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SilasCrane t1_j4jkpmv wrote

Cody looked from the crumpled sheet of paper in his hand to the old graystone building in front of him.

"13 Gates Ave...Pandora Arms Apartments..." he mumbled, reading off the tarnished brass nameplate that hung askew from the outside of the building, held in place by a single remaining screw on one corner.

This was the place, and despite its somewhat run down condition, it didn't look nearly as bad as he'd expected. Cody wasn't sure why his boss, Roman, a bad tempered 40-something man of Eastern European extraction, had given him the tip on the Pandora Arms, when he'd mentioned he was looking for an apartment.

The previous week, when Roman found out Cody was dating his niece Maria, he'd literally threatened to murder and fire him, in that order. But now, here he was, giving him the inside scoop on an unlisted apartment for rent.

He walked up the steps to the entrance, nothing that here was an old style buzzer system with a button for each apartment. The nameplates were all faded, and some of the buttons were missing, but the door was open a crack, so he simply let himself inside.

"Talk to Mrs. Krokomar on ground floor -- tell her Roman send you," his boss had gruffly instructed him, when he'd thrust the paper into Cody's hands.

Glancing around, he saw only two doors in the entry, not counting the antique bronze scissor gate that led to the elevator. One was unlabeled, but the other bore a brass plate engraved with "Manager". Cody stepped up this, and knocked politely.

Scarcely had he done so when the door swung open a few inches, until it was kept from opening any further by a pair of chains and a security shackle visible through the gap. A single rheumy eye glared at him, set in a face mostly hidden in shadow.

"What you want?" the old woman rasped.

He cleared his throat. "Mrs. Krokomar? I was told to ask about an apartment for rent--"

"No vacancy!" she snapped, and slammed the door in his face.

"--Roman sent me." he finished, belatedly.

To his surprise, the door snapped open again.

"Roman send? Send you? Why he do that?" the woman asked, suspiciously.

"He, um...well, he said something about you owing him a favor?" Cody said, hesitantly.

The old woman's eye narrowed, shrewdly. "Maybe I do. But why for he spend that favor on you?"

Cody laughed, nervously. "Actually, I don't know, ma'am. Roman's my boss, but up until today, I really didn't think Roman liked me -- especially after I started dating his niece Maria."

Cody blinked in confusion, as the old woman abruptly burst out in a fit of raspy cackling. "Ha! Bastard!"

Before he could process what she meant by any of that, she slammed the door again. This time, Cody heard the sound of the chains and shackles being undone. The old woman flung open the door, revealing a surprisingly ordinary looking senior citizen Mrs. Krokomar was short and slightly stooped, and wore a faded pink tracksuit, with skin the color and texture of old leather and her steel-gray hair pulled back into a bun.

"Okay," she said, motioning him inside. "Come on in, we talk about signing lease."

"Thanks," Cody said, stepping inside. "This is a really nice building you've got here."

"Is garbage dump." she said, flatly, waddling past him into the small living room of her apartment.

Cody chuckled nervously. "I mean...I guess maybe it could use some TLC, but the architecture, and the location? This is really something!"

"Whatever you say." she said, with a dismissive wave of her hand, as she walked over to a bookshelf, and pulled out a sheaf of wrinkled papers that had been jammed between two thick volumes with Cyrillic titles on their spines. "So you want rent apartment, yes?"

He nodded, "Uh, yes ma'am."

She grunted, squinting at the papers as she leafed through him. Finally she pulled out a slightly yellowed sheet that looked like it had been made on an old typewriter. Sinking into a threadbare armchair, she slapped the paper down on the coffee table before them.

"Lease is for six months, rent is six hundred, plus another six hundred deposit." she said.

Cody's eyes widened. It was an incredible deal -- even he could afford that much. "Wow."

The old woman held up a finger. "One thing -- you, eh...what is word...superstitious?"

He frowned. "No, not really. Why?"

