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Something was alive in there. It didn't matter that he was the only one who'd heard it.
"No sir, I can't open someone's storage unit. It's their property, and besides, it's not like we have a key to everybody's locks." The woman at the front desk shrugged gargantuan shoulders. Her name tag said Hi, I'm Virginia. How may I be of service?
Lloyd faced his wife, Denise. "Can you believe this?"
"Did you hear anything, ma'am?" Virginia turned her attention to Denise.
Of course she would back him up on this. That's what Lloyd expected, anyway. After almost three years of marriage, you come to presume such things.
"Could there be rats in there or something?" Denise said.
"No ma'am, we have no vermin on the premises. We couldn't hope to continue business if such were the case. And besides, we have a tenant who lives on-site and works in the pest control field. He happens to be my brother." She paused with a proud twinkle in her eye, then fixed Denise with a direct look. "So you heard it, too?"
"Well, not exactly—" She cleared her throat.
"What?" Not what Lloyd had expected.
"But if my husband says he heard something, then he heard something," she added.
"What did it sound like, sir?"
"I told you already." He sighed as Denise put her hand on his shoulder to calm him down. "It was like a scraping, like something was shuffling around in there. Scuttling."
"Scuttling." Virginia raised a well-painted eyebrow.
"That's right."
"Is there any chance we could move to a different storage unit?" Denise said.
"I'm sorry. This time of year is our peak season with college students needing space for their belongings over the summer and whatnot. If you're unhappy with your current unit, we can hold your deposit and reschedule for the fall. August would be the soonest."
Lloyd blew out another sigh. "That's not the issue here."
"They're replacing the carpet and tile in our condominium," Denise said. "Some kind of settlement between the HOA and the builders over noise between the units."
"Noise?" Virginia raised her other painted eyebrow.
Denise nodded. "They're laying down some kind of sound barrier on the floor, and we have to move out for the week. The renovation starts Monday."
"Regardless, there's something living in the storage unit next to ours!" Lloyd raised his voice. "Doesn't that concern you? Shouldn't you have your brother check it out or notify the police or something?"
Denise squeezed his shoulder.
Virginia stared like she was an ancient Neanderthal processing speech patterns for the first time. "You want me to come take a look?"
"Yeah. That would be great."
––––––––
"Where exactly did you say you heard it, sir?"
He ignored her condescending tone. "Right here." He stood inside their unit and gestured broadly at the plywood wall. Behind him, a few short towers of stacked boxes waited for many more of their kind to arrive. "It came from the floor, on the other side."
"And how did it sound?"
"Like something scuttling," he said.
"Right. Scuttling." Virginia nodded. She shined her penlight at the wall, as if that would help matters. There was already enough ambient light to see by. "Do you hear it now?"
"No." What kind of question was that? "Do you?"
"Sometimes things settle." She shrugged her massive shoulders. "You know?"
"Something might have slipped off something else in there, is that what you mean?" Denise remained in the narrow hallway outside their unit.
"I know what I heard." Lloyd tapped the wall with his shoe. "It was moving."
Denise sighed. "Well, Honey, we should be too. Right?"
He looked back at her, and she raised both eyebrows with a slight shrug. He nodded with a pensive frown. "Yeah." He joined her but kept glancing back at the wall. It would have been just perfect if at that moment, whatever was inside the neighboring unit started moving around again. But of course nothing happened.
"You let me know if you need anything else." Virginia shuffled away, clicking off her penlight and giving Lloyd a withering glance. Denise, however, received a warm smile and a wink.
––––––––
Lloyd slid the dolly under their latest batch of boxed belongings and grimaced, sweating beneath the weight. He wheeled through the maze on the storage complex's second floor, passing padlocked doors on both sides. Denise had already beaten him to their unit and was arranging the other boxes to provide for maximum capacity. He paused outside and eyed the lock on the unit next door, reaching for it. It looked brand new, without a single scratch around the key hole.
"What are you doing?"
He let it go, and the lock banged against the door. He couldn't help cringing at the sound. "I know what I heard."
