Baby You're a Haunted House

12 1 0
                                    

Just as promised, Steve had cleared out the second bedroom at his apartment and was waiting in Robin's driveway to help her move. As the two of them loaded up her belongings, it was clear that Robin was in a state of complete jubilation. She was finally getting away from her homophobic, overly-religious parents. 

"I've been planning this moment for a long time now, and boy does it feel good to finally follow through," she said once they were in the safety of Steve's station wagon. 

As they pulled into Steve's driveway, Robin felt the relief coursing through her veins. She got out of the car and opened the trunk, beginning to grab what she could with Steve's help of course. 

"Thank you, thank you so much for this, dude. I can't even tell you how much it means. I want you to know that I'm planning on being the absolute best roommate possible. And I'm not just saying that, I mean it," Robin was saying. 

Steve smiled warmly at the sentiment, a rare side to Robin was shining through her normal façade, one that he had only seen since their bizarre misadventures in the Upside Down. "Just wait until you get inside before you go saying that, it's uh... kind of a slum."
 
Steve unlocked the door and it fell into a small hallway, illuminating it in its dusty glory. The living room was small with only a blue lazy-boy recliner, a color TV and an adjoined kitchen with newly updated appliances since the original ones contained chemicals no longer approved for use. Robin smiled, stepping through the doorway and then looking around the apartment and frowning. 

"With some furniture maybe it could look pretty good, Harrington," Robin taunted him, "I absolutely love this. I think it's got serious potential. We just need to figure out what to do with all the wall space, maybe add some plants..."

Steve shrugged, still with arms full of her belongings. "Go nuts. I'm not really gifted with interior decorating know-how," he admits, gesturing, as evidence, to the Hallmark crap his mother had strewn about on her visits

Robin cringed, shaking her head at a placard that read:

He achieved success
who has lived well,
laughed often,
and loved much


She snorted with laughter. "No, no cards, no flowers, no crappy knick knacks. No knick knacks at all really. I wanna try and make this place livable. No more creepy dolls." 

"Hey I didn't fricken put it there!" Steve laughed, trying to defend himself, "The woman is as tacky as they come."

He pushed open the door to Robin's room and set some of the boxes down in the empty space. The walls were bare and the floor was a bit scuffed, but it's was a decent size and had a view of a gas station. Robin looked around the room, nodding appreciatively. "It's bigger than I expected. Bigger than my room at home," she says as she sets some boxes down over in the corner. "How'd you get this place anyway?"

"No one else wanted it because it's haunted. People here are religious nuts," he laughed to himself, opening the shutters to admire Robin's scenic view, "Psh. Ghosts. Can you believe that? Suckers."

Robin smiled, stepping up to join Steve at the window and look out of it, "I think that's kind of awesome. At least ghosts are better than your mom's decorations." 

"Like these people know what scary is. Psh. Those weird little corn husk dolls she left in the kitchen, that's scary," Steve retorted.

Robin and Steve ran back to the car for another two runs of boxes and each time, the boxes were slightly moved. Each of them just assumed the other person did it or they nudged them, until Robin noticed that one of the boxes had a tear in it like it was slashed with a knife or claw. 

"Did you do this?" she asked Steve as he was setting down a particularly heavy dresser frame over by the wall. 

He heaved a sigh and the wood hit the carpeted floor with a muted thud. "Do what?"

"The cut mark?" Robin asked, pointing to the slash in her moving box. 

Three's Company TooWhere stories live. Discover now