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  • The Domicile of Despair (long, epic, get your popcorn)

    Part 1 - Warning Signs

    Get comfy, because this is going to be a long story. My memory of the time is a bit foggy, so bear with me as I try and drudge up some memories that I cannot say I'm very fond of. Its really long to boot, so I'll be posting it in parts, as I get the chance to type it up. This happened about five, six years ago. *edited that there, so sorry I forgot to specify a timeframe for this*

    It all began after a bit of family drama finally drove me away from home. I decided at that point to move out, and to try and go to a college a couple of hours away, and try and stay on campus. I applied to the college, was approved, given a full ride to boot, plus a very small bonus for books. I thought things were going to be hunky dory, but little did I know how very, very naïve I was about the real world.

    The dormitory on campus idea did not pan out, sadly. They were shut down a few months before the next semester, due to massive structural issues and supposedly some asbestos and black mold issues. So, I inquired at the office, and was recommended to check out the new living quarters being sanctioned by the school.

    A couple of miles away from campus, a burgeoning company had purchased a decrepit motel, and were in the process of remodeling it to be suitable for living again, plus adding in a few amenities to attract students. It sounded like a dream place. A single room suite, with utilities included, plus access to a hair salon, pool, and exercise area. On top of that, there was to be a cafeteria where you could get meals, and they were even going to have a cooking staff who would bring your meals to you if you wanted.

    All in all, it sounded like practical heaven to a youngling out on her own for the first time. Should've known better, but hindsight is 20/20.

    After filing an application, and being approved, my parents took me out there to view the place, and.....it was not originally as they stated. Everything was still in the midway process of being built. Half the rooms were still being stripped, and there was construction debris everywhere. They promised profusely that everything was “on schedule to be finished by the time school starts”. Ok, guess we'll put down a deposit then! Picked out the room I wanted, got my keys, and went back home.

    Fast forward to where I am moving in.

    We arrive with the truck o stuff, and I go to my room and open the door....and promptly surprise a half naked dude playing video games in MY room. Turns out, oops, they forgot which room I wanted, and sold it to someone else, and since they couldn't find the keys, had new ones made up for him.

    Apologies abounded, and I picked out a new place, and settled in finally, and waved goodbye to my parents.

    Things went fine for the first week, and then the first round of trouble started.

    I couldn't get any sleep because the guy who lived next door to me was....ehm....loud. As were his...female visitors. They tried to cover up their noises with music, but when the visitor's inclined to scream, it still doesn't cover it. And turning up the music to the point the walls are shaking doesn't help things either. Multiple calls to the landlord never worked, and I even tried knocking on his door and asking politely. That got me a nice middle finger in my face and a few choice swear words, while the Female of the Night came up behind him, mostly naked, and screamed at me as well.

    Eep.

    Then, a couple of days after I gave up trying to be nice, and called the landlord down AGAIN, my internet and phone cut out one day, and I couldn't get it working, no matter what. I called in the property manager (henceforth to be known as Slumlord) and asked him to take a look at it. I stepped out for a bit to get my mail while he examined the cables, and came back to find him sorting through stuff on my dresser. He jumped back when I walked in, and stammered that he was just looking around, thought he heard a noise. Angry, I asked what kind of noise would've come from a pile of laundry, and he just walked back to the cables and continued to check things out. I stayed in there then, and watched him until he pointed out the problem. The cables in the wall had been severed. WTF? He stated that it was unrepairable unless they pulled out the cables from the wall and redid them, and that would make a huge mess, obviously. Would I be interested in living in a different room?

    So yes, moving yet AGAIN to a new room, and this time I picked a corner room, hoping that maybe with nobody on one side, it'd be a lot quieter.

    As I was carrying totes of stuff on over, this one guy stopped me and said “Ohhh, you're the chick in <room>, right? Yeah, you ok?” I replied in the affirmative, and asked why.

    “Oh, that last **tch he had over was CRAAAAAZY. She heard you calling, and took a knife to the wall and cut your wires, said she was gonna cut you too. Best be careful if you see her, you hear?”

    ...Oh wow, seriously? I thanked him, and he actually helped me carry over the last couple of totes, and again told me to be careful, and left, and made a note to myself to be careful of who I ticked off in the future.

    Pity, if only I'd remembered that advice for myself in the future. Namely, with my landlords.

    -End of Part 1-
    By popular request....I am now officially the Enemy of Normalcy.

    "What is unobtainium? To Seraph, it's a normal client. :P" -- Observant Friend

  • #2
    Part 2

    So, now I'm in my new apartment, rather enjoying the higher amount of calm, and the fact that, hey, nobody lives next door to me! Things went fine for the first couple of weeks, and then I noticed that I was having a rather unusual rash of headaches and bloody noses, that just popped out of nowhere for no reason. (I jokingly told a friend that obviously I was developing telekinetic powers.)

    Well, one day I returned from an all day session of classes, and noticed an unusual smell when I opened the door. I stepped inside.

