The Silent Neighbor

Chapter 1 – The Stranger Upstairs

Lena had lived in her apartment for three years, and nothing ever changed. The same groaning elevator, the same peeling paint in the hallway, the same neighbors exchanging polite nods but little more.

Until the man upstairs moved in.

He was quiet, polite, and always seemed just a little too… controlled. His name was Mr. Hale, though Lena doubted that was his real name. He worked odd hours, came home late, and never made a sound. Yet sometimes, in the middle of the night, Lena would wake to the creak of footsteps pacing above her ceiling—slow, deliberate, as though someone were measuring the length of the room.

Chapter 2 – The Notebook

One evening, the landlord asked Lena to deliver a letter upstairs since she was heading that way. She knocked on Hale’s door. He opened it only slightly, enough for her to pass the envelope through.

But as she glanced inside, she noticed something strange: a desk covered in neatly stacked notebooks. Each was black, identical, and labeled with a date.

Hale noticed her stare. For the first time, his smile faltered. “I keep journals,” he said flatly, before shutting the door.

That night, Lena couldn’t sleep. Why would someone need dozens of identical notebooks? And why did the dates on the spines go back only two years—starting the day a woman in a nearby neighborhood had mysteriously vanished?

Chapter 3 – The Voices in the Walls

The sounds began weeks later. Whispers through the vents. Lena pressed her ear to the wall one night and froze: Hale’s voice. He was speaking calmly, tenderly… as though to someone else in the room.

But every time she passed him in the hallway, he was alone.

Her fear turned to obsession. She researched the missing woman, combed through old articles, and discovered chilling details. The woman’s description matched a figure Lena had glimpsed in Hale’s apartment once—a shadowy silhouette standing by the window, motionless.

Chapter 4 – Descent

Lena contacted the police. They visited Hale but found nothing suspicious. No signs of another person, no criminal record, no evidence of wrongdoing.

“Maybe it’s your imagination,” one officer said kindly.

But Lena knew better. She began watching him. She wrote down every time he left, every time he came back. She tracked the hours of pacing above her ceiling. Her notes began to resemble the black journals on his desk.

And then—she realized with a jolt—Hale wasn’t the only one being watched.

Chapter 5 – The Trap

One night, Lena returned home to find her own door ajar. Inside, everything looked untouched… except for a single object placed neatly on her table.

A notebook. Black, identical to Hale’s.

Her hands trembled as she opened it. Inside were pages and pages of handwriting—not hers, but Hale’s. The first entry: “Day 1. She suspects. She listens to the walls. She is watching me. She thinks I am dangerous. This is good.”

Every detail of her life for the past weeks was written in the notebook: when she left, when she returned, what she ate, what she wore.

The final entry read: “Day 41. She will call the police again. But by then, it will be too late. The story ends tonight.”

Chapter 6 – The Ending

Lena dropped the notebook and fled. She hammered on her neighbor’s door, screaming for help. The police were called again.

When they entered Hale’s apartment, the journals were gone. The apartment was spotless, empty—as if no one had ever lived there.

Hale had vanished.

To this day, Lena swears she hears footsteps above her ceiling at night. Slow. Deliberate. Pacing back and forth.

And sometimes, when she opens her door in the morning, a fresh black notebook waits for her on the floor.