Chapter Thirty-six - Show them the terror of the new landlord!

Maria held her own arms trying to ward off feelings of guilt and self-contempt, to no avail. She was standing in the kitchen of the house, in front of her was a plate of homemade cookies, delicious looking, but she dared not take any of them, her stomach can't take anything.

'It will happen again...' She thought, 'Another family will come to this place, find the house wonderful and move here, they will be ready to start their lives, to be happy! Until... Until...' A tear ran down her face, she cleaned up quickly, using her small mirror to fix her makeup.

Maria worked as a real estate broker for six years, she started when her husband suffered an accident, with her husband unable to perform his former work the situation at home became difficult, Maria had three preteen daughters and they needed to maintain the house.

A friend of Maria's offered her this opportunity, Maria took the courses and go the entire legal process and got into this business head on.

When she started to work, Maria was full of fear, she had invested a part of the emergency fund in this bet and she feared that she would not have the expected return, to her surprise, her kind and maternal nature, allied with her honesty, seemed to have a magical effect on buyers, people thought she was trustworthy, and she managed to grow up in the business, raising enough to keep her family up during her husband's recovery.

For Maria it was a tremendous joy, even with her husband back to work she found something she loved doing and that she had talent, she gave herself to this new job and can feel fulfilled, she was especially proud to always find 'the right house for the right family', for four years Maria had no problem, she was doing so well that ala opened her own brokerage.

Until the arrival of the Morgan house.

The Morgan house was wonderful, a beautiful, modern, large and spacious cottage, it was located in a nice neighborhood, a gated community about forty minutes from the city center, it had its own pool and it was surrounded by a beautiful lake on one side, as well as being close of a protected forest area, being the last house, and the most distant, among the houses of that condominium, it was the perfect home for those who wanted to get away from the problems of the city without being completely far.

The house was for sale with all the furniture included, state-of-the-art appliances and everything, the price of the house was also stupidly low, and the commission for the seller was equivalent to half the value of the house, paid directly by the company that owns the house.

But what was supposed to be the dream home for any family was actually a nightmare, all because of those damn rules.

Maria sighed, she took a paper out of her pocket, the sight of it turned her stomach, for the thousandth time she read the contents, with shaking hands.

- Welcome to our marvelous lake house! I'm sure you and your family will be very happy here! But, to avoid any problems with the other residents, there are some rules that must be followed in this house:

1. Under no circumstances can you go down to the basement after 10pm.

2. If you hear the sound of children's voices coming from the attic, leave the house and wait outside for an hour, after an hour you can return, all windows in the house will be closed, except one, you need to find that window and close it.

3. If you wake up at night and have something watching you from the foot of the bed, under no circumstances get up or make a noise, close your eyes tight and pretend to be asleep, he will approach you and smell you, but do not open your eyes, keep your eyes closed until he leaves, do not worry about your children, he does not enter the nursery.

4. Every sixth day of the sixth month you should leave exactly one pound of raw meat, no matter what type, on a plate on the kitchen table. If in the next day the meat has disappeared you don't have to worry, if it is still there, take everything you can and leave the house before the next night, you will need to stay out of the house for at least 3 days, after three days you can come back without any problems.

5. If you hear knocking on the door after 3 am, go down to the entrance and go to the door, before opening ask who it is, if there is no answer turn on all the lights in the house, if the answer is a male voice, open the door and let him in, he will ask for food or water, you can offer anything in the fridge, he will eat and then go away. If the voice is feminine, say that her children are not there, she must leave, if she continues, open the door and run to the corner of the room, position yourself in the corner and do not look in her direction, she will come in and look for a while, don't look at her, don't take your eyes off the corner, not until you hear the door close again.