"Things settle—"
"So now you're taking her side?" He wheeled the dolly into their unit and started unloading it.
"There aren't any sides, Honey. This is the only unit they have available for us. If we go someplace else, we'll lose our deposit."
He blew out a sigh. "It doesn't bother you that something might be trapped in there?" He pointed at the wall. "Forget about the deposit—forget about us. It's going to die if it doesn't get out."
She wrinkled her nose at that. "Think it would make our stuff stink?"
He threw up his hands in exasperation.
"I'm kidding." She looked him in the eye, her hand on his shoulder. "What do you think it is?"
He could feel his raging pulse slow at her touch. "Well, I mean it sounded like something small, like—"
"A rat?"
"No, bigger. Maybe puppy-sized." He glanced at her reaction.
Her eyes widened at first, but then logic came to the rescue. "We'd hear a puppy, if that were the case. It would be yelping like crazy."
He nodded, mulling it over. "A mute puppy, then? One with its vocal cords snipped?"
"Why would anybody lock a mute puppy in a storage unit?"
"Maybe they didn't know. Maybe they were in a hurry and the little guy was sound asleep inside one of their boxes or something, and they moved all their junk in there, locked it up, and left before—"
"They would have noticed it missing."
"We're talking about a mute puppy here. I doubt it ever made much noise back at home." He stopped himself. "You don't think it's a mute baby, do you? Some kind of little mutant they didn't want to take care of anymore?"
She backed up a step, shaking her head at him. "Now you're getting crazy."
"Because a mute baby is less plausible than a mute puppy?"
Something thudded against the wall. They both jumped and froze still, staring at each other.
"That was a lot bigger than a puppy," Denise whispered.
––––––––
"So now you're saying you heard it, too?" Virginia looked unimpressed, wedged behind her desk in the front office and glancing from Lloyd to Denise with heavy-lidded eyes.
"It was different this time—louder." His heart continued to make its presence known.
"Yes, I heard it." Denise nodded. "Something's definitely in there."
"A boom you said? Or was it more of a thud?"
"What's it matter?" he snapped.
She shrugged. "We have over a hundred units in your building, each one of them built with adjoining walls, just plywood and sheet metal. Sound travels, sir." She smirked. "Kind of like your apartment complex."
"Condominium," he corrected.
"Except here, we don't bother with any sort of sound-proofing between units. Nobody lives in there."
"You sure about that?"
Denise squeezed his arm. "Is there some way you could contact the people renting that unit? Just to let them know?"
"Let them know what, exactly? You heard a boom. Or a thud. Probably just somebody downstairs loading or unloading their stuff." She shrugged again. "Sounds travel."
"There's nobody else around!" Lloyd clenched his fists.
"Do not shout at me, sir. People come and go all day long. How would you know if nobody else was in the D building?"
"Look!" He jabbed a finger at the large monitor on her desk with its screen segmented into sixteen squares, each with black and white real-time footage. "Do you see anybody?"
"Back away from my desk, sir."
"Just look!"
"Honey." Denise squeezed his arm again.
"Get whoever's renting that unit on the phone, or I'm calling the police. Your choice!" he shouted.
"I will be the one calling the police, sir, to have you escorted from the premises if you do not calm down this instant."
"I want to speak to your manager. Where is he? Back there?" He pointed at the door marked private ten yards behind her.
Virginia looked at Denise. "I am the only associate currently on duty. If you would like to leave a message for the manager—"
Lloyd flipped her off and stormed out of the office.
"I'm sorry." Denise followed, cringing apologetically. "But if you could just see about contacting the renters? We're afraid they might have left one of their pets inside by accident."
Virginia's brow furrowed. "A pet? Oh, that's awful. Yes, I'll see what I can do." She reached for her phone.
"Thanks!" Denise exited the office.
Virginia didn't pick up the phone. Instead, she swiveled around to heave herself toward that door marked private.
––––––––
Lloyd was kneeling inside their unit when Denise found him, his palms pressed against the plywood wall, his left ear almost touching it.
"What are you doing now?" She remained in the hallway outside.
He raised a finger to his lips, intent on whatever he was trying to accomplish.
