The Ghost In Apartment 13

(Sometimes, I think older women are neglected on sites like this one. Well, I haven't forgotten about you. Enjoy.)

*

While the sun was out, and appeared somewhat robust and able to take on the morning landscape, the crisp breeze had contrary ideas, and was doing its best to bring shivers to the numerous pedestrians at the immense grassy park in La Jolla.

Among the many visitors that morning, most of whom were gawking and taking pictures of the small herd of sea lions squawking or flopping about on their bellies on the rocks, or instead perching precariously on the edge of the unstable sandstone cliffs to have their pictures taken, were two of the affluent area's longtime residents. These were Eleanor and Victoria, both several years past the century mark, and both in desperate need of male company, as Eleanor's husband had abandoned her for a younger woman some years before, and Victoria's would have done the same, save that she found out about her mate's affair ahead of schedule, and with the help of her maid and butler, had his personal items waiting for him on the driveway upon his return from the office.

Eleanor had movie star looks, with rich blonde hair, full lips and handsome cheekbones. She also displayed a busty front, an ample rear, and a general air of aloofness that made observers question whether she were some type of celebrity, or some other sort of important woman. Victoria, on the other hand, had her lush red hair pulled back into a knot, to show off her beautifully rosy cheeks. Her breasts were even more delicious than Eleanor's, but she kept them more conservatively concealed, and although her robustness gave her an approachable and warm demeanor, she could also act quite queenly when she so chose to.

Knowing full well the capriciousness of the weather, the two women had smartly thought ahead and worn sweaters that morning, as they took their customary weekend walk around the beautiful park. Victoria enjoyed the serenity of the palm trees and grass, and if tempered, the sounds of small children playing gaily with their parents, while Eleanor, on the other hand, preferred the tumult and clamor of the ocean waves crashing on the beachside rocks, just a short distance from the edge of the park.

They'd spotted a small pack of male surfers, or more accurately, boogie boarders, floating out among the waves, and while warmer weather might have raised the two women's hopes of seeing chiseled chests and washboard abdomens on bronzed skin, the truth was that such inclement temperatures as were common that morning invariably led to these younger men being covered from neck to ankles in bodysuits. Both women frowned at their misfortune, and quietly moved on.

They came across a short, stout Mexican woman, who had hand-fashioned bracelets and anklets made of cheap metals or beads sprawled across a park bench, but this held their interest very briefly, and when they saw half a dozen artists standing before their easels and contemplating the cove, they flocked over to critique their handiwork. Having had attended numerous art shows together in the past, as wealthy and bored older women are prone to attend, both Eleanor and Victoria instantly classified the amateur artists' skills as being well below their level of enjoyment, and they were at the point of detaching themselves from the tiny group of spectators when yet another of their usual partners in crime could be see waving and power walking in their direction.

"Katherine, where have you been?" Eleanor greeted, in that exuberant and somewhat snobby voice that guaranteed drawing the attention of some of the people around her. She played the part well, as her arms were outstretched wide to gather in the new arrival, and her illustrious embrace, of course, was more for show than it was for joy.

Obligingly, Katherine withstood the kisses to either cheek, returned the same, and went on to repeat the greeting with Victoria. Katherine's hair was a more mundane brown, streaked with gray, and cut short and sassy. Her figure was lean, her curves not as pronounced as that of the other two women, but she as her body was athletic and toned, she could still be viewed as an attractive woman.

After their salutations, the three women formed a compact and more or less confidential triangle between themselves.

"I've been so busy." Katherine started off, widening her eyes a moment later. "And you wouldn't believe some of the things that have happened to me."

"Let's have a chat, shall we?" The ever-pompous Eleanor suggested, and in a royal manner, she led the other two women toward a nearby, and pleasantly vacant, green little roofed structure where park visitors could sit and contemplate the ocean, or the park, or whatever it was that they felt so inclined to contemplate.

"We haven't seen you in two weeks!" Victoria squealed, as they took their seats.

"I know, I know." Katherine nodded.

The more regal Eleanor placed herself across from the other two women, as if she were part of their trio, and perhaps wasn't, in the eyes of a casual observer, and a moment later, she crossed one leg over the other. "Yes, tell us what you've been doing with yourself. Victoria and I were about to start a rumor about you running away with one of your landscaping people and heading off to Cancun or some other such sun-drenched place."

