Unsettling Stories

Evil Apartment - 3

"Welcome to the Hall of the Dead, my friend. You may call me the King." Said a deep voice, with the slightest hint of an accent that I could not place.

I spun around, looking for the source of the voice, but the hall appeared to be empty, well, except for the coffins lining the walls. A soft glow appeared toward the end of the hall, opposite form the staircase I had entered from.

"Yes, walk closer." Said the voice in a soft whisper.

I obeyed, and fought the urge to look over my shoulder, terrified of what might lurk behind me.

A robed man, with tattooed skin and hair so white that it seemed to glow, sat upon a tarnished silver throne.

"Welcome to my Kingdom, step closer, my dear." He said, beckoning me closer with his hand. My body began to move towards him, even as my mind screamed silently in terror.

My trance was broken by a muffled scream rising from the closed coffin to my right. The coffin began to rock back and forth and the sound of fists and feet pounding against the lid of the coffin.

"Hmm, he still has a little fight left in him, now doesn't he? He's been in there since yesterday, he had just moved into the apartment besides yours." Said the figure sitting passively on the throne.

"Ms. Leary, would you be so kind as to open the coffin to the right of Mr. Newton, so that he might have some company?" said the man, with a sly smile.

The skeletal Ms. Leary appeared from behind the Duke and glided toward an empty coffin that stood next to Mr. Newton's coffin. She opened the coffin lid and turned to face me; her empty eye sockets staring at me.

"I hope, for your own sake, that you make this easy. Ms. Leary can be very... persuasive if the need arises." said the man. Ms. Leary flexed her fingers, her razor-sharp fingernails somehow glimmering in the dull torchlight.

I began to shuffle towards the open coffin, with my head bent down, pretending as if I had accepted my fate. Ms. Leary, rather, the thing that used to be Ms.

Leary, stepped towards me and opened the dusty coffin door a bit wider. Now five feet from the coffin, I decided that I had to try something – anything, or else I would die a slow, painful death within one of the coffins, or worse yet, end up like Ms. Leary.

I pretended to stumble, falling towards coffin containing Mr. Newton. My hand found the latch holding the coffin lid in place. Mr. Newton, or what was left of Mr. Newton, flew out of the cage, more animal than human.

His hands were mangled beyond recognition, as if someone had taken large bites out of them. His cheeks were painted black with dried blood; empty eye sockets stared in my direction. He took one unsteady step towards me, and then raised his nose to the air.

He sniffed once, and let out a blood-curdling scream that I will never forget. He charged towards the man on the throne, and dragged him off his chair. Ms. Leary stood in front of the open coffin that had been meant for me, her torn face staring blankly ahead. I realized that she must only act on the direct instructions of the tattooed man, incapable of independent thought.

This was my chance. I dashed forward, and pushed Ms. Leary into the open coffin, recoiling in disgust as my hands sunk into her rotting flesh. I slammed the heavy oak lid, and made sure the latch was securely fastened.

I turned around to see Mr. Newton's face burrowed into the pale neck of the tattooed man. As I sprinted past the pair, I gathered enough courage to glance down at them, and saw the tattooed man smiling up at me.

"What is dead cannot die. No one can remove a King from his rightful Kingdom!" He whispered as I darted past him. A loud roar came from behind me, echoing loudly in the hall.

I paused to look over my shoulder, and saw that every coffin had opened, and that figures in various states of decay were beginning to emerge. "Finish him!" cried the tattooed man. A hundred corpses collapsed on top of Mr. Newton, muffling an inhuman cry of despair.

A surge of adrenaline rushed through my body, and I took off running in the opposite direction. I found an open door behind the throne, and rushed through it and up the first set of stairs that I came across.

I eventually found my way out of the labyrinth, through an abandoned subway tunnel, and into sewer. I climbed up the first ladder I found, and collapsed onto the street in front the apartment building. I slumped to the ground, and sat on the curb in front of the entrance to the building, ignoring the pouring rain that was beginning to soak through my clothing.

A sleek black car pulled up in front of me, with an Uber sticker in the window. The rear window rolled down, and I could see three of my best friends from NYU sitting on the plush leather seat, phones in hand, and dressed according to the latest New York fashion trends.

"What on earth are you doing out in the rain? We've been calling you all day! We wanted to celebrate your first day of work..." said my old roommate, Lindsey.

"I... uh... well it started..." I began to say, but was interrupted by Rosa, who said, "Your cheek is bleeding, it looks like someone cut you!"

Still dazed from the morning's terror, I put my hand to my cheek and winced as I feel the deep groove of a cut. "Let's get you up to your apartment, get you cleaned up." Said Lindsey.

They got out of the car, and began to lead me back to the entrance of the apartment. I stopped dead in my tracks when I saw Ms. Leary standing behind the glass doors of the entrance.

Except this was the original Ms. Leary, the sweet old lady with blue eyes, and that smelled of lavender perfume. She smiled at me, and for a split-second I saw her as she truly was: the servant of the tattooed man, with the razor-sharp fingernails, rotting skin and empty eye-sockets.

Something snapped inside me. Without a word to my friends I took off running down the street, running as fast as I could, knowing that I just had to get as far away from that apartment as possible.

~ Riley Weidler

Joyce: the time I found this it was dark so I didn't read it.....hope it's good 😂💀