47
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Beads of sweat trickled down the side of her forehead, forming a slick trail down the sharp angles of her cheekbones, slid past her neck, and disappeared beneath her collar. It was warmer than it had been in a long time. She guessed it was because it had been raining profusely the past consecutive days. It was nothing she was not used to, though, having been born in Myanmar and soon after, lived in sunny Singapore for most of her life. In fact, such London weather would probably be a respite for her childhood friends back home.
However, the scorching heat and humidity was probably hitting her especially hard today, seeing as she had been lugging her 4 gargantuan suitcases and 7 other boxes to her new place. She drops the last of the box by the gate of the new building she was about to call home for the next few years.
Probyn House seemed like a fairly welcoming place, the façade at least. Bricks the color of burnt red greeted her. She was grateful for some semblance of color and appreciated the architecture of the building before her.
While she takes it all in, a middle-aged lady enters her view, holding a bicycle. The edges of her mouth are already turned upwards as she walks towards her, and she says with the practised poise of a professional saleswoman, “Welcome to Probyn House! Are you the tenant for 47?”
Her mousy brown hair seems to have a life of its own, and sits unkemptly on the top of her shoulders. As she walks closer, the knots in her hair become more visible, and the girl tears her eyes away from her appearance and nods, before meekly responding to the lady’s outstretched hand with her own.
“Nice to meet you, How are you?”
“I am good and you?”
“I am very well, thank you. Well then, shall we head inside?”
The girl looks hesitantly at her mountain of boxes and luggage around her, inwardly wondering how she was going to bring it all inside the building, with this woman just waiting for her (impatiently??).
“Um.. is it okay to leave my stuff here for now?” The girl asks sheepishly as she gestures towards her mountain of luggage and boxes around them.
She looks around and goes “Well, I guess it is safe here”, clearly trying to dismiss her worries. She still looks upbeat and friendly, but her smile doesn’t seem to reach her eyes. The girl forces herself to swallow her worries about her things getting stolen, and hurries after the lady, not wanting to waste her time. Perhaps due to her limited experience interacting with adults, or maybe even an inferiority complex, or just sheer tendency to be acquiescent around others, it was not always that easy for her to be suave and confident in the way she spoke and carried herself around people. Rather than standing her ground in a steadfast manner, she believed it was easier to deal with adults by giving in to their wishes.
Tall columns of brick red buildings, the height of around five stories flanked her on either side. They pass by a quaint little communal garden, decorated with. She tries to take it all in but the lady is already moving on ahead.
They reach the fourth floor.
With a quick twist of her wrist, the door to her apartment swings open.
Without a moment of hesitation, the girl shoots down the stairs, taking 2 at a time, and reaches the front door. ‘Please, oh please let them be there’ she chants to herself inwardly as she
She wanted nothing more than to give in to her body’s pleas to curl up in bed but the thought of waking up to her filthy room gave her the resolve she needed to start cleaning up.
Mentally, she starts checking things of the list, one by one. At some point, fatigue washes over her like a wave and she doesn’t remember moving but she somehow finds herself in the cool escape of her sheets that smell like her previous apartment.
(686 words)
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Her dreams that night were plagued with visions of the impossible. There was a faceless man, in a room very much like the one she was in at the moment. Being positioned at the angle in line with the large full length mirror, she had the perfect view of his front and back. His facial features were indistinguishable but she recognised his physical aspects- the slant of his shoulders, his height, the disheveled appearance etc. She had no doubt that it was the creepy neighbour.
Her gut instinct warned her not to move further. He was walking stiffly towards - a chair in the middle of her room. There was a figure of a man huddled over on the chair. The man in the chair seemed to register the noise of the man walking towards him and he looks up in a panic, his eyes frantically seeking for any escape/ some help, before catching the girl’s eyes in the mirror. That was when she noticed that his arms and legs were tied to the chair. She stood rooted to the ground, but her mouth opens to let out a blood-curling scream- but
“Ding Dong”
She jolts awake, half expecting to see the neighbour at the foot of her bed. However, the fear has not left her body. She tries to calm her racing heart, her mind reeling from the events of the hellish nightmare. The logical side of her assured her that there was no way that really happened, and yet she was not fully convinced.
It was impossible to quieten her adrenaline filled mind- .
The longer she waits outside his flat, pacing, the logical part of her seemed to have catched up with her instincts.
(285 words)
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‘Dong dong dong’
The shrill of the doorbell startles her and she freezes, not reacting at all at first. it takes her a moment to process who it
As she processes who it could possibly be, it hits her that her amazon delivery was supposed to arrive that day. Her limbs move, as if on autopilot, as she stands up and opens the door anyway.
Her blood instantly runs cold. It's the creepy neighbour. She finds it hard to breathe all of a sudden. What could he possibly want? Her mind races.
Though, he seemed to be emitting a very different aura from last time. In a friendly, chatty mood. He is casually leaning against the side of her door pane, a cigarette nestled between his fore and middle fingers.
He takes his time with his cigarette, a lopsided smile hanging off his lips as he takes in how she squirms uncomfortably under his gaze.
He takes a long swig of his cigarette, his mouth forming an ‘o’ shape as he blows the smoke. She watches as it dispersed. She couldn't help the frown that crept on her face at this sight in front of her. In an attempt to limit the smoke entering her flat, she tightens the gap between her door and herself. Either the creepy neighbour didn't see or he was in a good mood, because he didnt seem to mind her hostility.
He reaches into his back pocket and pulls out a cigarette, offering it to her. The girl frowns a second time and shakes her head, taking the queue to finally shut the door when a foot appears between the already tiny gap left between the door and frame, the only obstacle in her way to freedom from this creep.
His grip on the door is unrelenting. He still wears a relaxed smile, but his tensed muscles on his forearm belies his facial expression. She tries not to think about how he could easily overpower her if it really came down to it.
“You don’t smoke? Wow, that’s healthy” he comments, and gestures for a fist bump. For some inexplicable reason, that singular instance of physical contact was sufficient to trigger feelings of repulsion for him. Taking advantage of the fact that he was not blocking her escape anymore, she uses both hands and practically slams the door shut in his face.
She hears a muffled sigh of exasperation. A series of knocks quickly follows, each one more aggressive sounding than the one before.
She grabs her phone from her nightstand, and send out a text to her older brother
Something flips like a switch in her psyche and her body goes into survival mode… [to be continued]
(453 words)
“Thus is Man that great and true Amphibium, whose nature is disposed to live, not only like other creatures in divers elements, but in divided and distinguished worlds: for though there be but one to sense, there are two to reason, the one visible, the other invisible.”