    Squish.

    Oh dear heavens, say it isn't.....

    Looked down, and yes. It is. My entire carpet is squishy. Upon looking up, there is an obvious mini waterfall coming literally out of the wall under the sink. Well, crud.

    I squished rapidly around the room, saving whatever I could that was on the floor, and calling up Slumlord to notify him of the situation. In doing so, I tried to vainly stick a towel up under the waterfall (not sure why, not like it'd do anything), and my hip bumped up against a wooden wall panel. The panel apparently wasn't secured, and fell straight off.

    Reaching over, I grabbed the panel to put it back, and stopped short. There, on the other side of the panel, in the wall gap, was a black growth that looked a heck of a lot like black mold. I backed up rapidly, and waited outside until Slumlord finally showed up.

    Ended up, someone in the room adjacent to me decided to flush some nonflushable items, and they got stuck in the pipes and blocked it. They then ran their tub faucet for....who knows how long. End result was that the pipes burst somehow, and I was suffering the other side of the leak. Yay. I pointed out the panel area, and Slumlord peered down, and started growling. “*$#*@% sonofa*$#&% black mold, they said they got it all.”

    Meekly, I asked for a new room, since it was obvious that I wasn't going to be able to really live in this one at this point. Slumlord said he didn't want to, and then I said well fine, I expected at the very least, a free month's rent because of this.

    He promptly agreed that it was probably the best if I just picked out yet another new room.

    Allllrighties. Picked out a new room, just a few doors down, and after checking it for any weird smells (and checking the panels in that room too for mold), I went and started moving yet AGAIN.

    I distinctly remember that as I placed down my last tote, saying to the room “Ahhhh, finally. Now everything will be nice and not crazy.”

    Ahhahahaha. Hahaha. Ha.

    On a side note, my ex-room ended up being taped off and boarded up. They found black mold under the carpet (when they ripped it up to replace it), all in the walls by the sink, and alllll behind the plastic wall for the shower/tub.

    -End of Part 2-
    Last edited by Ree; 03-28-2012, 12:19 PM.
    By popular request....I am now officially the Enemy of Normalcy.

    "What is unobtainium? To Seraph, it's a normal client. :P" -- Observant Friend

    Comment


    • #3
      Part Dodrio

      So, third and final room! It had two neighbor rooms, but at the time, nobody was in there. The only complaint I had about the room was the fact that it had a conjoining door, but upon examination, the room had a rather large wardrobe that none of the other rooms had.

      Push comes to shove, as they say, and presto, door blocker!

      Slumlord comes down to check on the room, and notices the wardrobe. He informs me that I'm not allowed to have it, it's only for staff use.

      ...wut?

      I inform him that either conjoining door gets boarded up, cemented shut, or barred.....or I keep the wardrobe.

      He unhappily agreed to let me keep it. Yay!

      In retrospect, I should've noted his attitude by that point, as he was noticeably getting more terse with me, as well as giving me the death glare every time I showed up. In my ignorant “WOOO IM OUT ON MY OWN” state....I totally didn't notice.

      So anyways, time goes by a bit, and several weeks later I get a neighbor on one side! Drunken Chick, as she was soon known to be, partied a lot. Like, a lot. I didn't realize just how much until one night, she and a few guys decided to try and break down the door between our rooms! They actually managed to push the wardrobe out a few inches. But, with a frantic geek pushing every stick of furniture in the place against it as well, and wedging stuff under the door, they couldn't manage it, and instead, chose to try and throw wrappers and bottle caps through the gap until I managed to shut it. Phew.

      I figured at this point it might be best to try and make friends with her, maybe she'd tone it down. I brought over gifts of ginger tea, since I figured partying would have given her a massive hangover, and the nausea to go with it.

      I was right. Ended up spending the next few hours trying to help her hurl into garbage cans/toilet/anything that wasn't her floor or clothes. But thankfully, she was nicer after that, and if people started banging on the door, she'd screech shortly afterwards “YOU LEAVE THE TEA GEEK ALONE.” And the banging would cease.

      Ahhhh, Lupo would've been proud of me.

      So, that was one problem solved.


      Then, a month later, they opened up a new set of “apartments”, and quite literally, a frat moved in. I'm still not sure how. That's when the real problems started to set in, but it wasn't to be all bad. In fact....now it was wintertime...

      -End of Part 3-
      Last edited by Ree; 03-28-2012, 12:22 PM.
      By popular request....I am now officially the Enemy of Normalcy.

      "What is unobtainium? To Seraph, it's a normal client. :P" -- Observant Friend

      Comment


      • #4
        Part FOUR LIGHTS

        So, wintertime swings around, and as I don't have a driver's license, I have to take the bus every morning. Its a bad winter, too. (At least, for me. Born and raised in the south, anything below 50 is OMGCOLD)

        One morning, it was about...20 degrees, and there was about four to six inches of snow on the ground. I was huddling on the curb, shivering, when a beat up Honda pulled up, stopped, and the window rolled down.

