"worst Roommate Ever" Roommate Wanted - Part 1(... -

Arthur finally looked him in the eye. A slow, jagged grin spread across his face. "The previous tenant left them. He didn’t need them where he was going."

Elias, drowning in debt and currently sleeping in his Honda Civic, didn't ask questions. He didn't even mind the taxidermy. He just wanted a door that locked. "Worst Roommate Ever" Roommate Wanted - Part 1(...

He met Arthur at a dilapidated Victorian on the edge of town. Arthur was thin, wore a moth-eaten cardigan in eighty-degree weather, and smelled faintly of formaldehyde and old library books. Arthur finally looked him in the eye

Elias moved in that night. By midnight, the honeymoon phase ended. It started with a wet, dragging sound in the hallway— thump, slide, thump, slide. When Elias peered through the crack in his door, he saw Arthur dragging a heavy, plastic-wrapped bundle into the bathroom. He didn’t need them where he was going

The ad was simple, tucked between a listing for a "vintage" beanbag and a used lawnmower:

Elias looked back at The Captain in the living room. He could have sworn the bear’s paw had moved six inches closer to his bedroom door.

"The room is upstairs," Arthur whispered, his eyes never quite meeting Elias’s. "Rules are simple: No guests. No loud music. And never, under any circumstances, touch 'The Captain.'" "The Captain?" Elias asked.