Victoria giggled. "Just like Eleanor and her valet!"

"What valet?" Katherine asked, looking suspiciously and directly at Eleanor.

Not having expected Victoria to have blurted out such an intimate secret as that, Eleanor's cheeks understandably flushed.

"Oh, come on!" Katherine insisted. "Spill the beans, or I'll have to get Victoria's second-hand version, and I'd much rather hear it from the horse's mouth."

Eleanor sighed. "Fine, I'll admit it. I went through a particularly dry spell a few years ago. I was forty-five, if I remember correctly, and I'd gone up to the Pacifica in Del Mar for their happy hour. I may have had one drink too many, because I made a proposition to one of the valets that was working that night."

"You didn't!" Katherine gaped back.

"I offered him five hundred dollars a week, plus the conditional use of my BMW," Eleanor set her next two words up perfectly. "For sex."

Victoria squealed.

Katherine covered her mouth in disbelief. "You didn't!"

Having heard the story before, Victoria recovered from the shock first. "Tell her what the valet was like."

"His name was Gregory." Eleanor thought back wistfully. "And he had the long, lean body of an athlete. He was a long distance runner, I believe, and he was nearly six feet tall. And his endurance, my darlings, was to die for..."

"What happened to him?"

"Oh, he was guilty of being of the temperament of a typical young man in his early twenties." Eleanor shook her head, just slightly and not upsetting her lady-like demeanor. "He decided one night, that he was going to show my car off to his friends. He ended up trying to scale a center divider with it and somehow managed to destroy both the front and rear axles in one fell swoop. The insurance company covered the loss, so it wasn't a complete disaster, but alas, I had to let my little valet go."

Katherine considered Eleanor's beauty and figure. By far, she was the most attractive of the three women, and for the life of her, Katherine could not see Eleanor at a loss for male companionship, at any time in the past. There was one question about Eleanor, that had been nagging her for some time now, and before she could consider the tactfulness of it, she went ahead and voiced it. "Have you ever had plastic surgery?"

"Good heavens, no." Eleanor balked. "Have you seen recent pictures of Donatella Versace or Jocelyn Wildenstein? They both look like something out of The Island of Doctor Moreau! Why would you even ask that?"

Katherine shrugged. "It's just that your boobs look so perfect."

"You wouldn't think so, if you saw me taking my bra off." Eleanor joked. "But they are all natural. Why are we getting so far off the subject, anyway? We were about to find out where you've been hiding yourself for the last two weeks."

Katherine smiled.

(It must be mentioned here, that while Eleanor inherited her wealth through her family, and Victoria attained hers from marriage, Katherine earned hers the old fashioned way; through hard work, perseverance, and the manipulation of real estate. Much of Katherine's holdings made a tremendous amount of money for her, as they were located in the outlying and low income districts near the metro area of San Diego, right before the announcement of a downtown ballpark skyrocketed home prices through the roof. Wisely, Katherine held on to these properties until the market peaked, at which point she sold them all off, and in layman's terms, she made bank. Or alternately, she made a grip of money. Or something like that, you get the picture.)

"Well," Katherine began her explanation. "I told you both that I'd purchased an apartment complex that was in default, in one of the bad parts of town, right?"

Both Eleanor and Victoria confirmed this.

"I went down there, and I took my small army of landscapers, general contractors and clean-up people with me, and because I got the complex for such a good price, I gave the place a facelift worthy of a prime-time reality show." Katherine boasted. "I kicked out the criminal element, which opened up a handful of apartments, and I didn't even have to raise the rent, which made my current tenants that much happier."

"But how are you going to pay for all of those renovations?" The always practical Eleanor asked.

"Oh, that's easy." Katherine replied, waving offhandedly. "The new tenants moving in are going to pick up the tab, over the long term. And I'll still make a handsome profit off the complex, if I decide to sell early."

"Go on." Victoria urged, having no patience for droll financial details.

