Surprise! Sequel time! =D At the moment, it's only the prologue, but heck, it's something! XD
Disclaimer: the landlord and apartment layout are mine, the gum's too general of a brand to put a disclaimer on, the rest belongs to Naughty Dog.
R&R's & other things = love! =3
Enjoy!
The landlord took out her key, turned the lock, and opened the gray-blue door to the apartment with a slight shove. She had received quite a few complaints from some of the residents who lived next to the currently vacant apartment about some kind of strange activity coming from inside; it was really saying something, considering the ones who were complaining were elderly people well into their late seventies and early eighties at the least. She had tried to explain to them that there was nobody living inside the apartment at the time, so there was nothing inside the apartment to create a fuss, but nobody believed her. So, here she was today, hoping to be able to find absolutely nothing inside the apartment that could disturb the neighbors on a regular basis and put an end to the complaints. Besides, there was a young lady from Kras City who was going to move into it in a few days, and she wanted to make sure the apartment was more than ready for her to move in.
She popped a piece of peppermint-flavored chewing gum into her mouth as she entered the main area of the apartment through the small kitchen and glanced around. There was nothing inside the apartment aside from the usual furnishings that had been left when the apartment's previous residents, two young men who were in their very early twenties, left in a hurry carrying a few of their belongings. As she moved through the main area of the apartment and its attached porch, she saw nothing that she considered to be out of the ordinary. Little did she know at the time that something out of the ordinary had already seen her.
After making sure that the sliding glass door that separated the porch from the rest of the apartment was locked, she made sure there was nothing around that could possibly come in and disturb her. She entered the small hallway that led to the two bedrooms, past the apartment's one small bathroom and the avocado-green dresser full of old phone books and who-knows-what-else across from it, and checked the two closets on either side of her. The closet to her right housed shelves full of towels of varying colors. The closet across from it held nothing but dust, a large and moveable floor fan with its cord wrapped around it, some black pipes, and a small light bulb hanging off of a cord attached to the ceiling. She turned on the light and sent the shadows creeping back into the corners from which they came, making sure there was nothing more hiding in the small space.
"Nothing more than dust, wood, pipes, and a fan. Everything around here looks good and normal so far," she thought to herself as she turned off the light and walked out of the closet, closing the door behind her.
She made her way into the first of the two bedrooms, its door located directly next to the closet that she had just searched. The two twin-sized beds directly to her right and the small nightstand between them lay undisturbed, as did the two dressers and large chest directly across from them. Hidden behind the open bedroom door was a closet door that featured a long mirror on the front side of it that had remained closed. Above the two beds hung a ceiling fan with a small pattern on the end of the blades closest to her that she thought looked like a distorted face or plant with a spear going through the middle of it. Just in case, she checked in, around, and under the beds, dressers, closet, and nightstand and found nothing more than dust, more towels, and clothing.
Satisfied with what she had found in the first bedroom, she walked into the adjacent bedroom and surveyed the furniture. There was a small, white, plastic trash bin in front of her with a plastic bag inside that kept the door open. Directly in front of her was a wide, white dresser that went up to her hip with a tall mirror and two vases with fake cloth flowers on top of it. Across the dresser was a small chair with a floral pattern that looked as if it were made and colored by hippies. A few inches to the right of the ugly chair was a blue and white nightstand with a small lamp on top of it and a double-sized bed directly next to it. A few feet across from the foot of a bed was a black closet door with a white desk to the right of it and a coat hanger covered in various hats to its left. A ceiling fan identical to the one found in the previous bedroom hung still and silent, appearing as if it were waiting for somebody to turn it on. She searched through the dresser, looked through the one drawer in the nightstand, searched the three small drawers in the desk, and glanced under the bed, but found nothing but more clothes and dust.
Just as she was about to begin searching the closet, she heard the loud thud of the front door closing. She knew that it could not possibly be a draft since no small gust of air could close a door that heavy. She quickly walked out into the main area of the apartment to find an explanation for the noise, hoping that it did not mean someone was in the apartment with her. She checked the sliding glass door that led out to the porch and found that it was still locked. Afterwards she walked past the wooden table with the plastic, red tablecloth and towards the kitchen to check on the front door, looking around her for anything that seemed different from a few minutes earlier.
She peered into the kitchen and saw that nothing had moved other than the front door. She walked over to the front door and attempted to open it, suddenly remembering that she had accidentally left her keys in the lock on the other side of the doorknob again. The door would not budge, no matter what she did to it. The lock was set in the "unlocked" position, and she was sure that nothing natural could have moved the small, rusty hook on the other side of the door into the small hole and locked that portion of the door. She had pulled as hard as she could on the door, but the door refused to give in.
"It's an old door; it's probably bound to do this at some point. I'm sure it'll decide to open for me when I go to leave later," she thought as she left the door alone to continue her search in the closet of the second bedroom.
While she was making her way back towards the bedrooms, the air surrounding her suddenly became very cold. She shivered slightly, wondering if this type of activity was what the neighboring residents were complaining about. She entered the bedroom that she had not finished searching earlier and quickly noticed that the ceiling fan was spinning at full speed.
"That would probably explain the sudden chill!" she thought as she walked over and pulled the cord that she knew would slow it down and, after a few pulls, turn it off. But, like the door, it did not respond to her actions.
As quickly and suddenly as the front door's decision to close seemingly on its own, the lamp started turning itself on and off. It flickered quickly three times, then blinked slowly three times, then flickered quickly three more times before stopping for a few seconds. It repeated this over and over, showing no sign of stopping anytime soon.
"What in Mar's name is going on here?" she asked aloud, glancing around her.
The bedroom door swiftly slammed shut behind her, making her jump slightly. Thick, black and dark purple smoke began to pour out from the crack at the bottom of the closet door, disappearing into swirling wisps and spirals once they reached a certain height. A loud, evil, almost demonic cackle filled all four corners of the room, nearly deafening the poor woman. Afraid for her life, the young landlord backed up against the door, and attempted to grab at the doorknob and escape. When the doorknob refused to move and the cackling grew louder, she continued trying to back up, despite having a door in her way.
The closet door flung open, and suddenly there was nothing but complete darkness and total silence in the room. Two seconds later, light returned to the room, leaving everything the way things were before the landlord walked into the room. The bedroom door was open once again, and the closet door looked as if it had never been touched. The fan had completely stopped spinning, and the lamp no longer blinked. The air throughout the apartment was absolutely still.
Most importantly, the landlord had disappeared without a trace. There were no signs that she had even entered the apartment aside from her large set of keys, still hanging from the lock in the handle of the now open front door.