Chapter Text
"Are you sure there isn't anything suspicious about this place? The rent seems rather low for such a nice apartment complex," Nilou questioned as she reviewed the documents on Kaveh's computer.
"Yes, I've checked everything that needs to be checked, and it's 100% legit. There's no need to worry!" Kaveh assured her as he closed the tabs and shoved his computer into his suitcase. Nilou furrowed her brows in worry as the blond struggled to zip up his suitcase.
"Kaveh, I hope you know that I have no problem with you staying here as long as you need," she said as she held down the top of the suitcase, allowing Kaveh to finally close it.
"No, no, no," he sighed as he put the suitcase on the ground, "You've been so much of a help to me these past few months and I don't want to bother you any longer."
"You're not a bother, though. Any good friend would help you in your situation, and I know you'd do the same for me if I was in your shoes."
"I definitely would, but that doesn't mean I don't feel guilty every time I see your bills, knowing that I contributed to a significant portion of it and can't help you pay."
"Kaveh, we both know I'm not struggling for money, so you don't-" Nilou was cut off by Kaveh placing his hands on her shoulders, smiling down at her.
"Hey, I know what you're going to say, but I've made up my mind."
"I know," she sighed, "I just don't want to see you running yourself dry knowing that I could be helping."
"You've already helped me so much, Nilou, and I promise you, once I’ve bounced back, I'll pay you back for everything." Nilou raised an eyebrow, a gentle smile making its way onto her face.
"Normally I'd try to convince you that such a repayment is unnecessary, but by this point, I’ve learned that you're too stubborn to listen." Kaveh threw his head back and laughed, earning a small giggle from the redhead. Once he regained his composure, Kaveh look down at Nilou and gave her one final smile.
"Thank you for everything, Nilou. I'll forever be in your debt."
She nodded, wrapping her arms around the taller man. "I'm always here if you need me. Just give me a call."
"I will." Kaveh squeezed his best friend one final time before picking up his suitcase and exiting the house.
"Hello, sir! Are you moving in or visiting?" The lady at the front desk greeted Kaveh with a bright, but fake and practiced smile.
"Moving in," he gestured to his two suitcases and backpack. "I filled out most of the paperwork online. 219 is the number, I believe?" Kaveh pushed the printed-out documents and identification toward the receptionist. The lady's smile faded.
"219, you said?" She said, trying to put her smile back in place as she scanned over the papers.
"That's correct," Kaveh nodded his head slowly, suspicion lacing his voice. The lady eyed him up and down before typing some things into her computer. After a few moments, she reached under the desk and began moving a few things around. She soon reappeared with an aged skeleton key in hand.
"Alright then, sir, here's your key." The lady said as she handed the key over to him.
"This looks rather old," he commented as he turned the key around in his palm, examining it.
"Well, yes, that key is over 2 centuries old," the lady said as she continued to stare oddly at him.
"Why so old? I thought this place had key cards?"
"All the other apartments do, sir, but not yours."
"Why's that?" Suddenly Kaveh was beginning to wonder if he should've taken Nilou's concerns more seriously.
The lady opened her mouth as if she was going to answer his question, before thinking better of it and settling for another answer. "Your apartment simply wasn't compatible with the technology." Although she answered his question very calmly, Kaveh's intuition told her she was lying. But what reason could she have to lie?
"Alright. Thank you, ma'am," he nodded, putting the rusted key into his back pocket.
"Your apartment is on the second floor at the end of the hallway on the left," the receptionist yelled to Kaveh as he made his way onto the elevator. Normally, Kaveh would say his thanks, but his silent questions about the receptionist's reactions left his mind preoccupied.
The elevator sounded as it opened up to the second floor. As he stepped out, another man with white hair entered in, pressing the button for the ground level. He seemed to be too preoccupied staring at his phone to notice Kaveh, a smile on his face as he stared at what looked like a messaging app. Kaveh could hear the elevator doors close behind him as he moved farther down the carpeted hallway.
