All Hope Lost (8 page)

The more I had read of her
predicament the more furious I became. The neighbours were now using her bin
for their rubbish. They have four bins, Panda has one bin. She now has nowhere
to put her rubbish so has to tie it up on the front porch. She has now been
issued a warning from the Landlady because she is a trouble maker, all because
she is a decent resident, and complaining about the noise from other neighbours
who are doing these things on purpose. The victims always lose in these
situations. Things have got to change.

As far as I could tell, these
people had no right to do what they were doing. In my mind, they were a waste
of space and were consuming good oxygen. I was fuming.
This will go on no
more, NO MORE!
I screamed, and the flat shook. Finding a gas appliance with
a pilot light, I reached in and started to mess about with the insides.
Something broke. The blue flame quickly turned orange. I knew what I had done,
but I did not feel any remorse for what I doing and the consequences. I was a
Daemon, Judge, Jury, and Executioner. At least that’s what I assumed.

I heard the outside door slam
shut, and a few moments later, the front door opened, and ultimately
deliberately slammed as the man and woman entered. They didn’t talk to each
other either, they shouted. They weren’t arguing, but being deliberately noisy.
How can they keep this up? Surely it must annoy themselves?
The minds of
idiots and inconsiderate assholes always baffled me. I shook my head, but
inside I was laughing. Soon, Panda would have a quiet home for a while. I
quickly shot upstairs to check that the fumes would not be penetrating anywhere
in her flat, noting Panda already despairing about the banging that’s just
started. I shot back downstairs and watched as the man sat down at the kitchen
table and started swinging his legs against a kitchen cupboard door. He
motioned his wife to do something too, so she went to the kitchen door and
started slamming it against the wall.
I pity you poor fools, nothing better
to do than be abusive to a lone woman, thinking you have a right to do such a
thing. But not for much longer.
I laughed
.
I laughed so loud, that
the flat grew cold. The woman shivered and went to turn on the central heating.
The boiler kicked in and the water gurgled around the pipework.
Soon, we
would be rid of these horrible people for ever.
I raised myself through the
ceiling and back up to Panda’s flat. She was attempting to read a book amidst
all the banging. I sat on her sofa, and kept her company as the night drew on.

               
As the banging continued throughout the night, Panda became more and more
agitated. After a few hours, she left the flat. Where she went I didn’t know,
but as soon as she left the main entrance, the banging stopped. I scowled.
Your harassment days will soon be over.
I stayed for the night, watching
and waiting. Panda didn’t return until the early morning. I could only guess
she had had enough and went over to a friends for some peace and quiet.
To
be driven out of your own home because of them, but not for much longer.
The banging had stopped about midnight, when the couple had decided to finally
go to bed. The cat didn’t seem too bothered, and had curled up next to me and
slept. Panda got in, closed her door as any normal person would and went about
getting breakfast for herself and her cat.

I sunk through the floor and
back into the neighbours from hells flat. There was no movement or sound. I
headed for their bedroom, and found the couple still sleeping, deeply. Leaning
over them I reached for the faces, brushing my hands across them. They lay
still, no reaction.  I wasn’t sure how long it would take for the fumes to
do their job, but I knew that it could be quick. I did a quick check in the
kitchen and other rooms, and made sure all the vents were closed off. Most of
the vents had the old open and shut slider; the bathroom had a permanently open
one.
Old flats and homes are not up to standards nowadays.
I headed back
to Panda’s flat. It would only be a matter of time before the silence would be
noticed by her, and who knew how long after that before the bodies would be
found.  Hopping into her PC, I grabbed the line back home, where I could
relay to Michael what I had done.

Minutes later, I reappeared
back in my old living room. There was no sign of Steve or Michael anywhere, so
I hopped onto the laptop, and decided to read up on some more neighbours from
hell problems.

