"The Atlas Room"

Illustration by Lukasz Godlewski

**"The Atlas Room"** is the third tale in the fifth episode of the fifth season of the Nolseep Podcast. In it, a student lodges with a strange old man. Written by Leonard Petracci, it has a runtime of 16:35 and was performed by Mike DelGaudio and David Cummings. It is the 512th tale overall on the podcast.

## Summary

A college student, Luke, is dismayed to learn that all his records of working as an RA in one of his college's dorms have been misplaced. Now facing financial troubles, he looks for a new place to live off-campus. While searching through Craigslist, he finds a listing that seems too good to be true. For just $400 a month, a three-story mansion with a pool in a neighborhood near the campus can be rented under the condition that the tenant do occasional housework.

Luke answers the ad and is greeted at the door by a man named Jack. Jack takes him on a tour of the house, showing him a large pool in the back and explaining that it was built by his father for his mother in the sixties. He also explains that the housework portion of the ad is very important, and that he has visitors late in the evening and would prefer Luke to stay in his room all night. Luke readily agrees to become the tenant. While signing paperwork, Jack says he'll knock $150 off the monthly rent if Luke signs the forms saying he's lived in the house for two years to save on tax reasons.

Jack stays up all night and is gone in the morning, while Luke is expected to complete his chores before the day's end. The duties include putting several varieties of special powder into a box with piping in it near the pool to keep it clean, dusting everything in the house so it remains spotless, and cleaning up dishes from Jack's nighttime visitors, who Luke can tell are women by the fact that he can hear their voices almost every evening. Sometimes when he wakes up, he finds undergarments lying around the house and deposits them at Jack's door, who always cleans them up by evening.

In the basement of the house next to a portrait of Jack's mother wearing a heart-shaped necklace is a short hallway that leads to a large room with nothing in it but an atlas covering the entire front wall. Things go well for a few months, with Luke always completing his duties on time and never receiving any complaints from Jack. He never sees his landlord because of their conflicting schedules.

One night, a fierce hurricane lands in the town, causing the window in Luke's room to shatter. He runs into the basement for cover, only to see the windows near the top of the walls flexing as well. Fearing these will also break, he runs into the atlas room to discover the large map is peeling in one corner.

Removing it from the wall, he finds a secret chamber behind. Flipping on a light switch, he sees a large, dark tank of water on the right and a desk on the left. Going to the desk, he finds several cups with his fingerprints on them, dusted and transferred to pieces of tape. A tuft of his hair lies besides a notepad. On the floor next to the desk is a large pile of women's clothes. Looking at the ceiling, Luke sees that the pipes from the box beside the pool lead directly into the tank of water. Inspecting it, he sees hundreds of worn-away bones lying near the bottom. Among the remains he spots a heart-shaped necklace. Luke flees the house and hides under a bridge near the highway until the storm subsides. He calls the police, who immediately launch an investigation.

The officers find a woman passed out on a couch in Jack's room, drugged with the contents of a whiskey bottle. The powder Luke had been putting in the box was a powerful cleaning agent that dissolved the bones. None of Jack's fingerprints can be found in the house. Strands of Luke's hair lie among the piles of women's clothing. The records of the house show no one owning it from the time Jack's father died to now except Luke. The cops explain that if the woman hadn't testified of Jack's existence after she awakened, Luke would have been charged with all the murders.

## Cast

Mike DelGaudio as Luke

David Cummings as Jack