        The driver asked if I needed a ride to school, and I admit, I was leery at first. I peeked inside the car, and hey, its the guy who I've seen at the college's computer lab. I vaguely remembered that one of my friends said she knew him, so I decided potential psychopath > standing in snow, and hopped in.

        We chatted the whole way, and after what seemed like a waaaay too quick car ride, he dropped me off at the college, with a promise that we'd catch up again soon.

        I was heading in to class, when I ran into the financial advisor from the college, who stopped me to ask how I was doing, and how things were going. I mentioned very, very briefly, how bad things were at the living complex, and he was upset by it. He asked me to meet him after classes, and explain in more detail.

        Classes came and went, and I met up with the FA afterwards and told him a few of the crazy things that had happened. He took notes, and promised that he was going to discuss things with the board, because they didn't want to be associated with the place if that kept happening. I thanked him, and headed on back home, taking a side stop at a grocery store that delayed me.

        That delay was a bad idea.

        By the time I got back, apparently Slumlord had been chewed out. Big time. He confronted me, bringing him big ol' black Labrador, Rex, with him. (Not that I was afraid of the dog. He was a big ol' loveable lug!) I was vainly trying to balance some seriously heavy bags, and ripped me a new one. He had “no idea” that things had been so bad, I should've just come to him.

        Well um, that's why I've always called you up?

        Oh, but that was something totally different.

        But you know, I've had to move rooms several times.

        STILL SOMETHING DIFFERENT ARGABLARGA!

        He got up in my face and told me that if I had issues, to come to him, and to not go “squalling off to the college board”. That things were tough enough on him as it was. He huffed on back to his office, leaving behind a very confused Rex, who just tried to nuzzle me all “i dunno lol”. This of course ticked off Slumlord even more, who came back outside for the dog, yelling at me to stop feeding him.

        Whaaaa? Everything's WRAPPED UP, you idiot. I haven't fed your dog, whatever.

        Poor Rex slunk on back, and I headed on back to my room, figuring this would all just blow over.


        Another month passed, and I'd started to hitch rides with Computer Guy more and more, to the point that I hadn't bought my bus pass for that month. He'd even started to hang out at my place, and he was there when I got a rather lifechanging phone call, too.

        My parents were getting divorced.

        My father had left my mother, and mom was having to sell the house, and get rid of everything she could. Her new place wouldn't accept pets, and it was now up to me whether I wanted to take in my cat, Kyo, or she would have to find a new home for him.

        I burst into tears, surprising the fudge out of CG, and when I updated him on the situation, he offered to help me get my cat. I thanked him, and after hanging up, started to make plans on what I was going to do. CG watched me run around cleaning up stuff, and then helpfully burst my bubble by mentioning that it was very, very possible that pets weren't allowed here.

        Oh, bugger.

        I went on down to Slumlord's office, and very meekly knocked and asked to discuss this with him.

        The only way I can describe his facial expression, was the Grinch. Holy cow, it was a near perfect imitation, as he smiled and said SURE, bring your cat. After all, he has Rex, doesn't he?

        Being an idiot, I was like “YAY thank you Slumlord!” And, I happily ran back down to tell CG the news, and to call my mother up to get the kitty's stuff together.

        CG and I went down a couple of days later, and brought Kyo on back up. As we were bringing Kyo and a few of my items that I really wanted to make sure didn't get lost in the divorce chaos....we noticed that I had a paper stuck to my door, and that Slumlord was waiting down at the corner, grinning.

        -End of Part Four, and probably my life after Lupo catches me-
        By popular request....I am now officially the Enemy of Normalcy.

        "What is unobtainium? To Seraph, it's a normal client. :P" -- Observant Friend

        Comment


        • #5
          PART FIVE GUYS BURGERS

          So as we approach, Slumlord points to the door, and grinning the whole time, informs me that today they have decided to remind all tenants of clauses in their contracts. I'd best check it on over, as I wouldn't want to be on the wrong side of things. He walks away, and Rex is doing his best impression of a dog trying to be in two places at once. Poor pooch.

          We set Kyo and my stuff inside, and after I said thanks and goodbye, look over the paper.

          Slumlord has so nicely typed up a flyer reminding EVERY tenant that pets are not allowed, and that any damage that they find from one, will result in a large fine. My flyer has an extra bonus of a highlighter on large fine, with a happy face drawn in the margin.

          Oh boy.

          I walk on down to the office, and as I do, I notice a lot of other residents are going too, and they are allll holding the flyer. None have highlighter, though. Hm, personal touch.

          I wait in line to talk to him, and when its eventually my turn, I ask why this is, especially as I had gotten permission from him.

          “Oh, I don't know what you're talking about. Did you get this written down?”

          Oh man, hello barrel, excuse me a second while I get over you.

          On my way out, one of the desk ladies comes over to me, hugs me, and says she's so sorry for it all, and that I just need to give them plausible deniability, that's the only reason why he's acting that way.

