the girl in apt 22

She was usually so quiet.

I never would’ve known she’d moved in if I hadn’t seen her car always parked next to mine. She lived right above me, but I never actually saw her going in or out.

Every once in a while I’d hear music coming from her apartment, but this time was different.

One night, I heard a sort of muffled scream and what sounded like glass shattering on the floor.

are you alone?

I minded my own business and kept scrolling through Instagram. I don’t know why I do it. I always see things I wish I’d never seen.

I was up until 3 AM.

Then I heard it again. More glass shattering.

I didn’t hear anything again for a couple days after that.

I was dreaming of a field filled with sunflowers and the sun was rising. Shades of pink and blue mixing together as I lay down in the grass. I heard a voice but couldn’t understand what it was saying. I reached out my hand and turned my head, but no one was there.

“Are you alone?”

I jumped and sat up, awoken by the deafening sound of ambulance sirens and the flashing red and blue lights beaming through my blinds. I checked the clock. 6:08 AM.

I peeked through the blinds to see the ambulance was parked right in front of my apartment. The paramedics were coming down the stairs carrying a stretcher with a body covered in a white sheet. They put her in the back of the ambulance and drove away. No sirens or lights on anymore.