The Nightmare Game Read Online Free PDF Page B

You startled me!”
    “Sorry,” he said, obviously not sorry.
    “Oh, yes, now I see. Ashley Adams, you were to be
co-renters,” she seemed regretful that he had found her mistake. “I must have
overlooked your name. Sad to say that my eyes, along with my memory are not
what they once were.”
    Yeah, right, I thought,
try that on some sucker who believes you. “Can I have the key now?”
creaked out of my dry, tight throat. I was starting to lose my voice and I
needed a drink of water. I ran my fingers through my hair and it was nearly
soaked.
    “Of course, just sign here,” she motioned, “and
here.”
    Not trusting Rochere at all now, I tried to take a
minute to read the lease agreement but my head was starting to swim again and
my focus was poor. For all I knew, I could have been stupidly signing my life
savings over to her in the fine legalese print at the bottom of the page, but
to be honest, I was feeling so horrible that the only thing of which I made
certain was that I was not signing over my soul. Weak and shaky, I signed the
document.
    “The key now.”
    “You’ll need to leave a key deposit.”
    I felt like slapping her. “Lady, you already have
my key deposit. You can check it. The whole damn trip is pre-paid and you have
a full security deposit. Just give me the key. Now.”
    “Very well,” she said resentfully, opening a
drawer and pulling out a key ring with two keys on it. “Here we are. The larger
key opens the front gate. The smaller key is for the front door. Please keep
these doors locked always, and if you should decide to lose these keys, try not
to do so except during office hours, as you’ll have no way at other times to
receive a replacement. If you should lose them, it will come out of your
deposit.”
    “Fine, no problem.” I answered edgily.
    She handed me the key ring and continued, “We do
provide a maid service. We have a woman who comes in once a day in the
afternoon and tidies up except for Sundays. Sunday is her day off. The
apartment which you have rented and the courtyard are yours to enjoy; however,
do not attempt to stray into the rest of the house. It is locked with a
different set of keys and,” at this point her gaze pierced into me, “there will
be dire consequences should you ignore this and attempt in any way to gain
entrance.” She laughed a small, hollow, emotionless laugh. “Legal consequences,
of course.”
    “Of course!” I said, straining to keep my
composure. I was feeling worse by the minute and I wasn’t taking kindly to her
threats. “What other kind is there? I mean, what are you going do? Send a
couple of thugs after me to break both my legs?”
    I knew my feeble attempt at sarcasm had failed
when she looked at me with dead cold eyes and said, dryly and deliberately,
“Oh, my dear, you would be quite surprised at what I would be willing to do,”
and then smiled, a cold, heartless smile that made me realize once and for all
that the discomfort she had caused me had not only been deliberate, but that it
had given her an enormous amount of pleasure. The immediate, irrational hatred
I felt upon first meeting her was beginning to make sense now. “The security
deposit you and Miss Shea sent in will be refunded to you by mail to the
address you have on file with me after it is ascertained that you have done no
damage to the apartment.”
    “I should think so,” I said in as nasty a tone of
voice as I could muster.
    “Goodbye, Miss Adams.”
    “Yeah,” I answered back, stuffing my copy of the
rental agreement into my purse and rising, with some difficulty, out of my
chair. More than ever I regretted that I wasn’t staying in a hotel. I made up
my mind then that, after resting a bit, I would call around and see if I could
get a room elsewhere on such short notice.
***
    My hero took my carry-on satchel and suitcase and
we walked out of the building together. Once we got out onto the street and
into the fresh air, I began to feel a little better,