          I confess I wasn't the nicest person at that point, and told her that I didn't care, he lied to me, and that was completely wrong, and walked off. I thought about what she said, though.

          Well, maybe I can try and keep him a secret.....

          I walk back to my room, and Kyo's already settled himself in the window, and is attracting a rather amusing crowd of people pointing and going “OMG HUGE CAT.”

          Yeah that plan's toast now.

          CG comes on over again, and tells me that Slumlord asked him what the heck he was doing associating with me. He said he liked hanging out with me. Slumlord shrugged and walked off, shaking his head.

          Awww crud, don't bring HIM into it too. Le sigh.

          I invite CG over for some dinner and video games as a thank you for all he's done, and he says sure thing.


          Well, dinner and video games go past, I'd managed to make brownies in a little pan with a toaster oven, and everything. We ended up playing 101 matches of Soul Caliber 2 (51-50, me) , and then afterwards, laughed our heads off about how competitive we were getting.

          I went to go put some of the dishes on the counter, and he stood up, holding the brownie pan. I turned around to take it from him, and about laughed when I noticed that he was holding it up in front of his face, halfway hiding it.

          Almost laughed, until I noticed that he was obviously nervous.

          My future husband asked me out on our first date while hiding behind a brownie pan. True love at first sight, I tell you. I don't know if it was him, or the chocolate, though.

          Probably the chocolate.



          Months go past, and CG and I end up dating happily, and I ignored most of the problems that came up during our happy courtship.

          The frat started to take over the dorm, and I didn't really notice.

          A guy who I was acquainted at college with managed to ask Slumlord for a copy of a key to my apartment, and was given it. I came home to find him standing in my room. CG was with me, though, so I didn't really think about the potential OMG THIS IS WRONG of it all. I had CG with me, woo!

          Slumlord was watching us through his blinds every time we came back from dates, being out of town, etc. I didn't care, didn't think about it. CG, woo!!

          Love blinds you to a lot of things going on around you, but Slumlord was about to shatter those rose-colored glasses.

          -End of Part Five bwahahahahahaha-
          By popular request....I am now officially the Enemy of Normalcy.

          "What is unobtainium? To Seraph, it's a normal client. :P" -- Observant Friend

          Comment


          • #6
            Part Six (flags)

            With thanks to Jay 2k for that.

            So, on to the smashing!



            CG and I return one day from a little hike on a mountain, to see my door open. Freaking out, I run in, and the place is DESTROYED.

            All of my totes that I had carefully Tetris'd under my bed were thrown about the room, and several were opened and had been rummaged through. My pantry (aka, the wardrobe, I stashed food in it) doors were open, and canned food and ramen were all over the floor. Dresser drawers were open, my sheets were off the bed, and even my pin collection on the wall was askew. Kyo was locked in the bathroom, and is frantically scratching the door.

            I'm in the middle of crying, and about to call the police, when my phone rings. Its Slumlord, informing me that while I was out, he decided that it would be a good time to check on some things, and do “some repairs”. So they had to move a few of my things to do this, you know.

            I am infuriated at this, and proceeded to tear him a new one. Repairs? Why did repairs require my DRESSERS to be ransacked! My pantry needed fixed too? Oh, and why did someone go through MY PERSONAL TOTES?!

            Oh noooo, they didn't do any of that! Would I mind coming on down to the office, and talking to him in person about it?

            Oh, sure. SURE.

            I proceeded to immediately get my camera and document EVERYTHING.

            And then I march down to the office. After a yelling match with Slumlord, in which I proceeded to point out the terms in the contract that state that he must provide at least 24 hours notice before entry, and that I have the right to deny them entry for up to another 24 hours. I asked if he'd prefer they went to jail, because I was really, REALLY ticked about this.

            Slumlord scoffed at me, told me to try, and that he'd already sent a “cleaning crew” down to my place.
            I KNEW IT.

            I immediately hauled back, just in time to see two guys opening my door. I just about went Full Out Banshee on them, and they backed off quickly. I told them in no uncertain terms, that I would be the one cleaning up, but that the next time they pulled that on me, someone was going to end up singing falsetto.

            CG came over and helped me clean up, and bag up all the stuff they'd broken/damaged beyond salvaging. A lot of my dry goods had been stepped on/crushed and had to be tossed, along with a few shirts that had been ripped. The worst though, was a poster that my mother had given me, that was a limited edition piece, and was signed by the artist. They'd taken it out of the tube, folded the rolled poster in half, and tossed it in a corner.

            Ugh.

            They didn't bother me for a couple of weeks, until rent time.

            And then, one day I woke up to a knocking on my door. When I opened it, Slumlord was already leaving, and there was a nice slip of paper stating I was up for eviction.

            Wait, wut?

            -End of Part Six-
            By popular request....I am now officially the Enemy of Normalcy.

            "What is unobtainium? To Seraph, it's a normal client. :P" -- Observant Friend

            Comment


            • #7
              Part Se7en

              So I was sitting in shock, reading it over and over again, and wondering exactly wtf was going on.

