After Renting Out My House, I Became a Murderer

01

My unfinished unit, empty for years, suddenly had a tenant.

He didn't balk at the high rent or the out-of-the-way location. He wanted to sign a five-year lease straight off.

He had just one condition: he wanted to renovate the place.

"My son's getting married soon. I can't afford to buy him a new home, so I'll rent one and fix it up for the wedding."

A wedding was a good thing, I thought, and after turning it over I agreed.

On signing day, he transferred a hundred thousand into my account as a deposit.

Just as I picked up the pen to sign, a line of text flashed across my vision: 【Don't sign. In two years he'll move out, a body will be found inside your unit, and you'll be branded a murderer.】

I froze, and the more I thought about it the more it scared me, so I didn't sign. But the tenant wasn't having it.

......

The text flashed by and was gone. It wasn't a trick of the eye. The words had lodged in my eyes, clear as day.

My hand jerked, and the pen dropped onto the table with a clack.

Cold sweat broke out across my back all at once.

What body? Me, a murderer?

The tenant, Ryan McClain, saw the strange look on my face, and his smile stalled. "What's wrong, ma'am? I've already sent you the money. Let's get this signed and settled. I've got a renovation crew waiting to come in on my end."

I forced down the panic, my mind racing.

I'd already taken the hundred-thousand deposit and agreed to the lease terms out loud. Backing out now made no sense. But the chill that line had left in me wouldn't lift. I didn't dare gamble a human life, and I dared even less to gamble the rest of my own.

"Sorry. I can't sign this contract." I pushed the pen back toward him.

Ryan's face went dark at once. "What's that supposed to mean? We settled everything. I already paid the deposit! You messing with me? I've already lined up my renovation guys. The only reason I was willing to sink money into fixing up your place was the long lease!"

"I'll give you back every cent, untouched, plus interest on top. I'm not renting the unit out."

"No." He slammed the coffee table, his tone hard. "A verbal agreement still counts! You took the deposit, and backing out now is a breach! Either you sign the lease and rent me the place, or I take you to court, and double the deposit back would be getting off easy!"

I watched his face turn on a dime, nothing like the mild man talking about his son's bride a moment ago, and the unease in me sank deeper.

The warning from that line still circled in my head.

I gritted my teeth. "Then I'll take the lawsuit. The deposit plus compensation, I'll pay you every penny, but I am not renting you this unit."

Ryan stared at me, his eyes gone cold and murky, the friendliness dropped for good. "I'm telling you to think this through. Don't make trouble for yourself. This unit—you're renting it to me whether you like it or not."

The hundred thousand was still sitting in my account. On one side, a legal dispute over breach of contract. On the other, some unknown, deadly disaster.

That line of text out of nowhere—was it just an empty hallucination, or a warning that would save my life?

I grabbed my phone at once, ready to send the hundred thousand straight back the way it came.

But Ryan reached out and pressed his hand over my phone. "You can't refund it. Today you're signing, no matter what."

I saw the veins stand out on his forehead, and I was sure this man was no good.

Going off what the text had told me, I turned it around on him. "If this unit is going to be your son's wedding home, then I've thought about it, and I'll need you to give me your son's information."

The moment I said it, Ryan's expression changed.

"Fine. If you insist on not signing, then I've got no choice but to sue you. You'd better think hard about that."

"Even if you send the money back, our deal still happened. That would just prove you didn't act in good faith."

Ryan kept at me, coaxing one minute, threatening the next, but there was no way my decision was going to change.

I sent his hundred thousand back to him right then and there.