The gig that changed her life

Alice had just recieved wonderful news. Her former employer had remembered her in her will, and she would inherit a sizable sum of money that would be enough to cover her college expenses. Under different circumstances, Alice would have been jumping for joy. But not after what had happened.

Given what had caused her to inherit this money, she wasn't sure how to feel.


Being a broke college student was hard. Even after she would graduate and get a job, Alice would have to worry about her student loans. Needless to say, if an opportunity to make some money came about, she would pounce on it.

One such opportunity came in the form of a Craigslist ad. It was for some household chores, some closets needed cleaning, some stuff needed moving. And you'd be paid by the hour. Rather handsomely too.

The address was of a very posh part of town, so Alice wasn't surprised that they were paying so well.

The following Saturday, at about two in the afternoon, Alice showed up at the two story house. She was greeted by a middle aged woman at the door.

"I'm Shabana." the older woman said with a smile.

She then instructed Alice to clean out the hall closet and move all it's stuff to the garage.

The closet contained some modest treasures. Old records, vinyls, dozens of old novels. Some by Alice's favourite authors.

"You can take some of the stuff if you want." Shabana told her when she saw her admiring the things, "I have no use for them now."

Alice finished some of the other chores and took five of the novels and two of the records as she left. Shabana seemed happy with her work and asked for her phone number, so she could call her up for any future cleaning or moving she needed done.

Alice agreed of course. This was the kind of gig she could get used to.

In the weeks that followed, Alice made several trips to Shabana's home and always came back with handsome renumerations and some nice stuff that Shabana was going to throw away.


On the last day of her gig, Shabana had her clean up the kitchen. While Alice did so, she told her "when you're done here, go to the Master bedroom upstairs. There's a huge metal trunk at the door of the walk in closet. Just pull it out and take it to the study. After that you may go home. I've kept your payment on the writing desk."

Having given Alice her instructions, Shabana went upstairs.

Alice finished cleaning up the kitchen and went up to the Master bedroom to carry out Shabana's orders. She entered to find the huge walk in closet's door ajar. An enormous trunk was sticking out of the dark closet, in a way that Alice could grab the side handle and pull ot out. The rest of it was engulfed in the closet's darkness.

Alice pulled on the handle and found the trunk to be extremely heavy. She wondered what was in there as she made an effort with all her might and managed to pull it out. The items in the trunk were probably made of metal as they made loud clanging sounds.

Surprisingly, when the trunk was completely out of the closet, it was much lighter. Light enough that Alice was able to drag it to the study with ease. She reckoned that the thing must have been stuck on something.

She collected her money from where Shabana had said it would be and headed downstairs.

But as she passed the master bedroom, a strange feeling gripped her heart. She looked at the closet door. It was still wide open. The inside of the closet still shrouded in darkness.

"Miss Shabana!" Alice called out, but recieved no reply.

Where was she?

It wasn't like her to let Alice show herself out.

With trembling steps Alice approached the closet. What she did next, she would regret for the rest of her days.

She turned on the closet light and found Shabana hanging from the ceiling.

A rope around her neck, her eyes bulging.

Alice screamed and ran out of the house. Some of the neighbours heard her and came to see what the matter was. Alice tearfully told them what had happened. The cops were called.

The dots would later be connected.

Shabana had been standing on the trunk when Alice pulled it out. As it slipped away from under her feet, the rope around her neck strangled Shabana. Hence the sudden difference in it's weight. She had used Alice to commit suicide.

Shabana's religion considered suicide to be a grave sin. Hence, if she was going to end her life, she needed someone else to "kill" her.

Alice would not be charged with anything. Cameras that Shabana had installed in every room of her home would prove that Alice was telling the truth and that she was completely ignorant of her employer's presence in the closet. Shabana's relative too assured her that she had done no wrong. That in no way was Shabana's death Alice's fault. 

Shabana had been depressed ever since her husband passed. As it turned out, she couldn't bare to live any more.

Shabana had left Alice a large sum of money, along with a letter apologising profusely for what she had made her do. She had wished Alice well for the future, and expressed hope that some she would find it in her heart to forgive her. Her words seemed sincere and heartfelt, and Alice wept as she read them.

When all was said and done, this gig had helped Alice out of a financial spot.

She did need therapy, however. Because any time she heard the clanging sound of metal pots and pans, the image of Shabana's dead body hanging from the ceiling would present itself to her mind's eye.