              I get a call from CG. He'd gotten a notice too.

              We head on over to the office, and are told “Sorry, you didn't pay your rent. You're being evicted in 10 days.”

              What? I paid my rent! Both of us ran back to our rooms, CG came back with check stubs, I'd used money orders and had both my receipts and the stubs. CG even showed on his bank statement how the check had been cashed already, just this week to boot.

              Frowning, Slumlord marked us as paid.

              As we were walking back, I told CG “Well, hope THAT doesn't happen again.”

              Ah hah. Haha.

              To save on storytelling time, I'll just tell you now that it happened every single month for the rest of our time there. They always “misplaced” the checks, and at once point, TRIPLE charged CG for the next month of rent due.

              So anyways, CG and I bonded a lot over all the stuff going on. It was wonderful having someone to lean on for support during all of that, and a short time later, he proposed to me.

              How could I resist? He got down on bended knee and held up a shiny new copy of Kingdom Hearts 2, and asked me. Seriously! Kingdom Hearts 2! FREE GAME. I couldn't say no, could I? ;D

              So here we were. We were broke as get out, engaged, wanted to live together, and since we practically hung out together 24/7 anyways, it just made sense.

              So CG and I approached the office to ask about combining leases, and moving in together. We even had someone lined up who wanted to rent out CG's place.

              Slumlord denied it.

              Our leases were off by two months, I'd registered slightly before CG, so therefore we'd have two extra months. In fact, Slumlord wanted us both to know that he'd charge us the rest of the lease's amount, PLUS a termination fee, if we wanted to do that. We were heartbroken, but only so much. We were going to have to pay for both places, but it seemed like such a small thing compared to how happy we were.

              A few months later, we found out I was pregnant. (I'm not proud of that, but eh.) CG and I hurried around the place, getting everything ready for the baby, and the months flew by. My mother, trying to help out, gave us a mini refrigerator that had a small freezer, to help us out. We notified Slumlord, as the apartments already had a minifridge, and had him and one of the maintenance guys come and take theirs out. Slumlord put it in his office, stating “Second fridge just means more cold beer for me!”

              Maintenance guy though, came back afterwards and told me quietly, that he'd marked down them taking out the fridge, and to let him know if anything came up. I quizzically asked him why, but he just shook his head and walked away.

              Huh.

              Another thing that happened of note, is that Drunk Chick next door failed out of school, and had to leave. Poor girl showed up at my door, crying and sobbing, that she was going to miss me and my tea, and that she was so mad she wouldn't get to see the baby.

              Thankfully, nobody moved in, but that didn't really matter.

              Then one night, I really “crossed the line” with Slumlord.

              -End of Part 7-

              And yes, I'm going to leave it there, I'll update that next part tomorrow, but we're actually almost done now. :P
              By popular request....I am now officially the Enemy of Normalcy.

              "What is unobtainium? To Seraph, it's a normal client. :P" -- Observant Friend

              Comment


              • #8
                Finally got a moment to type up the next part. Had to check with my husband for some of it, to make sure I was getting the timing right on stuff.

                Part Eight Ball in the Corner Pocket

                The one big event that changed it all, dun dun duuuuun.

                The setting is that I'm now in my third trimester of the pregnancy at this point. Very tough to get around, and obviously I'm in the stages of “ogod, watch the tummy.”

                Remember that frat that I mentioned moved in? Yeah.

                So this particular night, there was a big sports game with the college, and apparently.....we won. Or something. Whatever happened, the apartment complex suddenly turned into the French Quarter on Fat Tuesday. That bad.

                CG had an out of town job at this point that required him to leave town for a few days at a time. He hated being away from me, but we needed the money.

                So this night, I'm holed up, just watching TV, and I hear what could only best be described as a growing roar. I looked outside, and people are starting to pour into the courtyard, screaming, whooping, and hollering. I guess that's when the victory was announced, because everyone started dragging out coolers full of beer, and brought out stereos turned up to full. Yeeks.

                I retreated back inside, and figured meh, I'll just curl up and wait it out.

                Oh, I thought I could.

                The party just got worse and worse. As the night wore on, the drunkeness hit its high, and people started getting...aggressive. My phone rang, and one of the guys a few rooms down told me to come join the party and “get smashed all to he**”. I declined, and jokingly said “alchohol and preggers don't mix, sorry bro!”

                Next thing I knew, a crowd of guys came over to my room, and started banging on the door, demanding I come out and party. I went to my window and told them through it that thank you, but no, and that I'd like to just get some sleep.

                Their response was to fling a beer bottle at me.

                I dodged out of reflex, but it pinged off the wall next to my window and shattered. I closed my curtains, hit the deadbolt on the door and put the chain on the door.

                More bottles smashed against my door, the window, the wall, and they were starting to really get angry.

                I tried calling Slumlord, the maintenance workers, ANYONE, but nobody's phones were picking up.

