Looking back, I feel dumb. Completely stupid, actually. I should have known that apartment was far too cheap to be right, even for a studio. I should have known there had to be a catch.
The day I moved in was a complete blur. I insisted that no one help me, not wanting to prove any of my family members suspicions about my character. By late afternoon, all my muscles ached terribly and my head throbbed. I fell back on my bare mattress, staring up at the ceiling fan with glazed over eyes. I pulled the damp strands of hair from my sweaty forehead, wincing in disgust.
Someone knocked on my door, causing me to jump. I cursed under my breath, pushing myself up on my elbows.
Two girls were peeking around my door frame – foolishly, I had left it wide open, forgetting the old college rule: only leave your door open if you want to make new friends. And I was not in the mood to make new friends.
One of them, an asian girl with choppy black hair, was grinning at me. The other stood a little further back, fingering a box of Marlboro reds. “Hey,” she said, nodding at me. Her voice was smooth and raspy at the same time. “Did you just move in?”
I laid back down, rubbing my face with both hands, choosing not to bother with manners. “Yeah. About five seconds ago.”
“Cool.”
The girls walked in, evidently ignoring my very clear body language. The girl with the black hair ran her fingers along the edge of my desk, and then picked up a little ceramic duck from my unpacked box of trinkets.
“Grandma,” I explained, feeling strangely defensive.
“Cute,” she replied, holding it up to her face.
“Has anyone told you yet?” The other girl asked abruptly, looking around my apartment. She had tucked the cigarettes into the back pocket of her jeans, and was now tugging at her long red braids.
“Jesus, Gianna, give her a second.”
“Well, she needs to know…”
“Yeah, but we haven’t even asked her name.”
I blinked at the two strangers incredulously. I hadn’t even had time to put toilet paper in my bathroom, and here they were, touching my things and talking about me like I wasn’t there. I just wanted to take a nap, honestly.
“My name’s Arden,” I said.
The girl with the red braids, Gianna, sat down next to me on my bed.
“Did they tell you?”
“Tell me what?”
“Oh, of course they didn’t. The rules.”
I blinked again, my face blank. I didn’t know about any rules, besides the typical renting ones. I had signed the lease after, at best, skimming over it. The landlord was a skinny woman who smelled of ashes, and I was fairly certain she had never developed the facial muscles necessary for smiling. I wasn’t about to ask her any follow up questions, especially when the rent was so cheap.
The other girl laughed nervously. “Where did you move here from?”
I ignored her. “What rules?”
Gianna got a strange, wicked sort of smile on her face, bouncing a little on my mattress. The other girl sighed loudly.
“Something happens here every night,” she began, pulling out my rickety office chair and sitting down. “Something weird.”
“Like what?” I sat up, frowning at her. Finally, my interest was peaked.
“Someone walks down the street,” Gianna said, her voice reminding me of a camp counselor telling a scary story around the bonfire. “That one, right down there.” She pointed at my window. “It’s someone different each night. They scream for help for about an hour. But we aren’t supposed to help them.”
I just stared at her. I felt a small chill run up my spine. I didn’t know what to make of all this.
“It happens at a different time every night,” the other one said softly. “We never know when it’s coming.”
“Why?”
She shrugged almost sadly. “We don’t know why.”
I scoffed, leaning my elbows against my knees. “I don’t believe you.”
The girl shrugged. “You don’t have to. You’ll see for yourself.”
The look in her eyes made me want to believe her, she seemed sincere, but I couldn’t even begin to fathom what they were saying being true. It was too strange, too outlandish. I knew this wouldn’t be the nicest neighborhood, but it couldn’t be that bad. It had to be a prank, they had to be hazing me or something.
“We’ll come back later,” Gianna said matter-of-factly. “We’ll show you.”
Before I could protest she grabbed the other girl by the wrist, and they were gone. I followed them to the door, watching them march down the hall, talking to each other in hushed voices.
I closed my door behind them. That night, as promised, they came back. They came dragging along two boys: one was somewhat muscular, wearing a tight black t-shirt and baggy jeans, and my eyes were instantly drawn to a silver heart shaped locket around his neck. He smiled at me and introduced himself as ‘Will’ when he walked in. The other boy was smaller but chubbier, and nervous looking, with a buzzcut and ill-fitting cargo shorts. His name, I was told, was Mateo.
The girl named Gianna came in carrying a bottle of wine, and that same slightly crumpled box of cigarettes. The other one, the girl I still didn’t know the name of, was the only one who looked even somewhat apologetic.
