6 A Completely Normal Sunday (3)

"Hey man…want some drugs? Just follow me into this dark and not foreboding at all alleyway" whispered a voice from behind Ryker as he was resting for a moment.

"Oh shit, not the cannibal homeless again!" thought Ryker after his legs had already moved, breaking into a run immediately as he headed further south towards the upper scholastic district.

"Fool me once, hah, never fool me again. Who would have guessed that the homeless in this world have a taste for human flesh? I guess it does make some sense though…if you are starving to death then anything is on the table if you are desperate enough, though I would still think it would not be so common though" was the type of thought that passed by his mind as he continued his run.

Eventually reaching his destination, after dodging and weaving all the various dangers and possible dangers that he was not familiar with.

"This building does not look so ba-"

"OH MY GOD THE VOICES, GET THE VOICES OUT OF MY HEAD!!! VILE CREATURE BEGONE FROM THIS MORTAL PLAIN AGGGGHHHH" screamed a voice from the second floor of the three-floor building.

Crash!

A shower of glass rained down above Ryker as he jumped backwards with the full force of his abnormally strong legs and dodged both the shower and the corpse that hit the ground where he was just standing a moment ago.

Panic overtook Ryker completely for the second time since awakening under the baptism of a lightning bolt to the back, causing him to completely go into autopilot.

"Hmm, a body? How odd" said Ryker aloud completely deadpan. "Bleeding from every orifice, no visible breathing and several lacerations most likely from landing on glass..."

Ryker walked up to the corpse and kicked at it with his shoe a few times, no movement or reaction.

"Sir would you wake up, while you are quite good at playing dead I can see you twitching slightly. Unless of course that is just the last of your nerves crying out in despair as the rest of your body shuts down"

The corpse then suddenly stood upright and turned to face Ryker.

"Damn, another non squeamish one…cht, why are so many freaks coming lately" cursed the man as he stood up, brushing the pieces of glass off his shirt and pants.

"A welcome for prospective rent seekers? How courteous of you" said Ryker, his autopilot mode fading fast as his normal rational took over once again.

"Are all the rumors created by this man…no that is too normal. There is most likely some truth to the rumor while also some kind of conspiracy afoot. So long as I adjust my mental state this should be easy" concluded Ryker.

"Well seeing how unfazed you were by my little play I should welcome you to the Murder Castle. The landlord stays in the room on the side, its basically a mini house that takes up half of the entire first floor so it should be hard to miss. I am Emeline Cigrand, but people usually just call me Emile as the name is pretty confusing to say" said Emile as he held out his hand for Ryker to shake.

Noting the glass embedded in the outstretched hand, Ryker declined to shake it and instead pointed towards the area asking

"Does it not hurt?"

"Ah that? Its fiiineee, it won't kill me man don't worry about it. Me and my family have this little genetic flaw where we can't feel pain, allows us to do some pretty silly pranks every now and then. Also helps that we also heal abnormally fast, see?" said Emile as he pulled out the shard of glass out of his hand, allowing Ryker to visibly see the wound heal itself in real time.

"That's…convenient" said Ryker as he finally shook the hand that was outstretched to him.

"Well I wont waste any more of your time new neighbor. Oh yeah, what floor are you staying on? The first or the second?"

"Neither, I am staying on the third"

Emile's eyes widened in shock for a moment, before he let loose a deafening guffaw of laughter that was so violent that spurts of blood erupted all over his body from all the pieces of glass that was still embedded in him.

"Oh sorry mate" said he as he calmed himself down. "Looks like I may have spoke too soon, we will see how long you last up there. Good luck!" said Emile as he turned around and disappeared up the steps that led to the second floor all of a sudden.

"I suppose the part of the haunted house story that is true should be contained in the top floor, how unlucky for me. Well, whatever, bring at me what you will world. I have experienced a lot over these past few days…I am ready…"

Having steeled himself, he walked up to the side of the three-story building and located where the door to the landlords house was. Knocking on it thrice, he waited for a few moments before the door opened.

"Are you the new tenant for the third floor?" said the old man that opened the door, with a hunched back and an impressive white beard.

"Yes sir that is me, Ryker Innocentias. I am here for the final interview"

"Good, good. It is nice to see you here so quick, sometimes the tenants do not show up until the very end of the allotted time which wastes a lot of valuable time. Wasted time is wasted money after all, especially seeing how hard it is for tenants to stay here" explained the old man as he let Ryker in and led him to a small waiting room that was right next to the entryway.

"I created this room a decade or two ago, makes things feel more official. Now, sit down at the table over there so we can get down to business" said the old man as Ryker entered.

The two now sat on a small table face to face, with a small folder to the site of them.

"Hello again Ryker, my name is H.H Holmes and I own this complex: Murder Castle. I built this house myself way back in the day many decades ago with all my long-departed friends, took us quite awhile and was long and hard work but we did it in the end. When I first bought the land my fifth ex wife at the time, Martha, complained so much saying that I had wasted all the money we had saved up over the years buying a useless plot of land in the middle of nowhere. Hahaha, look at how time proved that hussy wrong…" said the old man as he produced a long pipe from under the table and gave it a puff. "So as I was saying, we built this house brick by brick using a revolutionary method at the time called-" droned on the old man, for what seemed like hours, so much so that Ryker had to pinch himself in the thigh several times over so that he did not fall asleep.

"And that is how I met my twelfth wife, right when the big economic boom in this area was ending that was brought in by the government deciding to build The University in the area. Oh look at the time, it seems I got a little too caught up in my story" said the old man with a hearty laugh, not looking apologetic in the least.

"I like you kid, not even complaining about my old man stories that go on and on. I will tell your realtor agency that I accept you as a tenant no questions asked, no need for anything further!" declared the man as he slapped the table with both hands.

"Thank you Mr. Holmes, this place was just what I was looking for" said Ryker full of sincerity.

"Bah, no need for Mr that Mr this. Just call me what everyone does: Old man Holmes"

"All right Old man Holmes, I hope that we have a cordial time in the coming time I will be spending here" said Ryker as his hand was vigorously shook by the kind old man.

Having no more reason to say, Ryker bid the old man goodbye and was led out of the house by him.

"Hmmm, is that blood at the end of Old man Holmes' pants? He is pretty old, I suppose he buys live chickens and prepares them himself" thought Ryker as he walked behind the old man.

Now standing outside the building walking on the street another thought came to Ryker's mind,

"H.H Holmes…Murder Castle…does that not sound a wee bit familiar? Hmm…I cannot seem to pin it to anything in specific…probably nothing important then."