                Half in tears, I turned off the lights and went to get my phone book so I could get the number for the police, in case they wouldn't stop.

                I guess turning off the lights worked, because they threw a couple more, and stumbled off.

                Terrified nearly out of my mind, I called up CG and left a message for him that he needed to call me back, ASAP.

                Not sure why, but I tried calling Slumlord again at that point, and again, no answer. I went to the window and peeked outside......and there he was.

                Slumlord was out in the middle of the party, with a beer in his hand, obviously dead drunk, leering at a college girl's bust. (Seriously, it was like a flipping anime, no idea how her boobs hadn't popped out of her shirt) As I watched, he downed the beer he had, reached for another, and about fell over while reaching down.

                As I was staring in shock, another set of guys came down the walkway, and casually took the end of a bottle and smashed out my doorway light.

                Okay. That's it.

                I called up the police, reported what was going on, and tried to exhort to them just how important it was that I remain anonymous for this. I told the dispatcher that things could get very bad, that I was scared for myself, and that she needed to make sure she didn't tell anyone that someone called from the apartments.

                Afterwards, I called CG again, and then proceeded to go to the wardrobe and barricade it as well, should anyone somehow get into next door and try to make their way in.

                Aaaand, I pretty much sat in a corner and just played Everquest on my PC and hid anytime someone came by my door for the rest of the night. CG eventually got my messages and called back all in a flurry, and said he was coming back straightaway.

                Come daylight, the place was a WRECK.

                Broken glass and trash was EVERYWHERE. I brought a mini broom with me and brushed a little path through it down to the mailbox, where it turned out a very, very angry Slumlord was waiting.

                End of Part Eight.
                By popular request....I am now officially the Enemy of Normalcy.

                "What is unobtainium? To Seraph, it's a normal client. :P" -- Observant Friend

                Comment


                • #9
                  Part NineGag

                  Slumlord immediately got right up into my face, and was hollering.

                  Yep, the police showed up, busted them all, hauled off quite a few for underage drinking, drugs, etc etc. And Slumlord knew it was me because not only did an officer confront him about letting the party get to that point, but that “a resident here was terrified for herself”, didn't he feel terrible about it?

                  And of course, considering who didn't show up for the party (me), who he knew “was out to cause trouble for him” (me, apparently again), and guess what he checked the outgoing phone records, so he knew it was me.

                  Uh oh.

                  Slumlord is practically frothing at this point, yammering at how fast he had to work to keep the college from hearing, the scandal he narrowly avoided, and how I've possibly ruined his career. Ohhh, I was going to pay for this.

                  He stormed off, and the receptionist just stood there with her mouth open, then looked at me and said “Well, you poke the hornet’s nest enough yet?” I just shrugged, got my mail, and went on back to my place.

                  CG was there when I finally reached my door, he just stared around in shock at all the glass on the ground, and asked what happened. I told him a quick run through, and he shook his head and got me inside.


                  The next couple of months were horrific.

                  The internet to our room, and our room alone, was cut off randomly, mostly during the times when he knew we were on it. He'd monitor our network usage, and when noticed we logged into a game or something, boom. Off.

                  Then, he started having random room checks, to “find pets and contract violations”. The receptionist, having a bit of sympathy for me, would quietly notify me a bit before, giving us enough time to pack Kyo up in a carrier and have CG drive around with him for a little while until the check was over.

                  Slumlord even tried to take my fridge at one point. He showed up, claiming that they were taking out fridges from some of the rooms for “potential maintenance problems”, and was angry when I pointed out that it was my own personal fridge. He demanded to see proof of this, and I simply explained that it was obviously not theirs. It was a different color, a bigger model, and even had a miniature freezer, where theirs had none. He left, muttering about it possibly being a contract violation to bring in a “non conforming fridge”.

                  He also informed me that my lease was up, on the week after the baby was due, and that he'd be glad to be rid of me.

                  Well, CG's lease still had three months to go on it after that, and they STILL wouldn't let him out of it. So I decided to write a letter to the CEO of the company who had the complex built, basically, Slumlord's boss. I pleaded as best as I could in the letter, explaining we would be more than willing to pay the roommate rate for the last three months, and how we would be brand new parents, how much it would mean to us if they'd allow us to do that for the last three months. Alternatively, we'd be more than happy to look for a new place if they wanted to let CG out of his contract. I finished up with, please, you don't understand how tough it is for us right now. Please help us out, and give us the little boost we'd need, by working with us on this. We couldn't afford to hold two places at once again, especially with a new baby just arriving.

                  A week later Slumlord showed up at my door, holding up a copy of the letter. CEO had contacted Slumlord about it, asking his opinion.

                  Slumlord basically shut us down, and told him that there was no way he should allow it, we'd been troubling tenants “from the get go”. He sneered and told me that was that, and that too bad, I should probably look into getting my own place, because I wasn't going to be allowed around there anymore once my lease was up.