They all sat down on my dusty floor, next to the window, and motioned for me to join them. I sat between Will and the nameless girl, unsure whether I should continue feeling violated or if I should just give in to my strange, pushy neighbors.
“Do you all live in this building?” I asked, hesitantly accepting the wine when it was passed to me.
“Yeah,” Will answered with a grin. It seemed half-hearted. “This building is where all the young people live.”
“It’s where they put us,” Gianna cut in, lighting a cigarette. It didn’t even occur to me to tell her not to smoke inside. “We’ve all been sorted out.”
“Forgive her. She’s a bit of a conspiracy theorist.”
“It’s not a theory,” she snapped, glaring at him. “Look at the other ones. Next door, the middle-agers. People with kids, but no grandkids. Across the street, old people. Not a single twenty-something in that entire building! Mey, tell him!”
So her name was Mey. I looked her over, admiring her smokey eye makeup and how she’d tied her hair up, long strands poking out like exploding fireworks.
“Stop it,” Mey muttered, reaching for the wine bottle. “You’ll scare her.”
“I’m not scared.”
She just shrugged at me, as if she didn’t believe me.
We passed the bottle around, and then around again. I listened to them bicker and laugh – it was clear they’d all been friends for a while, and I felt a little bit like I was intruding, even though they were in my apartment. Will asked me if I had gone to college, and I told him I did, but I dropped out. They all nodded sympathetically, which made me feel stupid.
By midnight, I was a little bit buzzed, and my guard was beginning to fall. I had to admit, it felt good to have friends. I had already mentally resigned myself to a life of solitude, at least for a while, but it seemed that might not actually have to be my fate. I laughed at Mateo and Gianna’s drunken argument, passing a cigarette back and forth with Mey, blowing the smoke out of my open window.
I had almost completely forgotten why they were all over when it happened.
All at once, a blaring alarm came from each of our phones, like an Amber Alert. I could hear the sound echo throughout the neighborhood, like an entire chorus of hundreds of phones going off, not just ours. I nearly leapt out of my skin. Not even Gianna laughed. All of them went quiet, and they looked at me as I took it out, frowning at the screen.
DO NOT INTERFERE.
“It’s coming,” Will whispered. He had changed, his eyes almost glassy and his voice soft and shaky. Mateo squeezed his shoulder. I looked at Mey. Her eyebrows were cinched together in concern, and she was stubbing out our cigarette against the windowsill, shrinking away.
There it was again, that chill. It crept up my back, spreading along my scalp and making me shiver. Something felt deeply, deeply wrong. The others were quiet now, staring silently at the window I was sitting up against. The air felt somehow warmer, like it was buzzing with something… or maybe I was just sweating.
We sat there, unmoving, for what felt like half an hour. Right as I was getting tempted to ask what was going on, I heard it.
It was far away, and faint, but I still heard it. A cry. It continued as it got gradually closer, louder… more desperate.
“Help… please, my god, someone help me…”
Slowly, I leaned out the window. I had to see it with my eyes, had to confirm there was actually someone out there like they had said there would be.
My new apartment was on the fourth floor, so it was hard to see who was down on the street without squinting.
In the flickering streetlights, I could make out the outline of an elderly man. He was hunched over, wandering aimlessly from door to door, wearing only what looked like a hospital gown to cover his pale, broken body. Behind him trailed a path of dripping blood, although I couldn’t see where it was coming from.
“Please… I’m hurt…”
I looked back at the others, my mouth hanging open. “What is this?” I demanded loudly. “What the hell is this?”
Mey touched my arm, trying to calm me down. I pulled away from her.
“Arden, please…”
“We have to help him! Why can’t we help him? He’s just an old man!”
“We can’t help him. Trust me.”
I ignored her, leaning further out the window, prepared to call out to him. Before I could open my mouth, I froze. The man down there was still now, facing our building. His head was tilted upwards, and I couldn’t see his eyes, but I knew he was looking right at me. I immediately felt cold, like I was plummeting into ice water.
“Help me,” he whimpered into the silent night air, his voice barely audible. Then he began to scream.
That scream wasn’t human. Or, at least, not any human I had ever met. It was desperate, agonized. It made my stomach turn and my eyes prick with tears. I couldn’t look away.
The blood was coming from his arms. Or, I should say, his lack of arms. Where his arms should have been there were only bloody, mangled stumps. They looked fresh.
He didn’t move other than a shaky sway, and his eyes didn’t leave me. His shriek slowly molded into words that I could just barely understand.
