Page 66 of Dirty Desires
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Nina
The next few months flew by. Living with Ashton was better than a dream come true. We had more fun than I thought two humans could possibly have. Even chores were fun when we did them together.
er scary stories to make the time pass by more quickly.
I came up with a great one. “So, I ran into an old woman the other day in the elevator. She told me she’s lived here for seventy years.”
“That long?” he asked with surprise. “I’ve never seen anyone that old in this building. Are you sure?”
Nodding, I went on with my little story. “I’m sure. She said she lives on the top floor. She rarely gets out. Has her groceries delivered.” I decided to add that to make the tale more plausible.
“Okay,” he said, but looked skeptical. “So, what else did you and this old woman talk about?”
I ran my hands up and down my arms, as if I’d gotten chills. Which I hadn’t, but I was going to milk this story for all it was worth. “She asked me if I’d been down to the basement, to which I answered that I had. It’s where the laundry room is located, after all.”
“Uh huh,” he said, as he put more quarters in the dryer. “A laundry room that could use some new machines, if you ask me. This is the third time I’m having to start this dryer.”
“Take it up with the manager, Ashton.” I rolled my eyes before going on with the story. “Okay, so what this lady told me was that there was a man who lived here even before she did. And that man was the janitor for this building. One day, he was caught taking some kids and hiding them away in this very dungeon. Oops. I mean, basement.”
Now Ashton rolled his eyes. “Oh, yeah? And what did he do to these supposed kids, Nina?”
I weighed the options before saying, “He ate them!”
With a grimace, he said, “Gross.” Then he went to pull the clothes out of one of the washers. “These are ready to go into a dryer now.”
I took the buggy over and let him fill it with the wet clothes before taking them to put them into an empty dryer. “The parents of the kids found him in this very basement one day, and they killed him.”
“And how did they do that?” he asked me, with a grin on his face.
Looking around, I found the old furnace and pointed at it. “They threw him in that thing. And the really creepy part is that …”
He chimed in, “He comes to people who live in this building in their sleep and tries to kill them.”
Shrugging, I said, “Sounds like you have heard this story, Ashton.”
“Yeah, it’s calledNightmare on Elm Street.” He laughed uproariously as he slapped his thighs. “You’ll have to come up with something original if you want to get one past me, doll. I’ve watched every horror flick ever made.”
“I hadn’t even realized I was making up a story that already existed. I suppose I saw it sometime when I was a kid or something.” I laughed. “Funny, huh?”
“I guess so.” He put four quarters into the dryer. “I hope this one works better than that other one. I don’t want to spend our entire Sunday down here.”
“What are your plans for today?” I asked him, as we hadn’t discussed anything fun to do yet.
“I’ve got plans, baby. Big plans. And they don’t involve going anywhere at all,” he informed me.
I was a little displeased with his announcement though. “Aw. Why not?”
He pinched my cheek as she smiled at me. “No reason to whine, baby. You’ll like it. I promise.”
“Can you give me a hint about what we’ll be doing?” I asked, as I pushed the buggy back to the corner it was kept in.
“Well, I’ll be making you a great lunch. And we’ll be enjoying it picnic style, on the living room floor.” He made a flourishing gesture, as if he was throwing a blanket on the floor.
“Why not just have a real picnic outside? In a park, maybe. Now that sounds fun too, doesn’t it?” I asked, trying to get him to do something outside of the house.
He nodded. “That sounds fun too, but this has to be done just the way I’ve already planned.”