Mayhem Madness

I decided to take on this next
neighbour from hell because of the unbelievable way the lady and her family had
been treated, not only by the neighbours but by the authorities as well. To
think that this sort of thing goes on behind the scenes outraged me. No one on
the forum could believe how many times this lady was ignored, fobbed off and
ultimately had her case dragged out for so long, one of her family members has
now ended up in hospital.

For four and a half years,
this family has suffered from abuse, harassment, door slamming, banging on
walls, housework being done at midnight, moving furniture around overnight,
their children being out of control and also being rude, abusive and damaging
their car and property.

The housing association that
is responsible have dragged the situation out for so long, that the lady has
had to go ahead with legal action against the neighbour and the housing
association involved and pay for her own solicitor. The housing association has
also been making remarks on their Facebook page, and she quoted this made by
one their officers:

“…will be glad for the extra days off because she is sick
of people complaining and moaning about situations they had got involved in or
they had created themselves….” I fumed.
Victims of neighbours from hell do
not create the situation. We complain about a problem already there!
The
same housing officer then also wrote, “…. A day of people pissing me off with
their shit attitudes, a large drink and put it to bed cos I’m better than
them…” These sort of comments by the so-called authorities, are offensive and
distressing to those of us who are the victims.
How dare they!
  I
continued reading.

It appears also that the
neighbours like to copy the lady. She went out to mow her lawn. Four times that
same week, her neighbour mowed his lawn.
Grass doesn’t grow that quick does
it?
The housing association refuse to do anything about her neighbours,
even though they have evidence up to their eyeballs about them breaking their
tenancy rules.
What’s the point in having these rules if they don’t stick by
them? Oh wait. One of them mentions that the neighbour in question is one of
the housing officers’ friends!
I shook my head sadly.
Friendship with a
noisy neighbour shouldn’t mean she should be getting away with what she is
doing.
I had a feeling I would be paying this one a visit as well as the
noisy neighbour.

I continued to read on, my
eyes rolling as the more I read, the more furious I became. The lady had
written about the housing association stating that the sound recording that had
the evidence of the noise was not enough, but was also not passed over to the
Environmental Health. The anti-social behaviour officer at the housing
association made the decision that there was not enough evidence in the
recording to deem it a nuisance. The lady had asked the housing association
about whether this person was qualified to make this decision, and she was told
that she “doesn’t have to be qualified to make a decision and they use the same
guidelines as the Environmental Health, and that the Environmental Health
Officer said she was happy to the anti-social behaviour officer at the housing
association do this.”

I knew, from my own
experience, that this was a complete lie. The only qualified persons to deal
with this would be an environmental health officer, and they as well have no
right to ‘deputise’ anyone to do their job. So this poor woman has had both her
housing association and her local environmental health fobbing her off.

Time for some vengeance!
My
fists clenched and hopping into the laptop, found the ladies message line and
hurtled myself along it. Her abusive neighbour days were about to be over.

As I hopped out the other end
of the line, I could immediately hear the banging doors, banging on the walls,
and the screaming of unruly kids. I had had enough of parents that didn’t teach
their children respect for others, consideration or general good manners any
more. These children would just end up like their mother if I let this
continue. First up, the real monster under the bed. I walked through the
adjoining wall to find the mother throwing a ball against the wall, and
encouraging one of her children to do the same. The other child, I found
jumping off a bed to crash on the floor, screaming. I knew at that moment that
this job may be one that drained me, but there was no way I was going to let
them continue this charade. If this wasn’t harassment and excessive noise, I
didn’t know what was. I headed for the children’s bedroom and slid under one of
the beds.
These kids are going to learn their manners very fast.

It was already late, and any
normal household would have had their younger children in bed and asleep
already hours ago. I waited and listened carefully as the mother rounded up the
children and bought them to bed. As she tucked them in, and headed out the
door, I started to shimmer violently. The bed above me started to shake. The
young boy gasped, his brother on the other bed looking on.  I stopped
shaking it then and made a growling noise. Both boys made a cry and held onto
the duvets tightly.