6. If you have children and they talk about the children in the forest calling them to play you will have to be quick, take everything that is sweet in your house and take it to the entrance to the forest, leave everything on top of the huge stone near the entrance and kneel down, say that it is an offer in favor of your children, if you hear children's laughter coming from the forest close your eyes and wait until they are gone, when you open the sweets they must be gone, if the sounds of the children in the forest are angry, run back home and try to get more sweets as soon as possible, repeat the process until sucess. Do not try to take your children elsewhere or run away from the house, or they will end up like the children in the forest.

7. If the bathroom sink starts to drain red liquid, get out of the bathroom as soon as possible, block the door with whatever you can, when the screaming stops you can open the door again.

8. On nights with a full moon you must confirm that all entrances are closed, the grate in the fireplace exists especially for this. No matter what you hear at dawn, don't open the doors.

9. If a package wrapped in red fabric is on your door in the morning, you should bring it to the attic without opening it, put the boxes together in the attic and forget about it, DO NOT OPEN THE PACKAGE!

10. You should not tell anyone about these rules, the more people you know, the more difficult it will be for you.

And is that all, my dear new resident! You can live very well here if you follow these rules, in fact, your life here will be wonderful! No diseases! No problems! And all your business will be wonderful! But don't try to run away from the house! The other tenantes hates those who try to escape! -

Maria crumpled the paper and threw it in the trash, she hated it all, hated that house with all her strength, and hated herself for continuing to have to see families moving to that location, only to find a new paper containing rules, almost always the sames, sometimes with a different rule or two.

In the two years that she worked with this house, six families had already moved there, none of which lasted more than three months.

Some fled the house, contradicting the rules, only to die in a series of accidents. Other families disappeared completely, others went completely crazy...

Two years ago, Maria had just sold another house, a beautiful bungalow for a family with a beautiful pair of twin babies, two blond children who looked like little angels. Maria had returned to her own home when she received a express with the Morgan home file.

The Morgans were a lovely elderly couple who lived all their lives in this lovely cottage facing the lake, they had neither children nor family, when both died of old age the house was acquired by a bak and selled for a company, the company modernized the place, making the already beautiful house in an idyllic location, adding the pool and other improvements, such as bathtubs and even a jaccuzi, a top-notch kitchen and even solar panels to reduce energy costs. That same company stipulated a lower than expected price for the house in question and a huge commission for the seller, paid directly by the company. They choosing Maria's newly opened company to deal with buyers, and Maria was overjoyed, it was everything she needed in her newly oppened business!

It didn't take long for a family to acquire the house, they could hardly believe everything that house had and such a lower price! They thought they had won the lottery! But a few months later things started to get weird.

The family started to report strange occurrences, noises coming from empty rooms at night and strange marks on the windows, until one day they found the paper with the rules in the middle of the drawers. Soon after, things went to hell.

This was repeated with all the other families.

Maria hated this place, hated it with all her heart, hated that damn company that had chosen her to sell this place, whenever a new family came to see this place she wished they didn't buy inside, she wished they would choose another one place, that they leave and never return to this hellish trap.

But her face was cheerful and she presented all the advantages of the house with a smile on her face, Maria did everything to sell the house. Why?

It turns out that Maria got her own set of rules.

They showed up at her table at home, shortly after she sold the house for the first time, a small old-looking handwritten letter with a handwriting reminiscent of that of a child, for a moment she almost questioned her girls, but she knew her daughter's handwriting and knew it wasn't them.

The letter was short, beginning with a strange thanks for selling the house, followed by three rules, although the last one seemed more like a warning;

- Thank you for bringing new blood to the lake house! We are very grateful to you for that! However, there are some rules that you will need to follow as you get involved with this house!

1. You cannot tell anyone, under any circumstances, what will happen to the new inhabitants of the Morgan house.

2. If the new inhabitants 'leave' the house, it is your duty to continue with all new sale process! And we hope you do your best!

3. If you try to get rid of your house responsibilities, or break any rule, be ready to pay the price! Remember, you only have five chances! -

The letter confused Maria, she thought it was a bad joke, she crumpled it and threw it away, continuing with her normal life.

