Apartment of terror

The screams pierced the inky night air. Ella and I sat on the roof of her red car, sharing a cigarette, staring at the stars as they gleamed in the sky. The smoke seemed to be reaching for them. “Are you ready to head in?” She asked. The blue under glow on her car made it easier to see her curly red hair brushing against my shoulder. Her blue eyes gleamed in the light of the zippo lighter. The gray apartment building loomed in the background. 

“I don’t know,” I turned to face her. “What I do know is that I’ll miss you.” 

A small smile crept on her face. “How sweet. Don’t worry; I’ll be here for a few days, then head back home. And don’t worry, your new job at the food packing factory will be done in no time.” She leaned forward and gave me a small kiss on the lips. They were soft, warm, and tasted like mint. Her face dropped into a more serious look. “Maybe you should shave you don’t want to look like a homeless person do you?” Ella said in a teasing matter. I got up and slid off the roof of the car. I fished through my pockets until I pulled out a set of keys. 

“Don’t worry I will. Hopefully these next five months go by as fast as they can,” I said then  stroll towards the building. As I turned back, the car was nothing but a speck in the dark, only illuminated by the blue under glow. 

 I lay in bed staring at the dark, drab brown ceiling with missing sections. I tossed and turned in my bed as the night air oozed into my room. The screaming from my next-door neighbour got even louder and louder. “I’ll go make another noise complaint in the morning. It’s only been a few days.” I mutter to myself as I toss and turn in my bed, trying to use the pillow to silence the noise. The cracked,, cherry-red wood walls rattled as the man in the next room banged against them. I had gotten this apartment for stupid cheap. I’m not going to run away from someone screaming. As I smothered my ears with the pillow, all of a sudden, the screaming stopped.“ Finally,” I sighed, “I’ll file a noise complaint tomorrow at the front office. As I was finally falling asleep, the sounds of slight that sounded like a poor imitation of children giggling crept from the other side of the wall. I covered my ears until I was finally too exhausted and eventually passed out.  But as I was starting to close my eyes, I heard the slight chirping of birds outside the building and felt the sun’s rays begin to touch my face.

The next day, I got up, and marched toward the front desk. As I walked, the baby blue ceiling helped the sickly yellow lights reflect, emitted a slight buzz, and flickered above. The dark cocoa walls felt like they were closing in on me. On the walls, there were a few mirrors. I looked in one of the many mirrors and saw how deep and dark the puffy bags were under my bloodshot gray eyes. My freshly trimmed face made it somewhat better. But my brown hair was a total mess. “I need to get some sleep,” I mutter myself. There were a few rooms with barren doors, but no sound came from either of them. Instead, the eerie silence seemed to grow louder. Where is everyone? I questioned. I know it’s early in the morning, and everyone should be working, but I should at least hear the sounds of pets or children. As I went down the In the hall, I could hear the faint screams of the neighbour who kept me up all night echoing down the hall as I pressed the button of the elevator to go down to the main desk. As I went down the elevator it was creaking and shaking as if it was going to snap and fall all the way down. 

When I stepped out of the elevator, the vantablack walls seemed to absorb the light from the few light fixtures in the lobby and the natural light from the door leading outside. I walked up to the dark orange desk and rang a silver bell. A few minutes later, ,a man wowered over me came from the room rehind the desk. “Hi,” I said in a chipper tone and tried to put on my best smile. But all he met me with was a stone-cold expression. His yellow eyes seemed to pierce into my soul. That’s when I realized that the man had no eyebrows. “I’m here to make a noise complaint. There’s a man next door who is loud, and I was wondering if you could talk to him.” His yellow eyes stared unmovingly. “Hello?.” I waved my hands in front of his face. 

“Hello. Yes,” he said in a deadpan voice. “ I will make sure that I might deal with the noise.” 

“Might? What do you mean might? I started to raise my voice. “I want him dealt with, or I’m -.” 

He slid on a paper across the desk, revealing his split skin in the dim light above. ” “Please fill this out.” 

I grabbed the paper and put it in my pocket. “You better figure this out.” I snapped, “I’m starting work in a few days.” I shoved the note into my pocket and walked away. When I got up to my floor and started to walk down the dark and quiet hall, I looked at one of the mirrors and thought I should get some sleep. I’ll fill the sheet out later. I started to drag my feet to my door, unlocked it, and flopped on my bed, where I immediately shut my eyes and passed out. 