"I had my property management people take over to fill up the vacant apartments." Katherine continued. "And that's when the trouble started. There's one certain apartment, in that entire complex of twenty-six units that simply nobody wants to rent. It's a really nice place, too, with two levels and three bedrooms, and it was renovated as nicely as the rest of the complex. And believe it or not, it's unit number Thirteen."

The occult number drew Victoria in closer. "You don't say."

Eleanor's brow creased. "Why would no one want to rent it?"

"I asked myself that same question." Katherine stated. "My property manager told me that prospective renters didn't feel comfortable in that place, and she even had a couple of agents that refused to take a step past the threshold. I didn't know what to make of the story, at first."

"Then what happened?" Victoria asked, knowing well of Katherine's proclivity toward bull-headedness. When Katherine wanted something done, she hounded her people until it got done, or else heads would roll.

"I went down there to see for myself." Katherine answered. "I did a walk-through, and I didn't find anything out of the ordinary. Afterwards, I ran into the woman that rents the apartment next door, and when I asked her about it, that's when I found out that the apartment is haunted."

"Haunted?" Eleanor cried out. "You can't be serious! You're not seriously entertaining the idea of there being actual ghosts floating around and giving people the willies?"

"She said willies!" Victoria chuckled. "I can't believe it! She actually said willies!"

Eleanor rolled her eyes at her.

"The first thing that ran through my mind was, 'these people have got to be pulling my leg.'" Katherine said. "I didn't believe it for a second, and I asked Orlando, my head landscaper, if he wouldn't mind spending the night there just to prove everyone wrong."

"And he did it?" Victoria asked, growing more engrossed in the tale. "He really did it?"

"He agreed to it, yes." Katherine nodded. "But he called me that same night, at about one o'clock in the morning, to tell me that he couldn't stand being in the apartment one moment longer. He said that he heard voices, and heavy steps going up and down the stairs, but what really set him on edge, was when he saw a shadowy man walking into the bedroom he was sleeping in. Orlando freaked out, and he begged me not to fire him, because he thought he was letting me down by not keeping his promise to stay the entire night."

"I would have fired him." Eleanor crossed her arms, and uncrossed her legs. "For being an incompetent."

"So there really is a ghost there?" Victoria asked.

"I didn't believe there was." Katherine went on. "And I was even more adamant about proving it, so I decided that I was going to drive down there with my sleeping bag, and I was going to spend the entire night in that apartment by myself!"

Victoria gasped.

"You didn't." Eleanor made an incredulous face.

"Oh, I certainly did." Katherine countered. "I found out which bedroom it was that Orlando had gone into, and I marched right up there and threw my sleeping bag down on the floor, and I dared the ghost to show its ugly face!"

Victoria looked about ready to stand up and start running off through the park in a panic.

The more hard-nosed Eleanor wasn't as easily spooked. "So you spent the night there, nothing happened, and that was that. Right?"

Grimly, Katherine gazed back at her. "Not quite."

"Tell us what happened." Victoria urged, acting similar to a small girl hiding scared under the covers, but asking to hear a scary story anyway.

Katherine took her time in relating her answer. "I left a hallway light on, and I tried to go to sleep right away, but..."

"Oh, don't tell me you got the willies just because somebody else did." Eleanor made a face.

"No, I didn't get the willies." Katherine countered. "I had all of these bills I had to take care of, and I'd forgotten to upload them onto my laptop before I left the house, and I was trying to estimate all these figures in my head while I was trying to go to sleep at the same time. I don't think I dozed off until half past ten."

"And nothing happened." Eleanor said.

"Shh!" Victoria shushed her. "Let her tell the story."

"Nothing happened." Eleanor shrugged, but she was also very interested in finding out what happened as well. "Do go on, dear."

Katherine leaned forward, and dropped her voice by a couple of notches, and beside her, Victoria leaned in as well. "I may not have told you this before, but I'm a very light sleeper. I don't know how many times I've been woken up when I hear a dog barking outside my house, and have trouble going back to sleep afterward.

"It must have been a little past one in the morning, but I'm not one hundred percent sure, because I was too scared to check the time. I woke up the moment I heard footsteps coming up the stairs. I was sure I'd locked the door downstairs, and I couldn't imagine who it might have been, unless the security guard from the complex had let himself inside, and was coming upstairs to check on me. So I sat up, and waited for whoever it was. I swear to the both of you, that I was looking right into the hallway, and I heard the steps going all the way to the top of the stairs. Then the steps turned and started toward the bedroom I was in, and I swear, there was nobody visible in the hallway the entire time."