A few days later the first family, a couple of newlyweds, without children, sought her out for help, they told her about their own rules and the strange experiences they were having with the house. Maria tried to help them, but shortly afterwards the two disappeared abruptly.

Desperate, Maria shared the events with her husband, questioning whether she should go to the police, they both decided to go to the police the next day, only for Maria to wake up next to her dead husband, dead with a face of utter fear.

The Doctors had no idea why her husband died, he seemed to have had a heart attack due to extreme fear, as if he had had the biggest scare of his life.

What followed were difficult days, Maria had to deal with the death of her beloved husband, details about her funeral, the problems of maintaining the house alone and the trauma of her daughters, with all these issues in mind Maria ended up forgetting about the house and the missing family.

Until she found another letter on her desk, the content was practically the same, minus the end of the third rule.

- 3. If you try to get rid of your responsibilities with the house, or break any rule, be ready to pay the price! Remember, you only have four chances! -

At that moment Maria went into despair, her heart filled with fear and, as much as she did not want to believe it, she knew that the death of her hubby had to do with that damn house, and worse, she knew what was yours' four chances' remaining, her life and the lives of her daughters.

So Maria had no choice, she continued this horrible process of selling the house, receiving a huge commission and dying a little more inside, knowing that another family would be exposed to unspeakable terrors in that damm place.

Luckily the house started to gain its own rumors, even if Maria didn't open her mouth to talk about the bizarre things of the place, the number of people disappearing was too big to go unnoticed, and less and less people were interested in the place, what reduced its price a lot, she hoped, internally, that one day the rumors would be strong enough to make no one else come to this infernal place.

Today, once again Maria was here, ready to present the house to a possible buyer.

A young man came through the door, scaring Maria, she had not heard his car arriving, so she was taken by surprise.

The young man was tall, quite tall, in fact he was the tallest man Maria had ever seen, he was also handsome, at the level of a model, with a perfect muscular figure and healthy brown skin, he had a gentle smile on his face and an honest appearance, with amber eyes.

"Mrs. Maria? I'm Locke! I came to see the house!" The young man said, smiling gently as he offered his hand for a length.

"Oh, mr. Locke, forgive me, I didn't hear your car's engine and I was taken by surprise! But I'm ready to show you the house!" Maria replied with a smile, although her heart burned.

From then on she showed the house mechanically, smiling in that false way, showing all the modernizations and advantages of the house.

"I loved it! And the price is so low! I'm going to buy!" Locke was excited.

Maria's heart leapt with guilt, for a second her eyes betrayed her, but the memory of her daughters at home made her ignore the feeling of guilt and carry on with her obligations.

'He's so young...' Maria thought as Locke signed the contract. 'When will this end? How many more people will I have to see destroyed by this house? '

Locke finished signing and proceeded with the purchase, he made the first deposit using his cell phone and won the key to the house.

Maria resisted slightly while handing he the key, the guilt was becoming unbearable, but then she heard something she did not expect.

"You won't have to worry anymore!" Locke spoke with a smile. "This is my home now, I'll fix all the problems in it!"

Maria blinked her eyes in confusion, she didn't understand what Locke was talking about, Problems? Apparently, the house was perfect! That damn company always kept the house spotless at every... 'event'... They even modernized it even more! did he know anything? Did he know about the house? For a moment she thought about asking, but she had no idea how she would do it without breaking the rules.

Locke accompanied her to the car, smiling and playing all the way, while Maria disappeared down the lake road Locke's smile started to disappear, changing to a serious expression.

'This house is very beautiful!' Tia commented in his mind, she still had one day to regain her shape. 'It's perfect for us!'

"Yes It is!" Locke replied, as he looked at the forest with sharp eyes. "But first I have to get rid of the old tenants!"

Tia laughed in his mind. 'Show them the terror of the new landlord!'