” Which is another reason that I adored the place.
“You can say that again,” Dad said as he tested the first couple of the steps that lead upstairs.
I’d expected him to get another reprimand from my mom, but she’d wandered off. I heard shuffling coming from down the hall, and I assumed that was her poking around in the dining room or kitchen.
“What if these stairs need to be repaired?”
The house was two stories with an attic space, and the owner had literally cut the place in half. Before it was split, the entryway and staircase must have been enormous. As it stood, everything from the foyer to the upstairs hallway was truncated.
The wall ran up the right side of the stairs, but even with only half of a staircase in my apartment, it was as wide as a typical set of steps. I could see what he meant, though. If something happened to the steps on either side, you’d have to knock out part of the wall to fix it.
“At least they feel solid.” He said as he walked upstairs.
“It’s dark in here.” My mom called from another room. “Even with all of the curtains wide open, it seems so dim.”
“There are a lot of mature trees on the lot.” I offered.
“That’s probably it. Plus, that will keep the air conditioning bills down,” She said cheerfully. “This place does have air conditioning, right?”
“I bet it costs a fortune to heat in the winter.” Dad hollered down the stairs.
“Well, at least you know why I’ll be calling for money this winter,” I answered.
I heard him laugh a little, but my mom’s scream made my heart start to pound in my chest so hard that I got a bit lightheaded.
My Dad took the stairs two at a time, and he caught up with me as I raced down the hall towards the sound of the shriek. It took seconds to reach the kitchen where my mom was standing with her hands balled into tight fists. She was in the middle of the room, so I crossed to her and noticed she had blanched white as a sheet.
“Mom, what’s wrong?”
“Look at this kitchen.” She said and swept her hand through the air like a nervous spokes model. “Avocado appliances. Look at those countertops, Sam. This kitchen hasn’t been remodeled since the seventies. It’s horrendous.”
“Mom, you scared the bejeezus out of me,” I said and tried to slow my pounding heart. “Don’t worry about the kitchen, I hardly cook anyway. As long as I can store leftover pizza in the fridge and get a small microwave, I’ll have everything I need.”
“It’s not like you do a lot of cooking, Linda.” My dad teased.
“Oh hush.” She said and turned toward him as she wrapped an arm lovingly around her shoulder. “What was upstairs, Jacob?”
“Just empty bedrooms, dear. You probably shouldn’t go up there.” Dad said with a chuckle. “I don’t care much about decorating, and even I think the décor is horribly dated.” He said the word décor with a fake French accent.
I rolled my eyes.
“The neighborhood is safe, and once my new job starts, I’ll be able to afford the rent on my own.”
“The money isn’t an issue, Sam.” Mom said.
“You know your mother and I would help you pay for a more expensive place. We could consider it your graduation gift.”
“I have another year of school. And besides, I don’t want a more expensive place. I like this house.”
“Fine, I’ll sign, but I’m sending the lease to my lawyer first thing in the morning. If anything goes wrong with this place, Herb will get you out of here in a jiffy.”
“Thanks, Daddy!”
I took my time getting back to the dorms. I wanted to move into my new place right away, but there were practical matters that had to be seen to first. I needed a moving van first. I’d also need to get utilities and the internet turned on at the house.
You might be wondering why I didn’t just stay in campus housing for my last year and find a new place once I’d graduated. Well, that had been the original plan.
A sophomore had been attacked in my building. She had just come back from summer vacation, and someone got to her one night when there were only a couple of girls in the building.
Her name is Lizbeth, and she’s alive but in a coma. From what I understood, there wasn’t much hope that she’d make it in the beginning. It was sad because Liz had been such a sweet, intelligent young woman. Of the other three girls who were in the building at the time, two had already transferred to another college.
I hadn’t been in the dorm at the time. My friend, Riley, has an apartment near campus, and I spent the summer riding her sofa while her boyfriend was overseas. Tanner was due back in a couple of weeks, though, so I’d decided to move back into campus housing.
I’d been back in a dorm for a week, and classes were beginning soon, but I couldn’t wait to get out. I called the utility, cable, and moving companies and found that I’d be able to move in within days. If I was willing to go without the internet for a few days, I could move into the Overwatch house by the weekend.
I didn’t have much in the dorm room that I’d be taking with me. Most of the furniture belonged to the school, but I’d
have to get a bunch of stuff out of my parents’ storage. They had lots of old furniture I could use in their carriage house.
The one thing I did need to buy was a microwave. I wasn’t looking for anything fancy, so I made a trip to the local Walmart. Unfortunately, I waited until the Friday night before my move to go.
I knew that Friday and Saturday nights were the worst time to go there. It’s when all of the weirdos crawl out of the cracks and congregate. Even in a small college town, we still manage to have enough nutters to make a Friday night trip to the store an uncomfortable experience. One time, this greeter stopped me on the way in. He said I should go down the street to the regular grocery store if I could because on weekend nights, the thin veneer of civilization was stripped away at Walmart. That dude was awesome.
“Riley, come pick me up. I’m going to Walmart, and you’re taking me.” I said into my phone as soon as she picked up.
“Oooh. Maybe we’ll get to howl at the moon and bite the heads off live chickens this time.”
“Shut up and come get me,” I said and hung up.
I was confident Riley would show up, and she did. I waited for her outside because the dorms were almost empty since it was the weekend. It was still too scary to stay inside when there weren’t many girls around. They still hadn’t caught the guy who’d hurt Liz because she couldn’t tell them who’d hurt her. I’m not sure why I thought he couldn’t get me outside, but it was less scary than being inside alone.
She picked me up and asked me where we were really going. I swear the look on her face was sadder than if I’d killed her puppy when I told her the mission really was to go buy a microwave.
“Fine, square, but we’re going to a party after,” Riley said as we pulled into a parking space.
“Riley, no. I’m moving tomorrow, and you’re helping me. We are not getting smashed at some dumb party tonight. My dad is picking me up at seven, and then we’re coming to get you.”
“Fine, then we’ll go home by ten, I swear.”
“No. I don’t want to go.” I said as I got out.
Magic & Mystery: A Cozy Mystery Sampler Page 19