The situation itself is simple enough. My neighbor (His name’s Jim) who's been living in the apartment next to me for the past three years just moved out a week ago. I’d say that we were friendly, but not necessarily close. Not to the point where I knew a lot about what was going on in his life, anyways. He’s invited me over a few times, we always exchanged greetings when passing each other in the hallways, and he generally seemed like a nice guy. But with the context out of the way, this is what happened to me:
I got back home from work one day at about 5 PM and decided to get wasted on the couch before passing out. And that’s exactly what I did. However, I was woken up at around 11 PM to extremely loud music. At first, I thought that my alarm went off or something, but then I’d realized that I didn’t even set one. Groggily, I looked around my living room, trying to figure out where the hell the noise was coming from. That’s when I recognized that it was bleeding in from the walls to my former neighbors place.
Obviously, I was confused. I mean, I saw him leave. He packed up, we said our goodbyes, and I haven’t seen him since. And to my knowledge, there hasn’t been a new tenant yet. Did he return? If so, for what? To throw a damn party? He never even seemed like the kind of guy that would do that. The only other feasible explanation was that a new guy’s already moved in. It wasn’t that impossible to believe. I’ve been working long hours recently, so maybe I just never noticed.
I tried going back to sleep, but the music, laughing and talking was so loud, there was no way in hell that I could. I tried just waiting it out. I put on a movie, plugged my headphones in, and hoped they’d be finished when the film was done. I have to admit, I was rather infuriated when the film ended and the music was still as loud as ever. It was 1 AM at that point. Look, I’m all for people having fun, but this was ridiculous. The music was unnecessarily loud, and the people were pretty much hollering at this point, to the extent where it was making my head throb. I walked out into the hallway and made my way to the door to the right of my neighbor. I was thinking that if they were also pissed enough, I’d feel less guilty about calling the landlord on them.
I must have rung their doorbell for 5 minutes, but nobody came out. It was at that point where I decided to deal with the problem head-on. I moved over to my neighbors door and started pounding. After a few minutes of this, the music stopped. In fact, it was nearly dead silent. I say nearly because I could still make out faint whispers coming from the other side, almost as these idiots were trying to make it seem like nobody was in there. But nobody ever opened up.
What the hell is going on? I thought to myself. I yelled at them to keep it down and returned back to my own place. Feeling relieved that the obnoxious noise had finally ceased, I slumped into my couch and fell asleep instantly.
But the peace barely lasted. What must have been about five minutes later, the music returned, now even louder than before. However, this time I realized something rather odd. I couldn’t hear the voices anymore. I thought about it. Had I ever heard a voice? Or had it just been the music this whole time? But there was no way, I definitely had. They had been being insanely loud before, after all.
I got up and put my ear up to the wall. All that I could hear was the deafening music. There was nobody talking, nobody laughing, no glasses clinking, nothing. That wasn’t even the strangest part, though. The music itself was weird. I could tell that it was pop rap, the same kind of stuff that gets played on the radio a lot, but there was something terribly off about it. After a few focused minutes, I finally figured it out. The music must have been playing backwards. Not only that, but it was also slightly distorted, as if the rapper's voice had been made deeper.
At this point, I was starting to feel a bit unsettled. I finally decided to call my landlord. My phone had run out of battery while I was sleeping, so I plugged into my computer and waited for it to charge up. As soon as it did, I was met with a bombardment of missed calls and texts... from my landlord. This was roughly what his latest text read:
“Look, if you’re still in your apartment, then you need to get out of there right now. I had Mary knock on your door at around 7:30, but nobody answered. I guess that means you aren’t home? If that’s the case, then good. Don’t come back until I’ve figured everything out. I can’t believe Jim never told you why he left so suddenly.”
Received 7:53 PM. I checked the time now - 1: 35 AM. If that was the last text that he’d sent me, then that meant this fucked up situation wasn’t yet resolved. My heart dropped and I furiously replied to him, asking what the hell was going on. I texted Jim as well. Right after I did that, I grabbed a jacket and headed towards my door. However, I didn’t leave instantly. My gut was telling me to check the peephole first. So that’s what I did.