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE
Mey yanked me backwards, away from the window. I landed on my ass, and yelped in pain and horror.
“What is that thing?” I whispered. I didn’t mean to whisper, but that was all that came out.
“We don’t know,” Mey replied, her eyes trained on Will, who was crying now. Mateo held on to him like he might topple over. “We just know to follow the rules.”
“What happens if you don’t follow the rules?” I asked, and immediately regretted it. Will sobbed softly. Outside, the old man wailed. Gianna reached over and pulled the window shut, but it somehow did nothing to muffle the blood-curdling sound.
“Do you want to tell her, or should I?” Mateo asked Will.
Will just shook his head. He was clutching his locket now, turning the little heart over between his fingers. Mateo sighed and turned towards me.
“A couple of months ago, one of them got to Will’s girl.”
“Shannon,” Gianna butted in. “Her name was Shannon.”
“Is.”
“Sorry. Her name is Shannon.”
I swallowed, but whatever I did, nothing would force down the lump in my throat. “What happened?”
Mateo shook his head. “We don’t know… we were all together when the screaming started. Usually we just ignore it now, you know? No use in dwelling on it. But that night, we think she saw something different. She started insisting she had to help, and she ran outside. We couldn’t stop her.”
He paused, glancing over at Will. He was silent, and still. The screaming outside had begun to pass, getting softer as it continued further down the street.
“Then what?”
He shrugged. “Nothing. She was just… gone.”
I pressed my lips together, trying to process all of this. I really had believed they were messing with me, but I had seen it, I had witnessed it first hand. And it terrified me.
“Why doesn’t anyone leave?”
He shrugged for a second time. “Can’t afford it. Or people just don’t care. Some people have left… but we all signed an NDA with the lease, so nobody ever knows.”
I frowned, thinking back to signing the paperwork, trying to remember. I could vaguely picture what he was talking about. I had just assumed it was more legal jargon that I would never understand. Had I seriously signed a non-disclosure agreement without even noticing?
After that, I told them I wanted to go to bed. I needed time to process all of this. They understood, and each one of them said goodbye before leaving me alone.
As I lay in the dark, staring at the ceiling, for some strange reason I thought of Mey’s face when we had realized it was happening. How she’d put out the cigarette and backed away from the window.
Eventually, I was able to drift off to sleep.
The next few weeks were difficult.
I spent more and more time with my new neighbors. I came to find that they were right: I didn’t think there was a single person older than thirty in our entire building, but I saw them all the time leaving the one next door.
Settling in was… difficult. The others seemed so used to it: they cared, of course, it scared them. Especially Will. But you could tell they had been here a while by the way they sighed, closing the blinds and focusing harder on whatever they were doing. Eventually, I began to mimic them. It helped a little bit to pretend it was normal, as strange as that sounds.
Moving out wasn’t really an option for me, anyways. I was a college dropout, and I hadn’t found a job yet. I was still just getting by on what I had managed to save up.
Every night, it was someone different. Some were more human, some seemed less. Some were drenched in blood, their clothes ripped and strange, but some looked fairly normal. The worst were the children. They would run like injured chickens, screeching and banging on doors. Begging for help. Sometimes they would try different things, say different things.
Like, they’re coming.
Like, I don’t want to die.
Or even I’m sorry.
There were a lot of children.
One night, while I was half awake, an alarm went off – it wasn’t like the one on our phones, it was blaring, only somewhat muffled by my window. My apartment glowed a flashing red from outside. I didn’t even look. I was too scared of what I might see.
I just covered my head with my pillow and tried to fall back asleep.
I came to learn all of the theories, especially from Gianna. She thought we had all been chosen and predetermined to live here, all for some sick little government game. She thought maybe there were people betting on the different buildings, putting down money on who would interfere the least. See that? She said to me one day in the hallway, returning from a coffee run. Cameras everywhere. I didn’t know if I believed her.
I spent time with Mey, mostly. We smoked on the front steps and people watched. It was strange to see what at night was such a sinister and gruesome neighborhood during the day, bright and lively.
She didn’t talk much about the rules. So I didn’t either. We didn’t talk all that much in general, I found, just enjoying each other’s company.
Right when I was beginning to feel comfortable was when it happened.
It started with a birthday cake.
“Happy birthday!”
As Mey walked through the door, Mateo blew into his plastic party horn. The paper inflated, smacking Will on the side of the head. Mey’s hand flew to her heart.
“Jesus Christ. You fuckers know I hate surprises!”
Gianna laughed and walked over to her. In her hands she held a chocolate cake, haphazardly adorned with sprinkles and bright pink icing that read “HAPPY BIRTHDAY MEY” in the center.