"Honey, maybe we should just get our stuff and go. Who cares about the deposit. We'll find another place," she said.
He frowned, blinking in the silence, seeming to gather his nerve. Then he curled one hand into a fist and knocked against the plywood. He waited, listening. Denise crossed her arms and watched. Lloyd took a deep breath and held it. Then he knocked again, this time with both fists. And he waited.
"Well?" she whispered, leaning forward.
Nothing.
"I don't like this," she said.
He scowled up at her, lips pursed to say something, but he was interrupted. A heavy thump sounded like a creature had launched itself against the other side of the wall. The impact was enough to make the plywood bow outward. He fell back, wide-eyed and mute. The thing—invisible behind the wall but there without a doubt—scuttled upward like some kind of boa constrictor or giant lizard with sticky feet.
Denise had jumped at the sound of it and now stood with her hands covering her mouth, leaning against the aluminum door of another unit for support.
"Get out of there!" she hissed, tears springing to her eyes.
"Yeah." Unsteady and having some difficulty swallowing, Lloyd shuffled out, glancing back over his shoulder at the wall, silent now.
"What was that?"
"I don't know." His eyes flicked from the wall to the door of the unit in question. "Whatever it is, it's big. And it can climb."
"I noticed that."
He kept his voice low. "You don't think—" He cleared his throat. "It could come through? Into our unit? It's only a thin sheet of plywood in between."
She nodded. "We're getting our stuff out. There are plenty of other storage sites in town."
"Right. But what about—?" He gestured broadly. "It's probably starving to death in there."
"Honey, it's not our concern. Besides, the woman in the office said she'd contact the renter and let them know."
"She did?"
"After you stomped out."
He turned to face the security camera at the end of the hall. "Did you hear that?" He pointed, jabbing with his finger. "There's definitely something alive in there!"
––––––––
"I'm sorry you feel the need to take your business elsewhere," Virginia said without a whole lot of feeling in her tone.
Lloyd knew there would be someone else to take their unit before the day was out. It was that time of year, after all. He just hoped the renter next door would get their pet out well before then.
"Were you able to contact them?" he demanded, glancing at the display on Virginia's monitor.
"Excuse me?" She glared at him, and he eased back from her desk.
"The people renting that unit?" Denise clarified.
Virginia's dour expression brightened a bit. "Oh yes, they're on their way over. They said to thank you for noticing." She sorted through the papers on her desk. "Unfortunately, you will not receive your deposit, but we won't be charging you the monthly fee on top of it."
"We understand," Denise said.
"Did they say what it is?" Lloyd glanced outside, past his truck with all their boxes reloaded and tied down precariously in back—two loads packed into one.
Virginia ignored him, tapping on her keyboard. "On your credit card statement, you will see the twenty-five dollars deducted and the eighty-nine dollars credited back to your account."
The front gate creaked open automatically. A battered beige sedan revved up the driveway's steep incline into the complex and headed straight for the D building.
"Is that them?" Lloyd pointed outside.
Virginia blew out a petulant sigh. "Sir, we have hundreds of storage units on site. Hundreds. That could be any one of our renters."
He leaned forward onto her desk, peering at her monitor. "Just wait. If it—"
"Get off my desk, sir. I will not ask you again."
"Honey—" Denise tugged at his shirt.
"There—look!" On the screen in an upper left square, the beige sedan could be seen pulling around the corner of the D building and easing to a stop. "It's them." He dropped back from the desk and sprinted out of the office.
"Lloyd!" Denise called after him.
"Ma'am, I'm going to have to call the police if he does not cease and desist. As you are no longer renting a unit on site, it will be considered trespassing if he continues with this bizarre behavior."
"Are we done here?" Denise set her jaw.
The woman's eyelids drooped. She gestured at the paperwork in Denise's possession. "Yes, ma'am."
––––––––
Denise stuffed the receipts into her purse and rushed out of the office in time to find Lloyd at the wheel of their truck, backing it out in a hurry. He leaned over to throw open her door. "Get in!"
"What?"
He gunned the engine as she climbed into her seat. "The code's still got to work."