Jim was standing right outside my door, staring at me with a deathly blank expression. He also wasn’t moving at all. The music had gotten even louder at this point. I slowly stepped backwards from the door and sank back into my couch. Whatever the hell that was standing outside my door… I wasn’t willing to deal with it. I still tried to rationalize this. Maybe he was on drugs? But then what was my landlord talking about? He still hadn’t responded yet. And what was with the creepy ass music coming from next door? I decided to head out onto my balcony for some fresh air. As I tried to calm myself, I looked down at the dizzying drop below. There was no way out of here.
The music was still loud as hell out here. Surely the cops must have been coming soon. Feeling somewhat relieved at this thought, I turned to look over at the balcony next to me. I really wish that I hadn’t.
“Jim”, or whatever the hell that thing is, was standing right there, still staring at me with that dead look on his face. For a second, I was stunned. I snapped out of it once he started moving towards me. The last thing that I saw before I was back in my apartment was him literally climbing over the damn rails. The distance between us must have been around ten feet though. There was no way he could make it, right?
That question was answered when I saw him staring through the glass of my own balcony at me. I quickly closed the blinds and barricaded it with a dresser from my bedroom. That was a good move, because I heard the glass start shattering only a few moments later. My head was spinning. I checked my phone again, hoping to see a reply from my landlord, but it wasn’t there. At some point, the music stopped completely. I held my breath, waiting for something. I stood there for what felt like hours before the silence was finally broken.
There were police sirens in the distance, getting louder. I heard faint shouting from below as the sirens stopped right outside the apartment complex. Thank god, I thought. Now all I had to do was wait.
Or at least… I wish that all I had to do was wait.
I heard something else coming from the walls connecting the room next to me only a few moments later. It almost sounded like a transmission from a numbers station, with loud static in the background. However… the voice speaking sure as hell wasn’t human. It was deep, to the point where it was pretty much just a croak. It was saying things in a language that I’d never heard before, but also one I that I think wasn’t meant to hear. Every time the voice said something, my brain would start pulsating and my eyes would water. I couldn’t deal with it. I ran towards the door and looked out the peephole again. This time, I couldn’t see anything. As in literally nothing. It was just black, as if the hallway lights had been turned off or something.
That probably would’ve convinced me to stay in my apartment if it wasn’t for the fact that I heard my dresser crashing down behind me. I heard a couple of footsteps coming towards me before I burst out and shut the door behind me.
I was in pure darkness now. However, not in the sense that my surroundings were devoid of light. It was more as if my damn eyes were closed, even though I knew that they were open. I fished my phone out of my pocket and turned on the flashlight. However, that didn’t help. The light did nothing to penetrate the sheer void. Without knowing what else to do, I just started running. This is where things get fuzzy.
I remember running into something at one point and falling hard. I started scrambling backwards, but at that point, my brain had pretty much been fried by the obscure language booming through the air. I felt something bony grip my leg before the hallway exit door was kicked open and the officers rushed in. The light illuminated what had been grabbing me and I guess the very sight of it caused me to pass out. I really can’t remember what it looked like, though. In fact, it physically hurts when I try and recreate it in my head.
I woke up in a hospital bed an indeterminate amount of time later. I was suffering from two gunshots wounds – one to the shoulder and the other to the thigh. I also had 3rd degree burns around my ankle. I asked the nurse what had happened to me. She just smiled and explained calmly that I had been robbed and beaten in my apartment. I mean… I figured that I’d get that kind of answer. It obviously bullshit though. They’re telling me that I can’t go back to my place. That they’ll figure everything out and relocate me to a new residence. When I ask them why, they all just dodge the question. They’ve given me my phone back, but my landlord and Jim are not in my contacts anymore. I’ve checked the news. Nobody’s reported on it. Nobody seems to want to tell me anything.
But in all honesty… I don’t think I really want to know.
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