She shrugged. "Only vacant apartment is number 13. Some people would say is bad luck, eh...you know, cursed."

Cody chuckled. "Oh. Nah, doesn't bother me. I don't really believe in that kind of stuff."

Mrs. Krokomar smiled. "Ah, good, good. Smart boy." She reached into the pocket of her tracksuit, and produced a fountain pen. "Tell you what, you sign here, and bring money later -- I hold room for you, yes?"

Cody perked up. "Really? Just like that? I haven't even seen the room yet..."

She waved her hand. "Don't worry. Is in good shape -- best room in building, trust me. No bugs, no leaks, no nothing like that!" She tapped the lease agreement with the pen insistently. "Let's just get ball rolling, so I can take off market, eh?"

Cody hesitated. That seemed a little sketchy. But on the other hand, if it did turn out to be a dump, it'd be pretty hard for her to enforce an un-notarized document, and he didn't want to upset the old woman -- she seemed kind of eccentric. So, hesitantly, he took the pen from her, and scrawled his name on the lease document.

He jumped in alarm, as the moment he finished writing his name on the page, the lights flickered wildly. He looked around frantically for several seconds as every light in the old woman's apartment flashed like a strobe, and the scent of ozone filled the air.

"What the hell was that?" he demanded.

The old woman shrugged. "Old building, old wires. Don't worry, is fine."

(End of chapter 1, may continue if there's interest.)

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fa_kinsit t1_j4jmgre wrote

Yes, absolutely there is interest to hear about Cody and the old babushka

21

SilasCrane t1_j4mc2n9 wrote

Chapter 2

The next morning found Cody standing outside Apartment 13 as Mrs. Krokomar fumbled with a ring of keys, muttering and cursing in Russian as she tried each one in turn. Finally, one of the inserted keys turned in the lock.

"Ah!" she cried, triumphantly. She began to open the door, and then paused. "By the way, place might need little spring clean -- haven't had time to do since last tenant."

Cody nodded, agreeably. "I don't mind." Despite his reservations, he was feeling enthusiastic about his new situation -- it seemed like it might be the start of a run of good luck, given what had happened when he'd gone to work earlier that morning.

"What you doing here?" his boss had demanded when he came in, a few minutes before his shift was scheduled to start."You did not take apartment I find for you?"

"Uh, no -- I mean, yeah, I did," Cody had said, "I haven't gotten moved in yet, but I'm on the schedule today so--"

Roman waved him off, seeming oddly irritated by his employee having arrived to work on time. "No, no, no! Take day off --eh, no, take two days! Three! I still pay you. Get cozy in new place, then come back."

With his spirits buoyed by Roman's inexplicable generosity, he'd gotten a load of his possessions together, and returned to the Pandora Arms. These became somewhat less buoyant, however, as Mrs. Krokomar opened the door to his new home and he saw inside. His jaw dropped.

The apartment seemed to be fully furnished, which would have been a pleasant surprise, had all of said furnishings, not to mention virtually every surface, not been completely coated with a thick layer of dust and cobwebs.

"When did the last tenant move out?" he asked, incredulously.

Mrs. Krokomar paused, thoughtfully. "Eh, was about...2003."

Cody frowned.

She shrugged. "What? I am busy woman. Lots to do." She gestured to the room. "So, dust, yes, but no rat, no roach, no bedbug. That I guarantee. Anyway, is all yours. I think they took most of last tenant's stuff besides furniture, but anything left, you can have."

"They?" Cody asked.

She waved a hand vaguely. "Somebody. After he go. Don't remember." Fumbling with her keyring again, she slid off the apartment key, and pressed it into his palm, closing his fingers over it and then giving it a little pat for good measure. "Alright, I leave you to it. If you have problem with lights, problem with pipes, talk to Pavel."

"Pavel?" he asked, as the old woman began to waddle away.

"Superintendent. Basement apartment." she called over her shoulder, before slipping out through the door and closing it behind her.

