No one ever leaves.

“Thank you for coming. I can’t tell you how hard it is to get someone out here.”

As she opened the double doors, Rick couldn’t help but understand why no one else wanted this job. The plumbing in this house must be original, and probably wasn’t even connected to the town water supply, this far out of the main drag. There was no way he was going to be able to get this job in under what his boss had already quoted.

“Yeah. Ah, no worries. My boss thinks this should only take a day but this place looks like it might be a bigger job.”

The woman rung her hands together. Of course, Rick thought. She was worried that it was going to cost more, probably was. As he moved deeper into the foyer he noticed that the chandelier above the grand space was lit with candles, it didn’t even have electricity. Awesome. How the hell was he supposed to use his tools.

The thunk of the door bolt slamming home reverberated through the cavernous space, and he spun towards the woman, her shoulders trembled.

“I have to grab some more gear from the ute, I’ll be back in a sec.” No friggen’ way was he stepping foot back in this house. This was all just too weird, something felt off here. The way she was acting, but maybe she was just a weird lady that liked to live in the middle of nowhere, maybe she’s just not used to people in her space.

“No,” she held her hands out in front of her, her eyes darting around the room.

“Look, lady. I’m only going to be a second.”

“You can’t leave.” Her lips pressed into a thin line.

That’s when he felt it, like fingers stroking the back of his neck, making the hairs stand up. He turned slowly, the tread of his steel capped boots squeaking as he laid eyes on the last thing he would ever see.

The woman’s voice echoed in his head. “No one ever leaves.”

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Photo by Nick via Flickr, licensed under Creative Commons