                  I. Was. Livid.

                  Really? A nine months pregnant woman, and you're pretty much throwing her out on the street, just because you're ticked off that I ruined your big party that one night?

                  In retaliation, I started documenting, and sniffing around for things.

                  I took photos of the pool, documented how the office was made aware of the nights that a couple had...erm...had a little too much fun in a pool, and how they didn't clean it out.

                  I took photos of the courtyard after the parties, and noted how Slumlord was usually involved, if not hosting some of the parties himself.

                  I documented the myriad things that the complex boasted, but didn't actually have, such as the hair salon, the supposed chef to cook your meals, a tanning bed, a gaming theater room, and “personal spa rooms”. (aka steam rooms. They actually had those, but Slumlord declared them “too expensive to run”, and had them locked up)

                  Then one day, I got curious, and hit the mother lode.

                  While checking out my network settings, I realized hey, its publicly accessible, and not protected by passwords at all. Heck, one of my friends used to pull into the parking lot if he needed a wifi signal, and would surf and then leave when he was done.

                  I then also realized that Slumlord had shared a few folders on his computer with the network. I don't know if he did this on purpose, or if he was just incredibly stupid at protecting his data on a shared, public network.

                  Either way, I quickly found out, and took screenshots of, the fact that he was sharing illegal porn.

                  Now, I mean ILLEGAL. He had an entire folder for teenage girls, and another one featuring bestiality.

                  Did I mention that he's sharing this all publically?

                  </gleeful cackling and rubbing of hands commence>

                  End of Part Nine
                  By popular request....I am now officially the Enemy of Normalcy.

                  "What is unobtainium? To Seraph, it's a normal client. :P" -- Observant Friend

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    I did happen to find a few pics from my time there. Namely, two pics from where they tore apart my room. Please keep in mind, I was a neatfreak, so everything was tippy top shape. And then I came home to this.




                    (This one, I put the clothes back in the dresser and closed the drawers because I literally could't get around the place with it open)
                    Last edited by Ree; 03-28-2012, 08:44 PM.
                    By popular request....I am now officially the Enemy of Normalcy.

                    "What is unobtainium? To Seraph, it's a normal client. :P" -- Observant Friend

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Part Rin Ten Ten, Canine Cop.

                      We're gonna skip ahead a bit, its now two years later....

                      Nah, I'm kidding yall.

                      Anyways, so I've discovered Slumlord's special...stash...of stuffins. I screencapped away, and proceeded to get all my ducks in a row about what we were going to do next.

                      Didn't get too far with that, actually. Couple of days later, in the middle of a raid in Everquest 2, I went into labor.

                      ...They kicked me out of the raid too. I told them I had at LEAST a few more hours! Meanies.

                      So, off to the hospital we go! Friend of ours promptly swung by to pick up Kyo, as we couldn't trust Slumlord to not suddenly pop in with the opportunity of a lifetime in his grasp.

                      Few days later, we arrive back with out brand new lil' bundle. All seems to be going quietly for a couple of days, actually, and even the receptionist ooh'd and awww'd over our baby girl.

                      Slumlord, though, saw this as his shining moment.

                      Not a week after the baby arrived, I was served with a final eviction notice. Not really a notice so much as “your lease is up. Get out. Now.”

                      I went to Slumlord's office, and pleaded with him to reconsider. I explained how rough it was going to be for the next month, and couldn't they at least work with us on that?

                      The cherry on the cake?

                      Slumlord had a warrant of sorts out, and posted notices that if I was spotted on the property, to call the police, they were already told I was to promptly be arrested for trespassing, and charged with intent for breaking and entering.

                      And then he followed up with this: “Guess your husband will just have to learn how to bottle feed the brat, won't he?”


                      That was it. That was the straw.


                      I went back to the room, pretended to pack my bags to go, and in actuality had a friend take most of my stuff out to a storage, so that I could stay, in secret.

                      For the next two and a half months, I hid in that room, only coming out in the dead of night. If they stopped on by to check for me, I stayed hidden in the bathroom until they left.

                      And I worked. And prepared. I even located us a new apartment to stay in.

                      I know Slumlord suspected, probably even knew, but he couldn't barge into what was now CG's room, especially with the baby. He probably realized that things were about to hit the fan.


                      The day of freedom came. CG went and got a visitor's pass for me, so I could actually move around in the daytime and help pack up the rest of the stuff.

                      Slumlord watched me the entire time I helped move things out, and I grinned like a confounded Cheshire cat right back at him. Poor Rex just sat there, wagging his tail so hard his whole body shook, because the poor pooch apparently missed me. (Did I mention that after Slumlord yelled at me to stop feeding his dog, Rex mysteriously was getting slices of ham and turkey? Bwahaha)

                      And that was it. We loaded up the car, the baby, and shook their dust from our sandals, and never, EVER went back again.


                      Epilogue

                      So, what happened after that, eh?

