Write a story involving a noise complaint.

Posted in Sad on Nov 1, 2022

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✍️ 45 stories

“Three Loud Bangs on the Door” by Michał Przywara

Submitted to Contest #148

Three loud bangs on the door startle Leslie out of her reverie. The noise reverberates through her empty apartment, bouncing off the parquet floor and past the unopened moving boxes. Rattling her bones. The echoes fade but never quite disappear. They sink into the mute white walls, drown in the shadow bog under the sofa. She sets her bottle of water on the kitchen counter. Her muscles still ache, but the high of the jog is forgotten, and her sweat, pleasant a moment ago, runs cold. It’s midday but the fierce bright only creeps in through her...

40 comments 40

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“Like Clockwork” by J.C. Lovero

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #148

If you would have told me a year ago that I’d fall in love with the noisy neighbor in Apt. 2704-110B after he had me poisoned, I wouldn’t have believed you.Before we get ahead of ourselves, let’s go back to the beginning. Me: Professor Clive Hargraves of Gaslight City’s School of Magic. A refined gent and one of the last remaining practicing magicians in London. In fact, magic had fallen so out of favor that the scholars of our time, the likes of Darwin and Huxley, suggested that humans were evolving past it! Poppycock, I say!But enough abou...

34 comments 34

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“A Sad Song” by Kelsey H

Submitted to Contest #148

It was 2AM and daylight felt forever away. Janie lay in her bed, staring at the lines of shadow cast around the room as the sodium light outside burned ceaselessly through the slat blinds.She couldn’t sleep. The house felt new and strange and empty, and the sound of a guitar vibrated through the wall from the unit which adjoined hers. What sort of person played guitar at 2AM? It wasn’t even a tune, just a twanging sound. Like he was plucking at the strings with his fingers. A small sound, as if he was trying not to be too loud.As if on ...

26 comments 26

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“May We Start?” by PJ Aitken

Submitted to Contest #148

Are you sitting comfortably? Why? How can you be so relaxed? That’s not what I expected. I can’t tell you this story when you’re chilled and half asleep. Stand up! COME ON! Stand up and shake your arms. That’s it, both arms, shake them like they’re covered in spiders. Faster, keep going! If you had spiders crawling around you’d be shaking much faster than that. Now shake your legs as well. Good. Shake your arms, legs and now your head as if you were made of cheese. Yes, I said cheese. Imagine that! A big old cheese person shaking about like ...

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“Beers, Wines and Spirits” by Katharine Widdows

Submitted to Contest #148

Jim’s Room. . .The Carlsberg frothed like sea foam along the green carpet until it hit an invisible boundary, stopped dead, and soaked into the fibres. The tell-tale patch on the floor darkened as Jim grabbed at a box of tissues just out of reach on the cabinet.“Bugger,” he said, wiping his hands on his jeans.“Was that the last one?” asked Claire, still sipping from her can, feet dangling over the side of her flatmate’s bed.“Last one?” Jim laughed. “There's a case of 18 under there. You’ll get the hang of it, Matie.”He shuffled his bum acros...

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“ A Better Home” by Mike Panasitti

Submitted to Contest #148

You live in Orange County, California. It's 2019.You’re discontented with your lot in life. You’re considering dropping out of your master’s program in creative writing. You’re questioning your identity and depend on social security to make ends meet.Mother Marbles is also unhappy. Her health is ailing and she hasn’t had friends visit much since you decided to move back in with her. Your bedroom shares a wall with a neighbor whose rancor you incite whenever you try to strum and sing along to a country tune. The neigh...

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“A Deadly Noise” by Lucas Savard

Submitted to Contest #148

TW////: domestic violence, homophobia, murder, suicide, Cussing, ProfanityFor as long as I can recall, I loved girly things but I thought it was because I was a feminine straight guy. But of course, I was just regular gay. When I saw my boyfriend Noah Hudson, the captain of the football team. for the first time I knew that he was mine. We met on a school trip where I tripped over myself and he caught me in his strong arms. We've been together 3 years and tonight is prom night. It was probably around 3 pm as I can recall my boyfriend ask...

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“The Tattooed Man in Apartment 2B” by Shelby B

Submitted to Contest #148

"Mark, I need to file a noise complaint on apartment 2B." I say to the landlord. His name is Mark Lessing and he's been my landlord for three years now. I’ve never had to come to him with any complaint, but today is the day that changes.He slightly tilts his head down so he's looking at me from over the thick-rimmed glasses that slid down his nose. "Apartment 2B, you say?"I nodded. "Yes. You know I have to work early in the morning and my lovely neighbor likes to blare his awful, music loudly throughout the night. I've tried to ignore it, bu...

