The Unpleasant Surprise

Enter. Smile. Try to like the place now. It’s a little small as compared to your old apartment. At the same time, it’s away from the hideous slums. The stench that they raised would kill a dead rat all over again. But this is good. Sigh. It’s awesome. All this, with your own hard earned money. Good job Judith. You finally found your tiny little pretty house.’

Judith kept her thoughts buzzing as she looked at the studio apartment for the second time. At first she had thought it was too tiny as compared to the previous one but then it was also closer to her office and in a much better locality. The landlady, an old hag with a broken smile and limbs as huge as elephant legs showed her and her boyfriend Jason around the place.

There was a golden yellow lamp that hung just above the bed. It made the apartment look extremely welcoming and cozy. The bed was warm and soft, almost like it was built with a thousand feathers. She sank into the bed and looked at the 18.5 inch TV on the wall opposite it. The beige walls had bright yellow flowers embossed on them that made it look like an astonishingly radiant summer morning in open green fields. Her eyes then fell upon the chocolate brown wardrobe adjacent to her bed that stretched from the ceiling to the floor. It had finely carved wooden handles and an evenly polished surface. Happiness surged through her veins as she admired her new abode. On the extreme left was the baby pink refrigerator. It sat snugly in one corner of the room, without drawing too much attention towards itself. She looked at everything lovingly and instantly felt at home. This had to be better than perfect.

Jason had liked the apartment as well. It was in a better locality and the landlady didn’t mind visitors at odd hours. They had both been relieved when she expressed that. He had been her boyfriend for a good long seven years, which explained the relief.

Her only advice was to keep the little window above the bed tightly shut at all times. No questions were answered, they were only asked. So Judith decided to keep her verbal diarrhea to herself and made a mental note of being the ideal tenant for the lady with the elephant legs.

***

The featherbed cuddled her as she slept in it and before she knew it, the annoyingly loud alarm clock screamed into her left ear.  She scurried to do her everyday chores and ran to catch the office bus. As she got into the ride, she remembered that she had left the little window above the bed, wide open.

At first, she thought of going back, but then she shrugged off the thought.

***

‘Jason. I just got back home from work.  I think I just got robbed. Only, the funny part is nothing is missing. Everything is in such a mess. It’s stinking. There’s food all over. Can you come over please? I’m scared. Elephant legs isn’t opening the door nor answering my calls.’

The phone clicked and Judith ran to the bathroom and locked herself in it. That morning, she had woken up to rush through preparing a simple dinner to reach office on time. She loathed cooking at night. When she got back, the jars of jam were empty. The dinner had been gobbled up and there were remnants splattered everywhere. The crimson carpet had orange juice spilled over it, giving it a deeper shade. Whoever had broken into the house had made sure to devour all the food.

Her body turned cold as she waited for Jason. She could hear the clock ticking and the sweat of fear ran down her thighs, making way right down to her ankles. She strained her ears to hear any sounds but none came. Suddenly, she heard a piercing bawl. There was a dog, howling into the night. His howls were strong and near. The hair at the back of her neck stood up and her skin was turning pale yellow.

The doorbell rang and she ran to get it. She opened the door, hoping to see Jason’s affable face when she stood there facing her landlady.

‘How dare you be so careless? Didn’t I tell you not to keep the window open? I had warned you, you stupid stupid girl.’ She pushed her aside gruffly with her walking stick as she made way to enter the house. Judy gasped and opened her mouth when she cut her off sharply, ‘And no, don’t you go around asking me any questions. You live in my house. You have to follow my rules. The last time this lad left this house open, he faced the same problem. He told me he had made the evil go away. All I had to do was keep the damned window shut. This insolence will not be...’

Just then, the doorbell rang once again and Judy ran to find her love this time. She opened the door and fell into his strong arms.

‘Jason, look at this place. I don’t know why this happened or what caused it. I’m just so scared. Elepha.....I mean, landlady here says it’s the window...because I left the window open. I don’t want to live here. This is a bad place. It just looks pretty.’ She said all this in just one breath. Jason was gaping at her trying to decode everything she said as she gasped for air.

Then finally, he composed himself and spoke after what seemed like a century. ‘Listen to me Judy. I know it is unnerving to come home to this but trust me it’s all fine. Look at this place. It must have been an animal, a cat or something. Just calm down, ok? Be grateful that nothing is stolen or lost. Drink some water. Here. And I’ll stay here with you. It’ll be fine. I’m with you.’

As he started cleaning up the mess, Judy saw him casting sharp glances at her to make sure she was fine. Maybe she was over reacting. Maybe this was just an animal. But the landlady had spoken of some evil. What was she talking about? Why was she so stupid? Why did she hurry into this? She cursed herself loudly.

