Page 27 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper - April 2024
P. 27
Our Haunted Apartment in Montreal 27
Our Haunted Apartment
in Montreal
Continued from Page 26
He staggered to the sink and ran cold
water over his bruised hands, spitting
blood into the swirling stream. At that
moment, with winter closing in,
everything about our lives seemed to be
on a highway to Hell. Looking around the
apartment, with its bloody counters and
funhouse mirrors, all I wanted was to get
out.
After a quick house meeting, we decided
to rid ourselves of the apartment as soon
as possible. The fastest way would be to
sublet it. Selfishly, and out of a sense of
desperation, we agreed we wouldn’t
mention anything about the haunting to
prospective renters.
leaseholder. ink.
On a spring day a tall, bespectacled guy,
gregarious and a bit strange himself, In the days that followed, Andrew and I Shocked, I spun around and shut off the
came to see the place. Kurt was in his celebrated with beers and started packing motor. By the time I looked back at the
early 30s, and had just moved to our things, thrilled that it was time to get tub, no more than two seconds later, the
Montreal from Washington D.C. the fuck out of Dodge. But the apartment water had turned to a deep, murky black.
wasn’t quite finished with us yet.
We made small talk as we toured the This was too much. Swearing in
apartment, him frowning, me silently I was alone in the apartment on the day disbelief, I reached into the dark pool and
praying he would take the place. He stood before Kurt moved in. Andrew and I had yanked the plug. The black water ran out
in the living room with his hands on his already moved most of our stuff out, steadily, leaving a light trail of what
hips. “It’s really small, and too expensive leaving just a few last boxes. As I appeared to be ash in the bottom of the
for the size,” he said, concluding that scrubbed the counters and swept the tub. I touched the black substance,
he’d pass on it. We shook hands and said floors in a final cleanup, I called a taxi to rubbed it between my fingers. It could
goodbye. come pick me up. have been residue from the pipes, and
probably was. But why had the tub
But two days later, Kurt called back. “Is As I passed the bathroom, I paused for a suddenly expunged the filth in that
the place still available?” he asked, second, interrupted by a thought: When precise moment? After dozens of times
sounding rushed. I said it was and he said would I ever have access to a hot tub using the tub over the past eight
he’d be over straight away. again? Probably never, I figured. On a months—the jets running without a
whim, I canceled the taxi and decided to problem every time—why then?
When he arrived, his mind was already have one last soak before leaving the
made up. “I definitely want it,” he said, as place forever. I didn’t ponder the question. I already
we chilled on the couch, me rolling a knew the answer. This was a final fuck
joint. I was quietly ecstatic as he raved I filled the tub with warm water and you from whatever energy was trapped in
about the place. “It’s just so cool, that hot stripped down. I turned to the control that place, its way of saying You don’t
tub. And such a great location!” panel on the wall to start the jets of the like it here? Good riddance. I hastily got
tub, which we’d used dozens of times dressed, called the cab company, and
Just as I had, he’d dismissed the place at during our months there, and switched stood by the front door, my back to the
first; slowly we’d changed our minds, as them on. The motor, like a heart deep in apartment, anxious to leave the
if succumbing to some seductive power. I the floor of the bathroom, started nightmare behind for good.
said nothing to discourage his enthusiasm rumbling.
as we got stoned. I reached out to Andrew and Anna to hear
As I turned around and looked at the what they remembered about the
Kurt and I visited the landlady—a water, instead of bubbles rising from the apartment. Twenty years hadn’t dimmed
woman whose last name, coincidentally, tiny holes inside of the tub, black liquid the intensity of our memories at all,
is the French word for ‘cockroach’. suddenly burst from every one of them. though we did remember some things
Together we agreed Kurt would sublet Thick, streaming tendrils as black as the differently.
the place until the end of our lease, at cracked eyes of the girl from my
which point he would become the new nightmare quickly clouded the water like (Continued on Page 28)
