The Landlord ~ Chapter Three
Anna looked at the clock and smiled to herself, she knew Dave was due any minute, but this week he wasn’t going to get what he was expecting. The shock and humiliation of last weeks visit had forced her out of the house and to the Job Centre, it had also made her call her parents, she’d told them she had lost her job and was behind with her rent.
The lecture from her parents had been pretty bearable, and they had sent her a cheque. Things were looking up for her, she had job interviews next week, food in her cupboards, and enough cash in her hand to clear her rent arrears and pay next month too. She cringed at the sheer thought of what Dave had subjected her too, and she had vowed that as soon as she got a job she was moving out, she couldn’t stand the sight of him anymore.
A few minutes later Dave arrived, rent book in hand as usual, carrying a small bag. With him was a man that Anna had never seen before, he was a little taller than Dave, thinner, with floppy blonde hair and steely blue eyes. Dave locked the door and motioned for the man to sat down in one of the chairs, he than sat next to Anna on the sofa.
He put the rent book down on the table and smiled to himself, looking as if he was about to say something. Anna saw her chance and beat him to it; she totted the bundle of notes down in front of him, smiling at the look of surprise on Dave’s face. ‘Full rent arrears plus next months payment, its all there, count it if you like’, she waited as he counted the cash slowly, looking thoughtful as he did so, he smiled and marked it down in the book, ’well sweetheart, your all up to date’.
The room fell into an uncomfortable silence; Anna stood up ‘well I have things to do today, so if you don’t mind’. Dave laughed ‘no no no babe…we haven’t finished yet, you know what I’m here for’ he sat back, a smirk crossing his face. She crossed her arms and shook her head defiantly, ‘I’m square with my rent, so you can’t’ she pointed to the door, ‘now get out’. She watched as he grinned and unzipped the bag, pulling out a brown padded envelope, which he proceeded to open, from it he pulled out a black video cassette.
‘There is the small matter of this tape we made the last time around, the one I made for my little collection’ he twirled the tape around in his fingers, and turned the envelope over to show her what was on the front. She was horrified to see that scrawled in black marker pen, was her mother’s address. ‘You wouldn’t want your dear old mum and dad to see this would you? After all, you didn’t just get this money out of nowhere, mummy and daddy must have bailed you out, do you think they’d really want to see this after what they’ve done for you?’.
‘But, but’ she could hardly speak from the shock, ‘how the hell do you know where they live’ she cried, looking for a moment at the blonde guys sat on the sofa, who hadn’t said a single word yet. ‘Silly girl Anna, you filled in their details on your emergency contact form when you moved in’ she sat down, her head spinning, she felt dizzy and sick ‘and besides’ he continued ‘my friend Mark has seen you in action on my video, and he wanted to find out for himself if you were as good as you looked’.