“Fuck me, I'm wrecked!”
“I know, the more I sleep the more tired I am”
“Ha sleep, How can ya sleep with that tap dripping all night”
“I'm used to it by now, I think”
Rob was my flatmate and we have lived together just about long enough for me to figure out that it wasn't that he had grown used to the noise, but rather that he didn't go to bed until he couldn't keep his eyes open any-more. I think we lived here about six months at this stage and I had learned in that time that this guy has issues with sleeping. Don't get me wrong he was a perfectly normal guy, but even when we had class early he could be up most of the night. Joseph on the other hand slept like clockwork. He went to bed early every night and was up first thing everyday, he would leave for work right away and would head back to his room as soon as he got home. I would like to say that he looked fresh too but he never did. In fact maybe he did have trouble sleeping, but he never left his room once he went to bed.
Joseph lived here before us, I think he was there about a year or so before we moved in. Apparently he lived with his girlfriend, they even had a kid together, which is a surprise because Joseph is quiet young. From what I could tell she must have run off with the child, Joseph never really liked to talk about it, so Rob and I didn't bother him. He came across as a relatively normal guy too, very quiet and kept himself to himself, but that's to be expected after what he had been through. He had posted an add in our college looking for two flatmates to move in ASAP, He must have found it hard paying the rent after she had left. Rob and I were in the same course in college, he lived pretty close to Waterford so he could potentially bus it to college, but that was a hassle. I on the other hand lived in Dublin which was much to far away and so I needed to get a flat. Nobody wants to move in with strangers on their own, it's awkward and you might end up spending an entire semester pretending to like someone that makes you feel like you'd rather have your dick cut off (my last room-mate and I didn't really see eye to eye). Luckily Rob decided to save on bus fair and take on rent and bills instead.
The flat was nice enough, especially for what we were paying. Normally when you move into a flat with someone who has been there for a while you expect them to have taken over the place a little, like I mean their books on the shelves, their DVD's, even their clothes lying around. But no, this place seemed to be more or less untouched. It was like moving into a new flat by ourselves. Joseph said he was happy to live from his bedroom and leave the place to us to do as we pleased. This was the perfect deal, it was like we had a phantom flatmate who stayed out of our way but still split the bills. In fact it was almost perfect, other then the fact the washing machine was next to impossible to figure out and the burnt to a crisp hideous oven tray that would cause black smoke to pour through the apartment. It wasn't even the smoke that bothered us, it was the fucking smell it gave off. Enough to turn you off your food, but not enough to actually make us go out and buy a new one (college life eh?). We called it “The Syphilis Tray” because of the disgusting clumps of burnt... eh something, all over it.
For the first couple of weeks things were fine, we barely ever saw Joseph at all unless he had come out of his room to quickly grab a glass of water, he drank a lot of water. This was the only odd thing about his routine. He would leave his room, lock his door, dash to the kitchen, get a glass of water, dash back, unlock his door again and then go back inside, he would also nearly always be on the phone when he did this and it wasn't until later that I realised I never heard him once speak to the person on the other end, he was always just listening. That was the other thing, Rob and I quickly agreed that the water in Waterford City was disgusting, Even in Dublin it was nicer and it was certainly nicer to drink in the back-arse of nowhere where Rob was from. We stopped drinking it all together and started buying bottled water, we would even make tea with the bottled stuff. In fact it got to a point where we would never even turn the tap on.
But then it started dripping, constantly, fucking drip, drop, drip, drop all day. All night. It was driving me nuts, I hadn't slept properly in weeks. I wasn't sure who to go to about it as we were still relatively new in the building, do I decided to complain to Joseph. He told me he would make a call. It wasn't long before it came apparent that Joseph wasn't all that bothered by the dripping, not enough to make that call anyway. So in true student fashion the dripping was ignored, well as much as someone could ignore it, it was tormenting.
Between that and the neighbours fucking each others genitals off in the room next to mine every single night since we moved in, it became hard to get any sleep at all. I was turning into a drone, and was getting most of my sleep on the couch when I hadn't got class. One day Rob woke me up with his relentless banging of cupboard doors.
“Have you seen the cheese grater man?”
“No... Fuck off!”
“What's up with you? Still not sleeping no?”
“No the fucking tap and the fucking!”
“The fucking what?”
“The fucking! The literal fucking next door! That guys dick must be glowing!”