14 comments 14

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“In My Dreams” by Zi Poromon

Submitted to Contest #148

They called my name from the black microphones in their hot hands. The crowd erupted in applause and cheers. The stage manager gave me a light nudge on my back, and I took one shaky, deep breath. I emerged from the shadowed wings into the spotlight, which created an intimate focus of attention on me, dressed in a green, sequined button up top, leather pants, and dress shoes too tight for my big toe to breathe.I could hear the whispered sounds of the crowd as they stared at me, in awe and admiration, and in judgment. My muscles relaxed, and I...

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“What's That Noise Next Door?” by Bruce Friedman

Submitted to Contest #148

Note: Sexual innuendos and swearingI was sitting in the living room of my apartment on the upper east side of New York, twiddling my thumbs. It was Sunday so not much traffic on the streets below. I’m single, in my late 30’s, and work in fintech with the head office on Madison. The stock options I hold had soared in value recently, allowing me to afford my current digs – a three bedroom, two bath, condo on a high floor of the building and a doorman around the clock. I was sitting pretty, you might say. but markets can turn quickly. Anyw...

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“The Wall that Joins Us” by Liv Howll

Submitted to Contest #148

The beat of the bass pulses through my body, making my nerves tingle and washing away the thoughts from my crowded mind. The trouble is, this is not my music, and those thoughts eddying out of my head are my livelihood. I gave myself six months to detach and focus, and the ending would come: I would finish my novel at last. But it’s been six weeks, and I am no closer to giving my heroine the resolution she deserves. I came to Mayfair for peace and quiet, and the last thing I had anticipated was my ignorant, boorish, tyran...

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“Dateline Noise” by Cynthia Maria Grace

Submitted to Contest #148

For the last two decades, we have always owned our own home. Our last home was an expansive one on a lake-six bedrooms, a full basement, three bathrooms and a full walk-up attic that hid everything from various holiday decorations to unused furniture. It was a lot of room but more importantly there were no sounds except for the occasional fox rustling through the leaves, singing bullfrog or a fish jumping to capture their evening dinner. At some point, we wanted to retire and downsize. My husband was already retired and I was coun...

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“Apartment 402” by Kayla Altagracia

Submitted to Contest #148

I knock on the door. No answer. Try three more times. Bam, bam, bam…nothing. Why is nobody answering? Jerks. Particularly, the one living above me. I pace around, wondering if she thinks I’m just going to give up. I will stay outside all night if I have to. Before I knock once more, I hear the door’s lock. Muffled voice shuffling around. A crack. The door opens slightly. I see her ear and right green eye pop out. “What do you want?” a meek voice escapes her lips.&...

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“The Corridors” by Todd Johnson

Submitted to Contest #148

1 I had been living and working full-time in The Corridors for twenty years and seven months when the dead body was discovered. It was a summer morning, the last Monday in July, the 6am sun already mutating the clouds into tattered cords of red like ripped-apart musculature and twisting them across the sky. The weekend had, by The Corridors’ standards, proved to be uneventful, with only three noise complaints on Saturday night which I ignored completely and our sole robotic resident Dwayne 2000-XL7-B5 hammering on my front door on Sunda...

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“The Other Woman” by Mo Colby

Submitted to Contest #148

When I move in they show me the other apartment too. It is right above mine and entirely identical. I don´t know what makes me choose the one below. Perhaps it is the striped wallpaper. It does not matter which apartment I choose at the time, I just need an apartment. As you do, when you´ve just graduated from art school and they refuse to let you hover around campus for another semester, the way the fragile teenager that still lives in some back corner of your body – the eighth rib, perhaps, or the left ankle – would prefer. And then your ...

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Write a story involving a noise complaint.

Submissions are closed

✍️ 45 stories

“Three Loud Bangs on the Door” by Michał Przywara

“Like Clockwork” by J.C. Lovero

“A Sad Song” by Kelsey H

“May We Start?” by PJ Aitken

“Beers, Wines and Spirits” by Katharine Widdows

“ A Better Home” by Mike Panasitti

“A Deadly Noise” by Lucas Savard

“The Tattooed Man in Apartment 2B” by Shelby B

“In My Dreams” by Zi Poromon

“What's That Noise Next Door?” by Bruce Friedman

“The Wall that Joins Us” by Liv Howll

“Dateline Noise” by Cynthia Maria Grace

“Apartment 402” by Kayla Altagracia

“The Corridors” by Todd Johnson

“The Other Woman” by Mo Colby

🌟 Similar prompts

Write about two neighbors who cannot stand each other.

Include a character in your story that is often in an apartment building, but doesn’t actually live there.

Write about a couple touring an empty apartment they might rent.

Write about an apartment building being demolished.

Contest #148

Enter our weekly contest!

$250

Prize money

195

Contest entries

90

Stories

Win $250 in our short story competition 🏆

Explore more writing prompt ideas: