"My Landlord Had One Rule: DON'T Acknowledge the Second Occupant." | ClancyPasta PRESENTS

[00:00:00] ClancyPasta Presents, My Landlord Had One Rule, DONT ACKNOWLEDGE the Second Occupant. By Adam Cool Beans. And you're listening to ClancyPasta.

[00:00:22] I moved into the cheapest one bed in Seminole Heights last month. $950 in this market. I knew something was wrong when I saw the listing had been up for 198 days. Mr. Hask met me in the parking lot. Didn't go inside. Just handed me a key with a green diamond keychain and said,

[00:00:48] DON'T PAINT THE WALLS AND DON'T ACKNOWLEDGE THE SECOND OCCUPANT. I laughed. You mean, like a roommate? He didn't even blink. I mean, don't talk to it. Don't look at it directly if you see it. Don't leave out a second plate or any of that polite bullshit people do.

[00:01:15] You ignore it. It mostly ignores you. Most people last three months. He got in his truck and left. The apartment was... fine. Too clean, actually. Like, it had been deep clean for the bleach that morning.

[00:01:40] All the closets were empty except one had a single wire hanger swinging slightly. Even though the AC wasn't on. The first five days, nothing. On day six, I started noticing the resetting. My trash would be taken out. Not emptied, taken out. Bag gone, new bag in.

[00:02:09] My coffee mug would be washed and put back in the wrong cabinet. My shoes by the door would be lined up perfectly straight. When I always kick them off, crooked, I thought Hask was coming in. Then I put a piece of tape on the door. Tape was never broken. Then the bathroom stuff started.

[00:02:37] I'd shower at night, wake up in the morning, and the mirror would be fully fogged. The bath mat would be damp. And there was a second toothbrush in the holder. Cheap, clear plastic. Wet. I threw it away. It was back the next morning. Wet.

[00:03:06] I started sleeping like shit. Every night at 3.07am on the dot, I would snap awake with that feeling that someone is standing right over you. My bedroom is pitch black, but I could feel heat next to me in the bed. Like someone had been lying there for hours. On night 11, I couldn't take it.

[00:03:32] I ordered a Wyze cam on Amazon, stuck it on top of my dresser, pointed at my bed. The next morning, I made coffee and opened the footage at two times speed. 11.23pm, I get in bed. Fall asleep. 3.07am.

[00:03:59] The blanket on the other side of my bed lifts up by itself. Just lifts. And sinks. The mattress dips with weight. You can see a long indent form about my height right next to me. It doesn't move. It just lies there, facing me. For six hours.

[00:04:31] 9.14am. My alarm goes off. I sit up, get out of bed. I leave for work. And the indent stays. On the camera. In real time. At 9.15am. While I'm in the kitchen, watching on my phone. The indent is still in the bed.

[00:05:00] The blanket is still shaped. Like a person is under it. I walked back into the bedroom. Heart hammering so loud, I could hear it. The bed was perfectly made. No indent. But the sheets were warm. That's when I called. Hask. Mr. Hask.

[00:05:30] What is in this apartment? Long pause. You been acknowledging it? No. I swear I haven't said anything to it. Good. Keep it that way. And, kid? Stop watching it. It doesn't like to be watched.

[00:06:01] He hung up. That night, I unplugged the camera. I tried to sleep facing the wall. At 3.07am, I woke up and I could feel it sitting up. Staring at the back of my head. I broke.

[00:06:29] I whispered without turning around. What do you want? The air in the room went cold. Like freezer cold. And I felt something lean down right next to my ear. And it whispered back in a voice that sounded exactly like mine, but like it had been practicing.

[00:06:56] Now I get to stay when you leave. I turned on the light. No one there. But my closet door was open. And all my clothes were pushed to one side. The other side was empty. But the wire hanger was gone. And there were clothes hanging there now.

[00:07:25] Clothes that weren't mine. A faded Tampa Bay Buccaneers shirt. Jeans that were my size, but not my brand. The next morning I got an email. It was a lease renewal form. All ready. Filled out. For twelve more months.

[00:07:55] Signed with my signature, but not my handwriting. I called Hask screaming. He finally came over. He stood in the doorway and wouldn't come inside. He looked older. He said, Oh. It likes you.

[00:08:23] What the fuck does that mean? This unit has had a second occupant since 89. Before my dad owned it. It needs a first occupant to anchor it. If you acknowledge it, it learns you. Then when you try to leave, it doesn't have to stay as the second anymore.

[00:08:53] He slid an envelope across the floor to me. Inside was a stack of photos. Polaroids of all the previous tenants. In every single one, they were taking a photo of their empty apartment on move-out day. And in the mirror, or the window behind them, there was a second person. Wearing their clothes.

[00:09:22] Smiling with their face a little bit off. At the bottom of the stack was a Polaroid with no tenant in it. Just the empty apartment. And one wire hanger swinging in the closet. Hask said, You got until noon to get your real stuff and go.

[00:09:52] Leave the key. Don't take the buck shirt. And whatever you do. Don't look back at the bed when you leave. I'm in my car, right now. Typing this on my phone. My real clothes are in a trash bag in the trunk.

[00:10:21] I left at 11.58am. I didn't look at the bed. But... My wise cam is still plugged in. And it just sent me a motion notification. It's a clip of the apartment. Empty. 12.03pm. The closet door closes by itself.

[00:10:49] And then someone who looks exactly like me gets into the bed under the blanket. On the side I used to sleep on. And the indent on the other side lifts up. To stay up. I've got the underneath. The bicycle has tooided on the floor Uni always that door opens their cap into front. The 온othobic control.