Page 3 of Demon's Desire

“You girls just moved in above me?” she questioned, crossing her arms.

I looked back at her with a polite smile. “Yes, ma’am, we did. I’m Mia, and this is Kelly. I’m sorry, were we too loud today? We were unpacking, and–”

“I don’t give a shit about the noise you make,” the woman cut me off. “Did Linda tell you?”

I expected her to keep going, but she stopped there. “Um… Tell us about… what?”

“About the last three months,” the woman elaborated. “About everything that’s been going on.”

“No.” Kelly raised an eyebrow. “What’s been going on? It doesn’t have anything to do with us.”

“It will soon enough.” The woman looked fairly irritated about something. I just hoped it wasn’t us. “Strange shit’s been happening in this neighborhood. In a few other neighborhoods too.”

That worried me. “Wait, do you mean break-ins or thefts or stuff like that? Mrs. Halston didn’t mention anything…”

“Oh, no.” The woman, whose name I still didn’t know, shook her head slowly. “This isn’t any person’s doing. There’s more going on here. There are things that people can’t explain. Last week, my window shattered.”

Kelly widened her eyes. “Um… All right? So something hit it?”

“No,” the woman said, sounding a bit annoyed. “I was looking out the window when it happened. Nothing hit it. Nothing bumped it. There wasn’t a storm or strong winds. I was looking out the window, and it shattered right in front of me. And that’s not to mention all the other things. Animals are going missing or acting strangely. Things are breaking that shouldn’t be breaking. People are hearing things. I told Linda to tell you before she gave you the damned keys.”

I was officially confused. “Um… I’m sorry. What was your name?”

“Helen,” she answered.

“Helen.” I nodded. “Um… Are you implying that there’s… what? Something… supernatural causing all this stuff?”

“No.” She shrugged. “I’m not implying it. I’m saying it.”

“Okay!” Kelly clapped her hands together. “This has been fun, Helen, but we’re going to go back to our apartment now. I hope your window gets better or whatever. Come on, Mia.”

“Wait!” Helen practically shouted. “You two need to take this seriously. It’s not just this neighborhood, it’s this side of the city. An apartment in Lincoln Park caught fire last month, and no one knows why. There were no electrical problems, there was no arson, no one was even home. How does something like that happen, huh?”

I hesitated and looked at Kelly. “I… I don’t know.”

“Come on, Mia,” Kelly insisted, tugging me toward the stairs. “We’re going. Thanks for the warning, Helen.”

Before we got to the steps, Helen suddenly grabbed my hand. I stopped walking and turned back to look at her.

“Where were you today at five?” Helen whispered.

I swallowed, a lump forming in my throat. “Five? At five, we weren’t here. We were returning the U-Haul.”

Suddenly, her eyes went wide. “At five o'clock, there was something in your apartment… it stomped around for an hour. It stopped at six twelve exactly.”

Six twelve… I looked back at Kelly. That was when we got home.

“And I heard someone up there three minutes ago while you were down here getting your food,” she said.

“Come on,” Kelly repeated, pulling me up the stairs and out of Helen’s hand. She rushed back up the stairs with me in tow. We got back to the door, and she threw it open and pulled me inside. She immediately set the food down by the door and walked through the house. “Hello? Is anyone here? Prepare to lose your fucking nuts if you are!”

I stayed by the door as I shut it behind us, locking it quickly. I watched Kelly as she moved from room to room–mine, the bathroom, even the closets. After a couple of minutes, she came back over and sighed. “Nothing.”

“Kelly?” I asked softly.

“Mia.” She took my hands and looked at me. “Listen. Helen’s a bitch. She was fucking with us. It’s like hazing. There is nothing here. There never was. We’re drunk, and she’s a shitty neighbor.”

I took a deep breath and nodded. Of course. She had to be right. There weren’t ghosts or spirits or other supernatural creatures. Helen was trying to scare us.