The House of Hazards

Innocents Evicted, Villains Rewarded

In a bustling city by the Quay, where the infrastructure was as shiny as the promises of a new beginning, there stood a quaint little house. The house had five rooms, each occupied by tenants who, for the most part, were just trying to get by. It was a place of fleeting joys, unexpected dangers, and a peculiar type of injustice that only a select few could master. But it had one thing in common: it was home to people from different walks of life, each with their own stories.

When Maya moved in, she was thrilled. She had finally found a cosy room with what she thought were friendly housemates—or so she naively believed. Among the four existing tenants, there was one who would soon prove to be a true nightmare wrapped in a charming package. Her name was Clara.

Clara had that certain je ne sais quoi, the kind of charm that pulled people in but left them with a nagging feeling of having made a grave mistake. On the day Maya moved in, one of the tenants, Ben, gave her the lowdown on Clara. He was practically fuming as he recounted how Clara had poured out his shampoo and conditioner—not once, but multiple times. As if that wasn't enough, she had a habit of leaving the toilet unflushed, complete with floating toilet paper as her signature move. Ah, the joys of communal living.

Ever the optimist, Maya thought she could be the one to calm the storm. After all, Clara had been friendly enough to invite her out for a drink. Over a couple of cocktails, Clara spun a sob story about her troubled past, her mother who couldn’t handle her disability, and the endless hardships she faced. But something about the story didn’t quite add up—maybe it was the fact that her tears didn’t seem to match the tone of her tale. Still, Maya, being kind-hearted (and perhaps a little too trusting), chose to give Clara the benefit of the doubt.

Fast forward a week, and Maya’s optimism started to wear thin. Clara began throwing away other people’s belongings—anything that dared to be in her way was either damaged or mysteriously disappeared. It was like living with a particularly moody poltergeist. But then, as if by divine intervention, Clara went on vacation for a week. During that blessed time, the house was peaceful, clean, and no one’s things went missing. It was as if a dark cloud had lifted, and the tenants could finally breathe again.

While Clara was off tormenting some unsuspecting Greeks, one tenant quietly moved out, likely fleeing the madness. Meanwhile, Maya finally got to know the remaining two tenants, Suria and Ben. They were wonderful, and for that brief, glorious week, the house felt like a warm, welcoming place—a rare gem in the chaotic world of shared housing. But like all good things, this too came to an end when Clara returned, bringing the storm back with her.

Of course, Clara denied any wrongdoing upon her return. The mysterious disappearance of items? “Must have been a ghost—Harry Potter's ghost,” she claimed with a mischievous grin. This was Clara’s world, and everyone else was just living in it. She resumed her antics with new vigor: leaving the main door unlocked every time she left the house, using Maya's fabric softener and refilling the bottle with water, and starting a new game where she demanded that no one talk to her. Ah, the joys of passive aggression.

Maya and the others tried to address these issues, but Clara dismissed them with more outlandish stories. One day, she claimed she had to hold a dead baby in her arms during a shooting on her vacation (which was obviously a lie). The story was as bizarre as it was unsettling, but it served its purpose—it made Maya feel guilty for even thinking about confronting her. Clara had a way of making the victim feel like the villain, a talent few possess.

As if things weren’t bad enough, Clara began throwing bathroom rugs and towels into the garbage, even tossing out a small mirror for good measure. But the final straw was when Maya discovered that Clara had vandalized her beloved avocado seedling, breaking its roots and eventually making it disappear. Not the avocado! That was a step too far.

Maya and the other tenants documented everything—taking pictures and sending them to the agency managing the house. But when they asked for help, the agency demanded more proof, dismissing their concerns as if they were mere annoyances. Meanwhile, the maintenance guy, Bill, who had once been friendly, started turning against them, influenced by his grumpy girlfriend who did the house cleaning and had taken it upon herself to label Suria and Maya as “dishonest.” How charming.

As tensions mounted, Clara befriended a new tenant, Graham, who had just moved in. Graham seemed nice at first, but it didn’t take long for Clara to work her magic. Soon, Graham was downplaying the issues, aligning himself with Clara, and even accusing Maya and Suria of all sorts of fabricated nonsense. He quickly became Clara’s loyal sidekick, eager to follow in her footsteps.

Graham also decided to embrace the fine art of passive aggression. When he saw dishes left on the big table, he decided to place a chair on top of the table, a dramatic gesture that mirrored Clara’s habit of punishing anyone who dared to leave snacks out for the house. Never mind that it was Clara who had left the dishes there—Graham assumed it was Maya and her friends because, of course, they were the ones to blame for everything in this twisted little universe.

The next day, Graham’s passive-aggressive streak continued. When someone turned up the heating in the house, Graham complained that it was too warm in his room, claiming it was suffocating him. Never mind that this was a tactic Clara had used before—Graham saw this as his moment to assert his newfound authority, trying to intimidate Maya. But little did he know, Maya wasn’t one to be easily scared. Life had made her strong, and she wasn’t about to let Graham’s amateur attempts at intimidation shake her.

Despite everything, Maya decided to take the high road. She approached Graham to clear the air and ended up hugging it out with him, even apologising once again for something she hadn’t done. Graham, naturally, never offered an apology of his own—why would he, when he was clearly in the right?

As the eviction date approached, life in the house grew even more unbearable. Clara’s daily wrongdoings only intensified. Every day, something new went missing, was damaged, or mysteriously appeared in the trash. The house became a minefield of petty acts of sabotage, each one more frustrating than the last. Graham, ever the loyal disciple, continued to follow Clara’s example, adding to the chaos and making life even more difficult for the other tenants.

It was a bitter pill to swallow to see not only dangerous individuals like Clara continue to win but also to witness the agency’s complicity in this unjust situation. The agency, which should have been a neutral party ensuring fairness, seemed to join in the discrimination and biased treatment against the innocent tenants. Their lack of action and their dismissal of valid concerns only served to amplify the sense of injustice and—let’s face it—outright racism.

As they packed their bags, Maya, Suria, and Ben couldn’t help but feel trapped in a nightmare that refused to end. Clara's presence hung over the house like a dark cloud, casting a shadow over what little peace they had left. They couldn’t help but wonder if Clara had somehow escaped eviction, her twisted charm winning over the agency and Graham. (Spoiler alert: she wasn’t evicted, of course—why would she be? The universe loves a good villain.)

As Maya left the house for the last time, she realized that some people, like Clara, thrive on chaos. They were masters of manipulation, turning others against each other while they remained untouched, like puppet masters in a very twisted play. It was a harsh lesson in the dangers of entitlement and narcissism, but Maya knew one thing for sure: she would never let anyone like Clara disrupt her peace again.

And so, the house by the Quay became a distant memory, a cautionary tale of how a single toxic person could unravel the lives of those around them. But for Maya and her friends, it was also a reminder of the strength they found in each other, even in the face of the most cunning adversary.

Note: While the names in this story are fictional, the characters are very real—much to our dismay.