                      Well, once we got our stuff unpacked, we made a quick stop at the college. I went to the nearest computer and promptly sent off an email from a disposable account, with a massive amount of documents and a description of what was going on, to the college board, and to the personal account of the college president. (long story, but had to send it anon, I was no longer welcome at the college either)

                      And after someone I was acquainted with drove on past and checked to make sure it was all still there....

                      The local police got a tip a couple of weeks later about someone “distributing large quantities of underage and bestial porn to college students, and potentially minors.”


                      Slumlord knew it was me, though.

                      He actually got with the CEO of the company, who promptly sent a collection agency out after me and the husband for a false debt. Their allegations?

                      1. Two rooms, covered in cat feces and urine. Carpet destroyed, and to the point of replacement and a floor scrubbing.

                      Now, Kyo was a “sheddy” cat, but we vaccuumed daily, and he never, EVER, went outside his litter box. Not only that, but he was only in my room, EVER. And as I've said...neatfreak. So the allegations that he also destroyed CG's previous room, before he moved in with me, was sheer insanity.

                      2. Unpaid rent.

                      Don't even need to cover that, it was their standard tactic of “misplacing” the pay stubs.

                      3. Stolen fridge, valued at $300.

                      This one made me laugh the hardest. Yes, they tried to charge me for my own fridge. Even still, $300? Really? My fridge only cost $150, theirs was actually $110. So I'm not sure why they tried to claim $300....maybe there was a gold nugget hidden inside of it somewhere!


                      The first collection agency stopped short when I politely asked that they provide proof of the debt claims. And never contacted us again.

                      Slumlord then hired a second. And then a third.

                      The third and final agency, I sent a registered letter detailing that if I was going to ever, EVER be harassed again regarding this, I wanted detailed documents and photos explaining the debt, and the charges. And that if they couldn't provide it within 60 days...the debt was invalid, and that I'd better not see it on my credit history anymore.

                      They couldn't provide ANYTHING. I called them up to confirm that it was done, and the lady was, albeit sounding a bit bitter, quite polite. She confirmed that no documentation was ever submitted, even though they pressed for it, and that the note on our credit history was going to be removed.

                      As a nice sidenote, she commented that apparently Slumlord and his CEO didn't actually pay them for their time, and the collection agency was probably going to go after them now!


                      After that, I forgot all about it, because we honestly had some problems to take care of with the new apartment. (We didn't stay at them long, either, haha)

                      However, when I did remember to look again, ohhhh happy day.

                      According to a newspaper article I found online, the complex had been busted several times by the police on various drug raids, etc, etc.

                      But, the final straw came when the college got an anonymous tip (hehehe) about the conditions and the situations occurring there. A surprise investigation revealed that the complex was falsely advertising themselves as the college's soon-to-be-official dorms, and as fully endorsed by said college.

                      The college pulled up all stakes with them, and actually sued the company for it.

                      Slumlord was fired over an “internal scandal” (their words, not sure what happened to him exactly), and had disappeared.

                      CEO's company folded, and he had to declare bankruptcy, because word got out to all the other colleges near the other locations, and they all closed up, one after the other.


                      So in the end, it was honestly a frustrating, horrible experience, but I'm the better for it.

                      I know now how to handle myself under pressure, and I realize how important it is to keep myself informed, and to read up on ways to help myself. I don't have to roll over and cave over things like this. I used many of the things I learned from that experience, with the next apartment, and the troubles I went through. I learned to read through my lease, and the next time, we weren't trapped when we needed to get out. So it helped, in a strange, roundabout way. I went through it for a reason.

                      And plus? If I hadn't been there? Hadn't gone through this?

                      I wouldn't have met my husband, and I wouldn't have a wonderful family, and now be in a better place.


                      Although, then I wouldn't have to deal with so much laundry.

                      Fini~
                      By popular request....I am now officially the Enemy of Normalcy.

                      "What is unobtainium? To Seraph, it's a normal client. :P" -- Observant Friend

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Funny story, I actually DID post on www.apartmentratings.com about them, and Slumlord actually replied nastily to my review, and noted that he knew exactly who wrote it.

                        And it brought to mind something I totally, totally forgot. Not sure how I did, but I did.

                        The sewage issue.

                        Again, adjoining room next to me tried to flush something down the pipes that they shouldn't, and it backed up the sewage lines. However, due to the way the lines were set up, this meant that all the backed up sewage had only one place to go: my bathtub.

                        Yes, it was a common thing for the last five months of my stay to come back, and find the tub nearly overflowing with horrific smelling sewage and other nasties. Slumlord told us this was just my fault for picking the wrong room, and they never really got around to fixing it. CG and I never touched the tub again afterwards, we just showered at our friend's homes.

                        Again, just glad that honestly, we got out of there alive, and that we are the better for it. Yay. ^^
                        Last edited by Ree; 03-28-2012, 08:48 PM.
                        By popular request....I am now officially the Enemy of Normalcy.

                        "What is unobtainium? To Seraph, it's a normal client. :P" -- Observant Friend

                        Comment

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