“Twenty-four.” She set down the cake on the dresser and threw her arm around Mey’s neck. “How does it feel?”
“Fucking awful.”
“That’s the spirit.”
“Enough of this,” Mateo cut in, weaving between them. “Lets eat some cake, then lets go!”
Their tradition, I had learned, was to bar-hop for birthdays. They told me there was no curfew here, despite the rules, just a recommended time to be home which was 10:30 PM. Usually, they said, they got home before the alarm, or spent the night somewhere else.
We all took some cake. The boys took shots in the kitchen to pregame while I watched Gianna fuss over Mey’s hair.
I was never much of a partier. While at clubs or bars in college, I spent most of the time out back, chatting with the smokers. But then again, I was never much of a friend group person either, so maybe the circumstances were changing.
I watched them all troop outside to Mateo’s car. I stuffed myself in the back, incredibly conscious of how close I was pressed into Mey, my other shoulder rammed into the car door. Mateo’s music, cranked up to maximum volume, hurt my ears, and the tiny space was packed with the smell of tobacco and various perfumes as we sped down the freeway toward the city, but it was… nice. It was really nice. I found myself laughing with them, and I hooked my arm around Mey’s when she weaseled her hand beneath my elbow.
It was actually nice.
As predicted, the bars they chose weren’t exactly my scene. But this time, as opposed to college, I could stand it. I took shots, I followed them out for smoke breaks, I even danced under the low purple lights until my feet ached inside my chunky heels, surely riddled with blisters. By the time we got to our third bar, I couldn’t even feel it anymore.
And it was at that third bar that we crammed ourselves into an old photobooth, and Gianna reluctantly offered five dollars to the slot, and we laughed, red faced, into a tiny camera.
After the photos spit out into the compartment, the others slid through the red curtains, but before I could follow, Mey grabbed my wrist. She held me back, sliding her long baby blue nails up my wrist. I shivered.
“You never gave me a birthday present,” She whispered, and I could feel her breath on my face. If I was wearing my glasses, they would’ve been fogging up.
“Yeah, well, I…”
I didn’t get to finish my quip before she kissed me.
It was nice.
And then it wasn’t.
“Hey,” Will called out to me, squeezing through a crowd of men wearing tattered leather jackets to get to me. “Arden! Where’s everybody else?”
I blinked, looking around. I could have sworn they had been right there a second ago, but now none of them were anywhere to be found. I shrugged.
“Dunno. Why, what’s up?”
He finally broke free from the swaying mass and I got a better look at him. He looked… worried. His face was flushed, and I could see a few drops of sweat creeping out from his hairline. He took his phone out of his pocket and held it out to me. First, I saw his home screen. It was him next to a girl with strawberry blonde hair, both clutching beer bottles and grinning widely at the camera. Then I looked where he actually wanted me to. The time. 1:47 AM.
“It’s getting late,” he narrated. “Can we find the others and get going?”
I understood then. He was worried. It was past one AM, and no alarm yet. It was later than usual. The bars would start closing soon. He wanted to get back before it happened.
Will and I weaved through the crowd. I was pretty buzzed, and I realized I was having a hard time moving my feet right, which made me feel embarrassed. I hadn’t even had that much to drink… was I that much of a lightweight?
We found them outside, chain smoking. Will explained the situation while I swayed.
The drive back was strangely tense. Mateo’s music was turned down, and there wasn’t any joking or boisterous gossiping like there had been on the way out. We all felt it, it didn’t need to be said – something was off.
Will drove fast, almost reckless. In the dark, Mey took my hand.
Just as he was careening around the last corner, and we could almost make out the shape of our apartment building down the street, it happened. All of our phones went off at once. Gianna let out a small shriek from the other side of the backseat.
DO NOT INTERFERE.
Mateo turned back towards us, pressing his finger to his lips. Had this ever happened before? By their reactions, I didn’t think so. It was different when it came when I was in my bedroom, when I could just shut the curtains and put my headphones on… I felt so small and helpless then, like I was gazing into the maw of something incomprehensibly beyond my understanding. I felt like we were all flies, and this neighborhood, right now, was the spider’s web.
Will drove slowly now. Maybe five miles an hour. We were all still, we were all silent. Not even a stray breath cut through the quiet.
Underneath the glowing streetlights, I could make out the side of Will’s face. He was pale, and if I hadn’t seen his knee shifting as he pressed down on the breaks, I could have mistaken him for a mannequin.