“I never hear them, I do hear Joseph though”
Rob slept next to Joseph so was more likely to hear anything going on in his room. I sat up intrigued. I never heard Joseph at night, in fact I never heard a beep from his room in general.
“Crying man... Crying, I feel so awkward, just lying there listening to it”
Well that makes sense I suppose, he showed little emotion if any out in the real world, so he must let his feelings out at night. I felt so sorry for him, it must be impossible to go through what he is right now, and to live with two strangers at the same time?... not easy.
That was of course until one night I was disturbed by Rob pounding on my door telling me to get out here quick. I regretted opening my door immediately, Joseph looked in shock and the sound from Joseph's room became clear to me. He was screaming, it sounded like he was in hysterics.
“Fucking cunt!”
“That Fucking Whore!!”
It was awful. What the fuck were we meant to do, knock and see if he was ok? Run? I had no idea. We stood listening to him for about 20 minutes, just screaming. Eventually I grabbed my headphones and we went back to bed. But it chilled me.
For the next few days everything was normal enough. I went down to pay the rent (late as usual), Luckily the landlord seemed more worried about the fact she had just been up in our neighbours apartment. It looked like he had left, all his stuff was gone and she was ranting about how he had 4 months months rent overdue. Good news I thought, I might get some sleep now. We simply ignored what we had heard in Joseph's room. We were having a party that Friday so we didn't want to cause any friction with Joseph. But even worse we really hoped he wouldn't go loopy again on Friday, that would be hard to explain to guests. We decided to put it behind us and get as drunk as our bodies would allow.
I remember having a great time and getting drunker and drunker until any memories I have left have been muddled around, blurred or just forgotten. But I remember one thing clearly. When I decided to fall to bed at all hours of the morning, there was someone in my bed. I couldn't figure out who exactly it was but it was definitely a woman, she was petite attractive brunette. It was dark and there had been so many people here earlier I couldn't keep track. I assumed it was one of Rob's friends and let's face it I wasn't about to kick a good looking woman out of bed. I figured she had a little too much to drink and fell into my bed, no big deal. I jumped into bed next to her to get my first bit of decent sleep in three days.
That wasn't necessarily the bit I remember though. I particularly recall the part when I woke up with her poking her tongue in my ear. At least I think I woke up, it's hazy. Before I knew it this girl was on top of me fucking me like nothing I ever felt before, It was like I was paralysed. I couldn't move while she gave me the most intense, wild and mind blowing fuck imaginable. I can still see her eyes, so passionate, so powerful but more extraordinary they were so violent. It was incredible.
The next morning she was gone. Not a trace, I tried to brag to Rob but he wouldn't believe a word, he said he knew no one of that description and that their certainly wasn't anyone at the party like that. I decided I didn't care, after sex like that nothing mattered anyway.
“Fuck you!... you FUCKING!”
I jumped out of my skin, it was Joseph. He was going crazy, his eyes were on fire. He was swinging a knife at me while still holding that fucking phone to his ear. He was psychotic.
“You will fucking die tonight!”
“I will cut your mother-fucking throat out!”
Me and Rob started screaming, we tried to calm him down but he was unstoppable. He swung the knife at me and it caught me in the arm. I shrieked in pain. Rob picked up a chair and through it at his head. The next thing I knew me and Rob were running up the apartment block staircase. It was all so blurry, but I could hear Joseph's deranged threats echoing down the hallway after us. When I looked back down the stairs there he was, his eyes burning up at me, knife in hand and that phone still to his fucking ear and the side of his head soaked in blood from the damage the chair did.
“Don't go up there kids, You'll never get her out of your head!”
Joseph menaced, as he looked up at us with this evil grin across his lips. I shuddered inside but kept moving, my heart was pounding as we reached the top of the stairs. The door to the roof was locked but Rob quickly managed to kick it open. It was only when we got out there in the cold air that we realised we were fucked.
“There is no way down from here man”
“I know, what the... what the fuck is going on!”
We were stuck on the roof and we could hear the that lunatic making his way up the stairs, he was laughing, fucking laughing at us. We could see his demonic silhouette as he reached the roof's door. We looked around the roof for anything, a weapon, an escape route, anything. Then he stopped laughing, he stopped looking at us and instead stared at the water tank that stored the buildings water supply. I couldn't move and from what I could tell either could Rob. Joseph looked vacant. He started slowly walking towards the water tank. I couldn't take my eyes of him. When he reached the tank just stood there for a minute before he dropped the knife and his phone. I could see a tear on his cheek, he was crying. Everything seemed to be in slow motion as he lifted the big plastic cover over the tank. He stared into it, and for a moment I couldn't breath.