"213...215...217...Ah! 219!" As Kaveh stopped to pull out the key from his pocket, the door behind him, 220, opened as a man with tall ears stepped out while looking down at his phone. Once he saw Kaveh's suitcases, he raised his head to meet his eyes.
"Oh, hello! Are you just moving in?" The man turned off his phone and put it in his back pocket.
"Yes, I am. My name is Kaveh." He stuck out his hand and the other man firmly shook it.
"I'm Tighnari. Do you need help finding your apartment?"
"Oh, no thanks, this is my apartment," Kaveh replied cheerfully, gesturing to the door of 219. Tighnari's ears stuck up at his comment, worry etching its way onto his face.
"A-are you sure?"
"Yes, I am completely certain! Why does everybody keep reacting like that?" Tighnari awkwardly scratched behind his ears, almost averting Kaveh's gaze.
"Well...it's because that apartment is said to be haunted."
Kaveh's face fell from worry to mild disappointment. "You cannot be serious."
"I know, I know it's stupid, I didn’t believe it either when I first moved in. But, ever since I arrived, everyone who has ever tried to stay in that apartment has barely lasted a week. This one guy, I think his name was Mika, lasted the longest, but he still only managed 17 days. I think that's cause for some suspicion."
"Hah!" Kaveh scoffed, "They were undoubtedly just paranoid. I guarantee you, nothing is behind those doors." Tighnari shrugged, seemingly having been through this conversation a multitude of times in the past.
"If you say so, but don't say I didn't warn you. In the event you ever need anything, though, just knock. Good luck, Kaveh." He pulled out his phone once more and began walking towards the elevators. Kaveh rolled his eyes as he stuck the key into the keyhole, turning the door handle.
Despite his dedication to making the apartment habitable, Kaveh was unable to deny the chill that seemed to flow down his shirt when he opened the door for the first time.
"Haunted? Pfft, yeah right.” Was all he could say to keep himself from turning away and walking out of the complex right there and then.
He doubted anyone would blame him.
The first thing Kaveh noticed when he walked into his apartment was how chilly it was. The second thing he noticed was how significantly older everything behind the door looked compared to everything outside of the door. The third and final thing he noticed was the multitude of objects that decorated the entranceway and living space, each seemingly from a different generation. Kaveh rolled his suitcases over the wooden floors and into the living space, closing the door behind him with his foot.
Stopping his suitcases at the edge of the couch, Kaveh ran his finger over the furniture’s material, which picked up nothing but dust. He raised his head to look at the ceiling, seeing the scattered remains of aged cobwebs in the corners. He could tell that the ceiling once had a beautiful floral pattern decorating it, but now it was worn and barely noticeable. The same could be said for the walls, which too had an undoubtedly just as breathtaking design at one point.
"So unkempt just because of a superstition," Kaveh mumbled distastefully as he began walking toward another door. Inside was a rather modern bathroom, probably built in the early 2000s, though still decorated with cobwebs. "Well, at least one thing here isn't decades old. Whatever plumber they hired must've had balls of steel," he chuckled to himself as he closed the door and turned around to another one. Behind the door was a worn-out bed with bedsheets that clearly hadn't been washed since the last renter. Other than that, the bedroom only had a small closet, a nightstand with a single drawer, and a floor lamp next to a small window.
Kaveh wandered around the apartment a bit more, but only found a dead rat in the coat closet, someone's missing sock, and a few plates in a cabinet above the stove. Once done with his exploration, Kaveh returned to his suitcases and pulled out his notebook, jotting down a to-do list that had his top priorities for his new move.
- Wash bedsheets
- Buy basic utensils
- Buy an AC/Heating unit!!
- Buy cleaning supplies
Kaveh closed the notebook as he reached into his suitcase and pulled out a box of crackers. He made his way over to the kitchen table and stared out the window at the bustling city below him as he chewed on the first food he had all day.
"Well, for all the faults this place has, at least the view is pretty damn good." He paused for a moment before chuckling to himself as he threw another cracker into his mouth. "Good thing one of those 'faults' isn't a ghost, lest I have to deal with a roommate after I finally have my own place."