And then, suddenly before she knew it, the featherbed absorbed her lightly and she slept like a baby.

***

She woke up groggily the next morning, with Jason on one side. She didn’t remember elephant legs leaving the previous night but she had a long day ahead, so she shrugged off the memories of last night and got ready for office.

Jason left with her and they both made sure that the window was tightly shut.

***

It had been one month since she had moved into her new house. The first few days, she had been petrified but then it almost became a way of life.

She would come home, to find her food to be eaten or splattered on the walls and carpets. Who was this animal who was wolfing down everything? She had never tried searching for it though. On the other hand, her house was small. Nothing would go unnoticed. There was nothing in the house when she was there. It just magically appeared from thin air whenever she left for long hours. Sometimes, she decided to leave the house for 15-20 minutes and loudly exclaimed that she would be back in about 4-5 hours. It would always be the same scene. There would be no one there and the food would have been ravaged.

***

‘You have a soaring temperature Judy. Please listen to me this time. Just stay at home for a while. Rest a little. You seem stressed. I’ll come to meet you every day after work. But I don’t want you breaking your back over anything. You get me? Now, give me a hug,’ said Jason tenderly.

They spent a little more time, whispering sweet nothings to each other when Judy slipped into a dreamless nap.

Jason left her there, snoring slightly on her beautiful featherbed.

***

It had now been four days since she got out of her house. Her sunken cheeks and pale complexion showed that she had been suffering from a bout of flu but since her temperature refused to drop, Jason decided to take her to a doctor.

She had been lying down watching a movie and seeing some old pictures on her digicam when Jason entered the house.

‘We have to go to the doctor, Judy. Come on, get dressed fast. We have an appointment for 6 o’ clock today. You have half an hour. Hurry,’ he exclaimed.

‘But Jason, it’s just flu. I’ll be fine in a few days,’ she called out.

But there was no convincing him when he decided on something. So they got ready to leave. She made sure the window was shut tight and casually threw her digicam on the featherbed.

***

‘Not again,’ she thought. But didn’t express anything aloud. She had no time to worry about the same thing over and over again and was too sick to stress about it too.

Then something caught her eye. She remembered flinging the camera onto the bed. It wasn’t there anymore. It had vanished.

With a burst of sudden energy, she started searching for it. This had to be it. If someone was stealing her things, it was the end of it. She was going to find out.

‘Will you just stop being so paranoid? You’re sick God dammit, Judy. This is just pissing off now. You sit right there. Don’t move. You must’ve kept it somewhere else. I’ll look for it,’ cried Jason.

Before he could have completed the sentence, she found it lying in one corner of her studio apartment. It lay there amidst the few grains of brown rice that were carelessly dropped on the marble floor.

There was ketchup smeared on it. And embedded in it was an unmistakable finger print.

Her heart raced as she went to pick it up. She didn’t speak a word.

‘Give me that camera right now.’ Jason pulled it from her and out of her reach.

He took it and switched it on to see if it was working. She snatched it back from him and went to the last recorded section.

The earth beneath her feet slid as she looked upon an unknown, old man. His naked head and thick white mustache were both bestrewed with the ketchup. Her hands shivered as she clicked on the play button.

There was a deep moan and the man burst into horrid cries. He licked the ketchup off his hands and belched loudly. It was the worst sight ever. His eyes were a pale grey and his fingernails had black filth stuffed into them. He pressed a grubby finger on the camera screen and spoke, ‘Why did you torture me? Why? What have I done to you? You didn’t let me eat for four days. I was hungry. I needed food. Why didn’t you go out of the house? I hate you and I curse you. You don’t know me but I know you. I live here; I’ve been here for a month.’ Suddenly, his moans turned into loud, screeching laughter.

‘You don’t know this. You would’ve never known. But, I live under your bed.’

They both froze there. Nobody spoke or moved for the longest time. Nobody even tried to. They were both cold to the bone, the chills spreading steadily and swiftly through them. Instantly, everything made more sense. The open window, the evil that her predecessor had swept away, the food...everything fell into place. What sort of psycho was this?

Legs shivering, Judy moved towards her bed. She had never looked hard enough to find something or someone. Every time she came home from a long day, she would just be too scared to go back and look hard for the cause. She was just always too scared. She now knelt near her favourite part of the house, her featherbed and lifted the bed sheet to peak underneath.

As she ducked, she prayed there was no one and then in a heartbeat, a strong grubby hand came pelting out to grab her wrist.

She screamed.