“Muuuuuuum” the boy above me cried. “Muuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuum!”

The mother rushed upstairs and opened the door. “What?
What’s wrong?”

“There’s something under the bed!” the boy whispered.

She lifted the duvet and ducked down to peer under the
bed. “Nothing there boys. Now go to sleep you two.” Letting the duvet slip from
her grasp she left the room again, this time heading for her own bedroom. The
boys settled back down again, and I growled, low and long. The boy on the bed
above me spoke. “Did you hear that?” His brother nodded.

“Muuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuum!”

This time, she shouted from
her room. “Go to sleep! There is nothing under your bed!”

The two boys went quiet then,
but the other boy got out of bed and lifted his brothers’ duvet and peered
under.

His small face came into my vision and I blinked at him,
my eyes shining. I growled at him and he screamed, rushing out the room to his
mother. The boy above me was now hiding under his duvet, shaking.

Seconds later, the mother came
back in the room and put her other son to bed again, and once again made the
movements of checking under the bed. She ducked down and her face came into
view. I blinked at her, bared my teeth in a satanic smile, and growled. She
squealed then and fell backwards. I made myself disappear whilst she sorted
herself back into a crouch, and carefully she peered underneath again. Nothing.
Double checking she put her arm under and felt around. Her arm slid through my
cold form and she pulled it back, a chill going up her spine. Frowning she
grabbed the boys and took them to her own room. Tucking them into her bed, she
got in the middle and turned out the light. “I’ll check again in the morning
boys. It was probably just a mouse, or something.”
She was trying to
convince herself there was nothing strange in her sons’ bedroom
. I laughed,
and made my way to the bottom end of her bed.

The darkness felt warm around
me, as though it was cradling me in its arms. The silence, only broken by the
soft breathing of the family before me, was peaceful.
Not for long.

I moved around the room as
fast as I could, making all the doors on the wardrobes, and drawers open it
seemed at once with a thud. The woman sat up and quickly switched on a bedside
lamp. “What the hell?” she said as she took in the disarray of her furniture.
“Boys, don’t mess about.” She got up and closed the doors and drawers, got back
into bed and seeing the boys still tucked up in her bed, she frowned and turned
off the light once more. This time, I entered the wardrobe, and slowly pushed
one door open from the inside. It creaked a little, and the woman switched the
light on again to see the one door opened. She stared at the door, too scared
to move.
Time to scare the shit out of this one!
I found one of her
dresses and put it on, then flinging the other door open I hovered out of the
wardrobe and floated around the bed. The woman screamed. Next door banged on
their wall in frustration at the sudden noise. I raised my arms and shrieked,
making my eyes appear and a mouth full of teeth. The woman was now hysterical,
the boys wide awake and clutching their mother, hiding their faces against her
body, crying. I swooped up on the bed, and floated above them, peering down.

Making my voice low, the
woman’s eyes widened with fear, I growled, and spoke slowly. “No. More. Hell.
With. Others.” It was hard to speak precisely for a human to understand, but
she was still staring at me. I tried to clarify. “Be, Nice.” The woman nodded
her head quickly, her breathing ragged. I bared my teeth at her and growled,
then made a gesture of my invisible hand going across my neck. “Or. You. All.
Die.” I heard her whimper then, and so for added effect I shrieked loudly at
her, which caused next door to bang on the wall with cries to “…be quiet, we’re
trying to sleep”. I vanished then, letting the dress fall to the bed, but I
stayed there to see what she did. The woman looked about the room in shock,
then at the wall. “S-sorry!” she shouted, and then reaching out to her dress,
she poked it to make sure it wouldn’t start floating about again. Realising it
wasn’t going to move, she let out a breath she had been holding, and hugged her
children close. “It’s ok now, it’s ok.” She rocked them a little as they peered
out from their sanctuary.