Victoria now looked ready to jump out of the little green structure, and possibly right into the ocean, if she could avoid the sandstone crest and the smooth boulders between her and the beach.

"Darling, you were hallucinating." Eleanor refused to believe her.

"How do you hallucinate something you can't see?" Victoria grimaced.

"I was so terrified that I couldn't even move." Katherine went on. "I couldn't even open my mouth to scream, and these heavy footsteps walked right into the bedroom I'd been sleeping in. Whatever it was, whoever it was, I felt it pause and take a long look at me lying there on the floor. I didn't know if it was going to try to kill me or what, and I couldn't even lift a finger to defend myself, because I was so scared."

Victoria stood up, wide-eyed and ready to run away screaming.

"Will you sit back down?" An impatient Eleanor scolded her.

Trembling, Victoria complied.

"What happened next, dear?"

"This... This thing was just standing there, and staring at me." Katherine replied. "It might have stared at me for five full minutes, and then it started to walk in my direction. Suddenly, the top half of my sleeping bag was thrown aside, and I could sense this thing, this ghost, dropping down onto its knees right in front of me."

Eleanor leaned closer. "Now, this is getting interesting."

"I was wearing a long sleeping shirt that night." Katherine admitted. "And although I don't like advertising this, I usually go to sleep without wearing any underwear." She clammed up a moment later.

"Come, come, don't you know it's not polite to keep us in suspense like this." Eleanor said.

Victoria went one step further, and nudged the storyteller's shoulder. "Well?"

Katherine gulped, and after taking one quick glance around to make sure no person was eavesdropping on their private conversation, she leaned forward a little more. Apparently, she was still having trouble making the words come out.

"Well?" Victoria urged.

"It licked my pussy."

Victoria squealed.

"Must you always be so crass?" Eleanor shook her head again.

"Vagina, vulva, clitoris, whatever you want to call it." Katherine visibly blushed. "The ghost licked it, and it licked it so long, that eventually I stopped being scared of it, and I started to respond like any normal woman would. I started moaning so loud, that I woke up the neighbor next door, and she thought I was being murdered or something. The next thing I know, the security guard is downstairs pounding on the door, and I'm barely able to get up and make it down the stairs, because my legs are feeling all wobbly, and I have to open up the door and tell him I'm alright, and that I was having a bad nightmare, when I've got all this cum running down my legs." Katherine hid her face with her hands from the embarrassment.

"And I fancy you thought it was some handsome young buck pleasuring you?" Eleanor teased, as she was sure her friend was joking with her. All that was missing now was the punchline.

"Young man, old man, how should I know what it was?" Katherine snapped back. "I told you, I never saw the thing, I only heard it stomping up the stairs like some kind of serial killer. I am not making this up!"

"So it could have been a woman?" Victoria asked.

"If she walked like a man, and threw her weight around like a man, I'm sure it could have been." Katherine's sudden fury fluttered away with another cold gust of wind. Unlike the other two, she was not wearing a sweater. "You're the first two people I've told this to, and I'd appreciate if you don't go and blab it around to everyone you run into."

"How does this explain where you've been for the last two weeks?" Eleanor asked.

Katherine looked first to Victoria, and next to Eleanor, and for the first time that morning, she was fighting back a mischievous grin. "I couldn't believe what had happened to me that night. I thought I'd imagined it, so to prove to myself that it had really, actually happened, and that I wasn't going crazy, I went back to that same apartment. In the last two weeks, I've gone back five times, and the same, exact thing has happened each and every time I've spent the night there."

"Do you really expect us to believe that you've been getting some kind of phantasmagorical fellatio from a ghost in an apartment in the ghe-tow?" Eleanor questioned.

"I don't expect you to take my word for it." Katherine opened her mouth to let out a long sigh, and afterward, she was smiling. "I'm challenging the both of you to jump into my car, as soon as the sun goes down, and to spend the night in that same apartment with me. And it's not pronounced ghe-tow, it's pronounced ghetto."