“Goodbye... I forgive you, I love you”
He slowly covered the lid over the tank and turned to us again. He looked right at me, and his eyes cut into me like nothing I have ever felt.
“She is your problem now”
He said with that horrible grin. I tried to reply but didn't get the chance, he began running for the edge of the roof. We screamed to try and stop him but before we knew it he was flying over the edge. It seemed like forever but it must have been seconds later when we heard the cold brutal sound of flesh on concrete, 7 floors below. He was dead.
Rob and I couldn't speak for several minutes but when we did Rob's voice was like a ghost's, he was shaking. I was the same. We cautiously made our way over to the side of the building, where below we could see Joseph's body. He looked like a marionette who had just had it's strings cut. I looked away, it was too much to handle.
We looked at each other, I knew what he was thinking, I was thinking the same but that doesn't mean it was a good idea.
“What the fuck is in the tank?”
We approached it cautiously, we had to know. Rob nominated himself to lift the lid and I was first to look in. As I looked into the blackened water tank it took a second for my eyes to adjust, in some ways I wish they hadn't adjusted. It became clear what was inside. It was a young woman
She was a petite brunette.
It was her, the girl from that night I was certain. I'll never forget those eyes, they were still open and still violent looking. Rob looked in at her too, I don't know if it was the shock, or a brief lapse of reality but all he could say was “We drank that water.... Oh god... He drank that water”.
Looking back that night on the roof seems so surreal, but to this day I feel her next to me at night, lying there beside me, wanting me. I still can't sleep. I guess she is my problem now.
It was about three weeks later, and the police had been questioning us relentlessly, they never believed our story, and have told us to stay in the country while they continue the investigation, they took everything we owned in that flat, in fact they took everything in the flat full stop. It could be evidence of what really happened or it could be evidence to use against us. In those few weeks we managed to piece together most of the story for ourselves (the real story), which got stranger the more we found out. It seemed Joseph and his partner had moved in over a year ago and were quiet happy together, until they had a child. She suffered strongly from postnatal depression, and began acting out of character. Joseph even suspected her of cheating. One night he came home from work early and could hear her going at it with neighbour in the room next to theirs. Apparently he lost the plot all together and kicked down his door and butchered him before tying his partner up, carrying her up to roof and drowning her in the water tank. Leaving a two month year old baby crying in it's cot downstairs.
His partner was identified as Ms. Linda Biggs aged 21.
The police told us that his phone was replaying a voice message over and over again, it a a message he left to himself telling him to calm down and that everything would be fine. They said his voice was quivering as he repeatedly mumbled the words, calm down, calm down, they will never know, no one needs to know.
No one had lived next door to us, it was only later I realised that I had never seen them. I only heard them, or at least believed I heard them. No one had lived there since the night Joseph heard them. I don't know if I was hearing things or what, but all I can remember is that it drove me crazy too.
Detective Brennan told me after an interview with him that when he visited Joseph's workplace they said he had been acting crazy for weeks, that he had been heard mumbling about how his old life is gone and it was time for his new world.
A few days ago Rob came to visit me in Dublin. I had returned home to my parents as soon as the police were done with me, the thought of staying in Waterford chilled me. I knew from the moment I opened the door to him it was bad. He was white, it reminded me of the night on the roof.
“Come in, you ok?”
“I was down with the police again this morning”
He came in and sat down, I began to make him a cup tea. He looked frightened and disgusted at the same time. It scared me. He didn't speak for a while, I gave him his tea and sat down. He looked at me in a way that suggested he either couldn't get the words out, or just didn't want to tell me what he was about to tell me.
“Man it's, I don't know, it's just bad”
“Come on man, after everything, I don't think I'll be too shocked”
He hesitated for a second. I could see tears forming in his eyes.
“Do you remember the tray?”
“The syphilis tray” I laughed.
Then it hit me like a ton of bricks. I don't know how I knew what he was about to say but I did. My body froze and my heart thumped as he looked at me once more and uttered the words that would haunt me forever.
“He cooked the baby...”
No comments:
Post a Comment