"Honey—"
He'd already swung the truck around to come alongside the keypad and reached out the window to punch in their code. With a creak, the gate slid open. He released a triumphant whoop.
"You are trespassing on private property!" a voice boomed from behind them. In the rearview, they could see Virginia scowling at their heavy-laden vehicle. "I have already notified local law enforcement!"
"Honey, if we leave now—"
"I've got to know." Rubber squealed as he accelerated up the driveway. "Aren't you curious?"
Denise gripped her seat as they careened around the C building and headed straight for D. "I want to find another storage facility. I think that should be our priority right now."
"We will." He pulled up behind the beige sedan, empty with its front windows rolled down. He shifted to park and set the brake but left the engine running. "I'll be right back." He shoved open his door and slipped out.
Denise turned off the ignition and threw open her door, keys jangling in her hand. "Can you explain this to me, Lloyd? How this concerns you at all?" She hopped down from the truck and approached him.
He paused halfway to the building, its door open wide. Beads of perspiration stood out on his brow. "I have to know what it is." He tried to smile, shoulders arching upward in a weak apology.
She released a short sigh and placed her hand on his arm. "We're trespassing. And the police are coming."
"She's just bluffing. There's no way they would bother with—"
"We don't know that." She squeezed his arm. "We need to leave. Now. Before it's too late."
He bit his lip, glancing at the enormous load in back of their truck. They needed to find storage space for all of it, not to mention everything else that remained in their condo. But his gaze drifted to the battered sedan, and he shook his head.
"We'll be quick." He took her hand in his and charged for the building. "C'mon!"
Shaking her head but unable to resist, she followed as he led her through the maze of sheet metal walls and locked doors, weaving along the narrow hallways, until they reached the unit which had, until just a few minutes ago, been theirs.
The hallway was empty. The door to the unit containing some kind of wall-climbing creature remained closed and locked.
"We missed them," Denise said as Lloyd slowed his approach.
"How?" He frowned, spinning in a circle to glance back down the corridor. Nobody else had passed them. "How could they have been so fast?"
"Maybe it wasn't them, after all." She shrugged. "Could be somebody downstairs."
"It doesn't make any sense. It had to be them."
"Why?" She stepped in front of him, meeting his gaze. "Because you wanted it to be? Because you wanted some kind of answer?"
He blinked at her. "Maybe."
"Sometimes there aren't any answers, Honey. Sometimes, there are just bad choices—like trespassing." She nudged him.
"Okay, we'll go." His gaze lingered on the door, the lock that had looked brand new before. Only now it looked different. It was scratched. "They were here," he murmured. He stepped toward the door.
"What?"
He kicked it, pounded on it with both fists. "Still in there?" he shouted.
"Don't!" She pulled at his shirt.
He shook his head in the silence that followed, as he waited for a sound—a scuttling or a thud.
"It's gone," he said. "Whatever it was."
––––––––
So was the beige sedan, like it had vanished along with the creature.
"We're sorry!" Denise called out the truck's open window as they pulled through the exit gate. Lloyd gave the woman from the office a half-hearted salute and avoided eye contact.
Virginia cursed under her breath, then released a sigh of relief. She was that glad to see them go.
But as she turned back to the office, she couldn't help noticing a ripple of scales in the back of their truck as they caught the sunlight, something very large slithering between the stacks of boxes to coil itself deeper into their load of possessions. Virginia's ample cheek twitched into a smirk.
A battered beige sedan eased around the far corner of the A building with a creak, and a man who looked to be her fraternal twin leaned out the open window.
"Think they'll give 'im a good home, Sis?"
Virginia snickered, glancing back at the couple in the truck, too far away now to see them clearly. "Maybe. Better than this place, I'll tell you that. What was it again? Some kind of giant reptile?"
He shrugged, flabby shoulders spilling out of his stained sleeveless T. "Beats me. You ever seen one with wings like that?"
No. She never had. And she hoped she never would again.
"Find someplace else to keep your freaks, Junior. You know I don't like them here." With that, she returned to her desk to settle in for another quiet afternoon at the office.