"I have some bad news for you then." The sudden voice caught Kaveh by surprise and he began choking on his cracker. He quickly downed a significant portion of his water bottle before looking around to see where the voice came from. It wasn't long before he laid eyes on a man sitting with his arms crossed on the couch, staring at Kaveh with a face that gave none of his emotions away. If it wasn't for the slight transparency of him, Kaveh would've guessed he was any other ordinary man. "So, you're the new renter?" The man raised an eyebrow as Kaveh continued to stare at him, baffled by his mere existence. "What, never seen a ghost before?"
After a few tries, Kaveh finally managed to stutter out a response. "N-no not really. To be honest, I thought everyone who spoke of you was just...paranoid."
"That's what they all think, then they're gone in less than half a month. The longest guy lasted 17 days. A shame honestly, I liked him, mostly because he was quiet." The man eyed Kaveh up and down. "Though, you seem like you might beat him. I'll give you 22 days, tops."
"W-what?!" Kaveh stuttered out, annoyance beginning to take the place of bafflement.
"Alright then, 23, but even that's being a bit generous for someone like you."
"Huh?! Someone like me?! What the hell does that mean, you don’t even know me!" Kaveh stood up and marched over to the ghostly figure, standing in front of him and putting his hands on his hips.
"Exactly, and yet I've been through this routine so many times that I know who's going to last the week and who's going to walk out of here by dawn."
"Hah!" Kaveh laughed, the sound laced with dry amusement. "Well, then you obviously haven't perfected the art of guessing. As I said before, you don't know me, so it's utterly impossible to judge someone before knowing their character."
"And you've only just met me, yet you're making the assumption that I lack guessing abilities. You're under the impression that I'm taking a shot in the dark based on experience, but I'm not. In fact, I am doing quite the opposite. I don't need to guess, I only need to think. Everything is connected, and all I have to do is find the main attribute of a person, calculate any possible radicals of their personality, and everything else about the person in question falls into place. That is how I know that you won't last a month in here."
"Y-you-" Kaveh inhaled deeply and closed his eyes, trying to generate some sort of maturity in the face of this brute. "Listen, we can agree to disagree, but I don't want us to get off on the wrong foot. If I'm going to live here with you, I want us to have some sort of decency." The man raised an eyebrow, not responding to Kaveh's request. "Which means," Kaveh hissed, "we should restart our introductions with proper formalities."
"Okay." The man shrugged indifferently, yet somehow his calmness only managed to stoke the fire in Kaveh more. Inhaling and exhaling one more time, Kaveh stuck out his hand.
"My name is Kaveh, and I'm an architect who attended the Akademiya and studied under the Kshahrewar branch. I hope that my stay here will go smoothly and not impact your day-to-day life." Kaveh looked down at the man, who had only continued to stare at Kaveh's hand. He then raised his own, and though it looked like he was going to shake it, his hand instead passed straight through Kaveh's. Though the strange sensation sent mixed signals to his brain, Kaveh gathered the meaning of the action and lowered his hand, mumbling an apology.
"Alhaitham."
"What?"
"My name is Alhaitham."
"Okay...but it’s also tradition to say a few things about yourself, or do you really think that your life is so unimportant?" Kaveh's eyes narrowed down at Alhaitham, who continued to remain as impassive as when he first appeared.
"No, I just don't think there's anything to tell. I'm dead, and have been for quite some time, so what care should you have for something that's no longer relevant?"
"Why you-" Kaveh was cut off by Alhaitham raising his hand.
"Someone's about to knock on the door, so if you don't want to seem delusional, I'd suggest you stop talking."
"Wait what? How do you know? And why would I seem-" Before Alhaitham could respond, a knock sounded from the other side of the door, causing Kaveh to jolt and turn his head away from the couch. When he looked back at the couch, however, Alhaitham had disappeared.
"Anti-social bastard," Kaveh mumbled as he made his way to the door, smoothing out his hair before opening it.