Mrs. Krokomar made her escape before Cody could ask any more questions, and he turned back to his new abode with a resigned sigh. It didn't take him long to decide that there was no point moving any of his own stuff in before he put the long-abandoned apartment in order, as everything would just get covered with dust.

He rolled up his sleeves and got to work. He found an ancient but functional canister vacuum in the closet, along with a couple packages of bags for it, which greatly assisted in exhuming his apartment from its dusty grave.

Beneath the undisturbed layer of grime, it turned out to be rather nice. The apartment's main living space and kitchen were on the small side, but it included a fairly spacious bedroom and bath, plus a small extra room that looked like the previous tenant had used it as an office.

And, to his surprise, Mrs. Krokomar hadn't been lying about it being free of vermin -- he didn't see so much as a spider, despite the ubiquitous cobwebs layered over everything in the room.

Hours later, he collapsed into the old rolling chair in the office to catch his breath, and mopped his brow with the back of his sleeve. Though it had taken most of the day, he'd managed to get the apartment more or less clean, and most of it seemed to be in working order, apart from a few light bulbs that had to be replaced.

While seated in front of the desk, he casually perused the drawers, finding them empty apart from a ream of blank printer paper. When he opened the top drawer, however, he heard something clatter onto the floor. Frowning, he slid back his chair and bent over to pick it up.

It was a USB flash drive, its gray plastic casing yellowed with age.

"128 MB...?" he mumbled, incredulously, reading the faded label. It really was old. It also had a few brittle strips of Scotch tape clinging to it. Apparently, it had been taped to the underside of the drawer, but time had dried out and weakened the adhesive.

After curiously turning it over in his hand a few times, he pocketed the drive, and then reluctantly rose from his chair. While cleaning, he had found that one of the taps in the kitchen sink wasn't working, and so it seemed like it would be good time to meet Pavel.

He rode down to the basement on the elevator, which despite being of an open design and bearing a faded notice that it had last been inspected at the end of the previous century, seemed to be in good working order.

He could say the same for the condition of the basement. The lights on the lowest floor seemed dim, with some occasionally flickering. From the end of the hall, he thought he faintly heard a sound like rushing water.

Cautiously, he crept down the hallway, passing several unmarked doors that he suspected opened on various utility rooms. At the end of the hall a door labeled "MAINTENANCE" hung slightly open, and the room beyond seemed to be source of the strange sound.

He knocked on the door, and to his surprise it swung inward easily at his touch, revealing the room's occupant.

Inside, seated a desk with a layer of dust almost as thick as the one that had covered his new apartment, sat the hairiest man Cody had ever seen. He had a full beard of curly gray that seemed to almost form a perfect sphere around his head, in combination with his unkempt tangle of curly gray hair. The thin old man wore a gray long-sleeved work shirt with "Pavel" embroidered on the breast, but gray curls poked out from the cuffs, and also adorned the back of his bony hands and his knuckles.

This atypical hirsuteness, however, was not what Cody found most disturbing. The man was staring blankly at an ancient TV set atop his desk...despite the fact that the TV set only displayed static, and made no sound except the white noise he'd mistaken for running water.

Cody swallowed. "Uh...hi. Pavel?"

Pavel gave no response -- not so much as a blink.

"I, um, I have a tap in my kitchen that...that, uh..." Cody began, but trailed off, as he saw a strand of saliva slowly descend from the corner of the old man's slightly open mouth, and stretch out into a long dangling thread of drool.

"You know what, i-it probably just needs a new washer or something. I'll take care of it." he said, hastily, before backing out of the room, and then walking very briskly back to the elevator.

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SamuelVimesTrained t1_j4ka3pd wrote

There is interest.

Sounds like an intro to a nice/fun bookseries or TV series..

More please?

8

LerAleeza t1_j4kw5tr wrote

Where's the rest?! I'm so curious and intrigued

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MrsBongs t1_j4ljhus wrote

All the interests. Please continue🥰

4