The car came to a stop. I followed his gaze, all the way down the street to the dark horizon. And I saw what he saw.
A silhouette. It was far too distant to make out what shape it took, but it was evidently humanoid. It moved in a shaky stumble, limping down the middle of the road in our direction. And in the overwhelming silence, I could hear it, far away but still deeply urgent…
“Help me…”
“Will,” Gianna hissed. “Turn the car around.”
Will didn’t move. He just stared forward, as white as paper.
It didn’t make any logical sense, but I knew what he knew. It was too late now. There was no use.
“Help me, please help…”
I could tell now that it was a girl from its voice, and its figure as it got closer. It was wearing some sort of white nightgown, not unlike the old man’s hospital attire from that first night, stained with dark red blood. From here, I couldn’t tell if it was fresh or dry. I didn’t know why that mattered to me.
“Maybe,” Mey whispered. Her arm shook against mine. “Maybe if we’re quiet and we duck down, it won’t see us.”
Deep down it felt as hopeless as turning around had felt, but it seemed reasonable. I nodded and did as she suggested, crouching behind the passenger seat, my knees throbbing from the strange angle I’d bent myself into.
We all did it, except for Will. He didn’t move. He still just… looked. When he finally spoke, I could barely hear him, it was so weak.
“Shannon…”
The word hung in the air, heavy with implication. Mateo was the one to break the silence.
“What?”
“Shannon,” he repeated, finally turning to look at his friend. “That’s Shannon.”
I peered over the seat in front of me, squinting my eyes. The human-like-thing was getting closer, and now I could make out strawberry blonde hair, round face, short legs… the girl from Will’s phone lockscreen. The girl who had disappeared. Shannon. Mey gasped next to me.
“Dude,” Mateo said slowly, his words crumbling as soon as they left his mouth. “I know what you’re thinking, dude. Do not get out of this car.”
Will didn’t even seem like he was with us anymore. He was in shock, I think, looking back.
“I have to help her,” he insisted, right as another sickening cry rang out.
“Help me! Help! Help me, please, someone, it hurts…”
It was getting far too close to us for comfort, but it still didn’t seem to notice the car. Its cries became more and more desperate as they got louder.
“I have to help her,” Will repeated, and a bit of life had returned to his face. Mateo shook his head and grabbed at his sleeve.
“Will, that is not Shannon.”
Will glared at him, his eyes shining with tears. “I know Shannon! That’s her!”
“I know you do, dude, and I know you miss her, but please… please don’t do this.”
Their voices were getting louder and more and more distraught, and I felt Mey press into my side, trembling like a leaf. Gianna was whimpering, but I couldn’t see her from my position.
The thing was almost to our car when it stopped. She turned her head, left, then right, almost like she was sniffing the air. The boys stopped arguing. I felt like my heart would burst out of my chest.
I could see “Shannon’s” face now, and I realized why she hadn’t seen us. The girls face was streaked with gore, and it looked like her eyes had been scooped out with a melon spoon. She cried, drool pouring from her slackened mouth, but no tears could come.
It happened too quickly. None of us could stop him. Will violently ripped his arm away from Mateo, fumbling for the handle to the car door. Gianna screamed. Mateo tried to slam down on the lock, but he missed, and Will managed to get the door open before he could try again.
He stumbled onto the asphalt and hit the ground with a soft crunch. The thing turned her head, and began to scream.
But instead of charging at Will… she backed away. She held her arms out in front of her like something might attack her, whipping her head around wildly.
An alarm went off, like the one I had heard that one night, but far more unbearable now that I was in it. The streetlights lining either side of the street switched to a flashing red, and Mateo threw himself into the drivers seat, the tires screeching as he peeled away.
Gianna was screaming at him, pleading with him to go back. Mey was weeping into her hands.
I didn’t move, didn’t make a sound.
I didn’t understand.
As we sped away, I looked back… I couldn’t help it. I saw the flash of some sort of van in the blinding red light, pulling around the corner. Then nothing.
That was a week or two ago. I don’t know. I’ve been having a hard time keeping track of time.
None of us have spoken much since that night. We tried the police, of course, but as you could assume, nothing came of it. I think whatever this is is far larger than we know. I don’t know if it’s some kind of experiment, or just a sick game, but I’m going to move back into my parents house next week, despite all their berating, and then figure out what to do from there.
I don’t know if that was really Shannon that we saw that night, or if it was something else, and I don’t know which is worse – all I know is that last night, I heard Will’s voice outside my window. Crying. Pleading for help.
I didn’t interfere.