When I finally opened my eyes, I stood up and looked out of the window, but all I saw was the inky blackness of the night. The screaming man was even louder this time. Covering my ears, I marched to the walls and banged my fist, breaking the cherry fence even more. “Keep it down,” I shouted and slumped against the wall, exhausted. But that didn’t stop him from screaming as if I didn’t exist. “Might as well go for a walk and get comfortable living here,” I said loudly, getting up and grabbing my shoes and water bottle. When I finally got out the door and went to the elevator. As I strolled around, the lights were giving me a headache. While I was in the elevator going up I smelled the putrid smell of rotting flesh. At one point the elevator completely stopped, leaving me to linger with the smell then after a few minutes it came back to life. As the elevator dinged, and I stepped out the smell hit me like a wave. I plugged my nose and tried not to vomit as I turned around to go back in the elevator. The door was already closed , and I heard the elevator shakily descend. As I was waiting for the elevator, I noticed that the cherry walls were darker, chipped and holes in them. Faint crying could be heard from one of the rooms with a bright yellow door. I press the button again. Nothing happened. I looked around for stairs. But I couldn’t find a door anywhere. Taking a deep breath through my nose I started to walk towards the door. “Here we go.” I mutter to myself. 

“Please help. I won’t let you die.” A muffled woman’s voice quaked. As I grew closer, heat like a sauna was emanating from the door making the smell almost unbearable. The lights overhead stopped buzzing. I put my hand on the red-hot door nob and flung it open. 

A swarm of flies emanated from the door. The smell of gelatin was to much to bare and I ended up puking. When I was done puking I looked around the room it was almost pitch black but what I what I could see was carboard boxes being swarmed by flies and, a bunch of meat hooks. Screams and moans tore up the silence. Out of the darkness a naked woman crawled towards me. She was cut in half but was sewn up so no blood was coming from her. Her hair was shaved completely off. The lower half of her jaw was completely missing. Around her neck was a tape recorder with it constantly playing. “Please help. I wont let you die.” I bolted toward the elevator doors still closed. I smashed into the doors and tried to pry them open. I could hear the elevator slowly making it’s way up. I looked behind me. The woman was still crawling towards me her tape recorder slowly dying out. Finally the door open and I fell into it but immediately got up and pressed my floor button. The doors slowly closed and I slumped to the floor crying. 

As soon I got to my floor I marched to my room to get my stuff and leave. But, when I got to my room I saw it was covered in blood. The sickly smell of iron filled my nose. 

“I hope you like the surprise,” the man next door cackled, his face pressed against the door. “For my next trick,” his voice took a more serious tone. “I’m going to open the door and rip your hair off your hair clean off your head with my bare hands. I started to bolt down the hall. A door slammed open, and I ran as fast as I could. Sweat dripped down my face as I huffed and puffed toward the elevator. I was so exhausted that I felt my feet betray me and cross eachother up making me plummet to the floor. As soon as I got back up I turned around, and saw a shirtless man with scars across his body coming at me on all fours like a wild beast. I slammed against the elevator wall and immediately looked around for the fire escape. The scared man was just a few feet away from me. I turned to the right, forcing the heavy fire escape door open, half falling and running down the stairs to the main entrance. 

“You have to help me,” I gasped as I got to the front desk. The tall, pale man sat calmly with a huge stack of paper in front of him. “A crazed man is trying to kill me.” The pale sat still, doing nothing; he grabbed one of the sheets from the stack. The elevator was rumbling its way down. I knock over the papers. “Call the police. I beg you.” Tears started to come from my eyes. But I couldn’t hear the elevator anymore. But a split second latter the mans hands were ripping the elevator doors apart. The sound of metal door was earpiercing as they tried to remain shut. He had to crouch down because the elevator wasn’t fully on the ground yet. I started to turn to the entrance, but as quick as lightning, the pale man grabbed my arm, his grip as tight as steel. I tried to pull away, screaming as loud as I could.

“You’re not going anywhere. He spoke softly. A smile spread across his face. “Not until he has his way. His yellow eyes flicked to the elevator, which was deadly silent. Scared man had finally gotten them open and slithered out of the elevator . My heart thumped at a thousand miles. rate. I scanned his desk and found a pencil. I stabbed him with it and he let go of his grip without a yelp, and I bolted toward the entrance door. ​​

Outside in the pitch blackness, I saw the blue underglow of a car in the distance. I ran as quickly as possible towards the car and threw the door open. A terrified Ella staring at me a sandwich in her hand “Floor it,” I screamed, leaping into the car. Ella put the pedal to the metal and sped off as I collapsed in the back seat, never to see that apartment again.