Day 39 - Transubanimation Story

Transubanimation Story
Matthew Ryan Fischer

The first suicide was tragic, but nothing out of the ordinary other than being perceived as having had a slight flair for the theatrics.  Certainly a good number of people kill themselves every year, and a certain number must jump from buildings to do it.  The rarity of this example, if it truly was rare in the grander scheme of life and death, was that the performer ran at a good speed across their living room and crashed through the window with apparent gusto.  One can only imagine a certain dedication and resolve when deciding to charge headlong full speed towards one’s own death.

The landlord repainted the apartment, installed new carpet on the floors and a new window in the living room.  A new tenant was found.

Oddly, three days into the new tenant’s stay, he too killed himself, in much the same fashion.  Strange to supply first and last month’s rent and a security deposit if one is planning on ending things shortly.  The police found no reason to suspect this was anything more than a morbidly macabre coincidence.

Again new paint, new carpet and a new window were added, this time with a thicker glass.  The landlord believed he was a victim of bad luck, but was rattled enough subconsciously that he opted for the more expensive purchase.

The third tenant, this time a she, survived the three days and then in a horrible repetition of previous events met her doom on the street below.  This time in an unexpected caveat she gouged her own eyes out before making the plunge.  The eyes were left on the floor of the apartment above.  They gave no indication as to her thought process.

It took a fourth before the media caught on and a horrible feeding frenzy began.  The police investigate the landlord more extensively but again found no wrong doing. The court of public opinion convicted him of theft for keeping all four security deposits even though the length of stay was three days apiece.  There were death threats and soon the landlord was hardly able to live in his own building.

Other tenants began to move out.  It wasn’t that they feared they were somehow next, but even the most right minded individual can be disturbed by four suicides in under two weeks. 

Partially due to public pressure and partially to their own good sense, the owners of the building changed landlords and did not try to find a new tenant.  The apartment in question was locked and nailed shut.

Locks and nails do not stop those that are interested in seeing a room or spending a night there.  More died.  Three nights was the apparent number that it took.  The skeptics and debunkers at first spent one night there and then claimed it all to be a hoax.  But it was firmly established that the tenants had all lived there for three days.  So one day was not a feat to impress anyone.

Many thought it would be a good idea to test the three day rule and all of them died.  All of them committed suicide through the living room window.  Then the ropes and the chains came with those that were willing to be bound, tied down so they would be unable to find their case through the living room window.  In some cases ropes were not enough and the victim squirmed their way towards freedom.  In others, where they were unable to free themselves, the struggled against their bindings until they did such damage to their body as to incur death.  It was unnatural and bordering on insanity.

This just brought more people and more media – people who wanted to write books, people who had television shows, and people who just wanted to see such a famous spot.  Psychics, sages and occultists followed.  Then the religious hucksters and snake oil peddlers all came to make their case.  All of them failed.  No one exorcised any demons or communicated with the dead or anything like that.  They failed.  They all failed.  Everyone always did.

Soon the publicity grew to be too much and any semblance of a normal life was impossible.  Even the most adamant tenants decided it was time to leave.

The window was boarded shut, and when that did not deter people, it was bricked over.  Squatters then began ramming their heads against the wall until their brains and their body could take no more.  In response, the owners bricked over the apartment altogether.  And when finally no tenant was willing to live anywhere within the building, the building was shut down and sealed.  What started with the mystery of death, ended with a bricked over window in a bricked over apartment in a bricked over building.

After the fervor died down, life in the neighborhood surrounding the building returned to near normal.  There were occasional onlookers and tours given.  The occasional conspiracy theory advocate would mention it in their blog.  And sometimes a television show or horror movie would use something they heard second hand about the building as part of a plot.  Basically it became one of those urban legends, a “True Story” up there with the Amityville Horror or the Texas Chainsaw Massacre, where no one ever bothered to concern themselves with the truth.

A year later, to no fanfare whatsoever, the building was sold.  The new owner was an unheard of man with no particular background in real-estate.  The old owners didn’t ask what he planned to do with the building.  They didn’t care.  They were glad to be rid of it.

The new owner entered the building, armed with a few provisions and an antique mirror.  He came with a select group of comrades.  But only he entered the room, or so goes the story when repeated by those that couldn’t possibly have been there.

Three days passed.

On the forth day, the new owner exited the apartment and exited the building, alive and well.

When asked about his four days in the room, his reported response to what happened was “I looked into the mirror and I saw myself.  Those with the knowledge of the nature of their soul have nothing to fear.”  When questioned further about what had happened and what he saw, he would not comment.

Three days later he had the building demolished.