Unit A-7

It happens to me every night. At 3:33 am, I see her. I have no idea who she is or how she gets into my bedroom, but it needs to end. Just when I get brave enough to stand up and catch her, she disappears.

…

I moved into this apartment building about a month ago. I live in a small rural town in the middle of Michigan where there isn’t a whole lot going on. The most exciting thing that happens is the small parades once a month in the summer and that’s it. We have a little motel that the owners try their best to keep up to prevent it from looking like people get murdered in it. We also have a bar, a breakfast joint and a couple small shops and that’s it.

I'm only 22 and struggling to find myself so I decided to do what most kids my age do. Move out of their parents basement. It took some time searching but I finally found a one bed one bath apartment a couple towns over that was actually in my budget. I was able to get approved and paid all my friends pizza and beer to help me move all my stuff. For the first time in a long time I was actually pretty excited about something. My buddies that helped me move stayed for a while longer hanging out and helping me set up the new exciting drinking spot.

1 A.M rolled around and everyone left. I was finally comfortable enough to lay down and relax and feel great about myself for the decision I made.

I woke up in the middle of the night still pretty buzzed and unable to move. I suffer from sleep paralysis so some nights aren't as bad as others. But I could already tell this was going to be a bad episode. “God dammit, not again” I thought as I struggled to get up, that's when I saw her. She wasn't the usual shadow man I sometimes encounter. She was an older looking lady, maybe in her 60’s. It looked like she had on this white dress, I couldn't tell if it was a wedding dress or a nurse outfit since I was half asleep and a little inebriated. The one thing that stood out to me were her arms. She only had one arm, the other looked like it was cut off. I could've sworn it was dripping blood. And her eyes. They constantly changed colors. Rapidly going from red to blue to yellow. I was absolutely terrified. But I was trapped in my bed. Hypnotised by what was in front of me. Then all of a sudden she vanished, and I was able to shoot out of bed into the bathroom where I quickly lost my entire dinner and then some into the toilet. “Man, that's the last time I’ll ever drink Jaager again.” I thought.

The next morning I woke up with a hangover from hell. I was groggy and couldn't even concentrate on making breakfast. “Huh… I could've sworn I put all the dishes away in the cupboards last night” They were all packaged neatly back into the boxes. “Whatever, I’ll take care of it after breakfast.”

After breakfast I organized all the dishes back into the cupboards and tightened up the place. It was a beautiful day outside so I decided to go out on a walk and adventure into the new place I get to call home. I’ve driven past this town a million times but I never really stopped to check it out. After a couple hours of walking around I ventured back to the apartment. When I got back I went into my kitchen to grab some water since it was extremely hot outside, but when I opened the cupboard to grab a glass I froze. There was nothing. All the cups and dishes I put away weren't there any more. “The fuck?” I looked down and there they all were. Packaged neatly into the moving boxes. I stood there frozen. I must've jumped like a cat when I heard the door knocking. “Just a second” I shouted as I grabbed a glass of water. I rushed to open the front door. No one was there. “Is this some sort of sick game?” I thought.

As the day went on I started becoming more and more agitated with what was happening. I kept hearing little knocks in my apartment along with faint footsteps. I knew I was living in an apartment building so I fully expected to be able to hear other people moving around throughout the day, but to hear it WITHIN my own apartment just seemed odd to me.

When I went down to grab the mail I passed a couple people walking up the stairs. I was eavesdropping on their conversation and stopped in my tracks when I heard about them talking about me.

“Did you hear they rented out unite A-7 to some guy?” “No shit, I thought they were just going to condemn it after what happened there a couple months ago. I feel sorry for the poor bastard living there now. Hopefully he doesn't find out what happened.”

I wanted to vomit after hearing that. As I was about to turn around and ask them what happened in the unit since I am the “Poor bastard living there” they slipped into their apartment. I didn't have the nerve to knock on their door since I'm incredibly shy and anxious in those situations.

Later on that night I couldn't sleep. Knowing that something terrible happened in my own unit is enough for me to just dip and live with my parents again. I occupied my time with watching YouTube clips and reading other feel good stories until I simply cannot stay awake anymore. I was really hoping that whatever happened last night didn't happen again, that way it'll never occupy space within my own consciousness again.

I woke up frozen. Only being able to see the faint green lights emanating from my alarm clock on my desk. 3:33 A.M. I couldn't move. No matter how hard I tried to get the slightest movement from my arms it was no use. “Fuck” I thought. “Just close your eyes and focus on getting back to sleep” But something happened. I couldn't close my eyes. It's as if something were keeping them pried open. Then I saw her. At first, a black apparition, Molding into a translucent white with each characteristic becoming more prominent. The legs, then the one arm, while the other blood soaked and severed limb appeared. This time I could make out muscle and bone protruding out of the cut. Still very translucent but I could see the blood squirting out of her veins as if she still had some type of heartbeat. Then the neck appeared, chin, nose, cheeks, and then the worst part of all. Her eyes. Those fucking eyes that locked onto mine like a snake studying her prey, only if the snake had red, blue, and yellow eyes that changed color.

By the grace of God I was able to close my eyes. Minutes felt like hours as I kept them shut hoping this was all a dream. “This isn't real,” I thought. I let the darkness wash over. Devour me. I laid there feeling like the prey I was being digested by an enormous animal sliding down the esophagus into the stomach where I would melt away into nothing but a memory. I actually felt some type of solace until I opened my eyes again. Then there she was. I was nose to nose with the women. Looking into her eyes I felt as if I was staring into the sun. I’ll never forget the pain I experienced locked into her pupils. Then just as sudden as she was when she appeared in front of my face, she was gone. I felt my dinner coming back up from my stomach. I was able to get up and run to the bathroom, but to no avail fell short and missed the toilet by about 5 feet.

The next morning I went down to the main office to see if I could switch to a different unit. To prevent myself from sounding like a psycho I just told her that the one bed was just too small for me so if she moved me to a two bed I would be able to make that work. The lady stopped and looked at me. “Are you sure it's not because of her?” My heart dropped. “What do you mean?” “I’m not dumb, I know what happened in that apartment. I tried to convince management to move you to a different unit but they wouldn't listen. Let me get you a request to move to a different room. I’m terribly sorry for all the misery you might have experienced while staying here. People who rent out that apartment dont stay as long as you did.”

There was a long pause between us as she went typing away on her computer.

“Well…..what…..what happened there?”

She looked down. Becoming more and more uneasy. “Do you really want to know?” Without bothering to look at me. “Yes,” I said.

“Her name was Veronica. She rented out A-7 for 25 years. She first moved here with her husband when they were in their 50’s just looking to downsize. A couple years back She came home one night and her husband hung himself in the bathroom. Cut the shit out of his wrists before doing it to die quicker. She went manic. She didn't even report the body, she cut him down and just laid him in their bed and acted like nothing happened. A couple weeks went by and tenants were reporting a terrible smell as they walked by the room. No one had seen Veronica in a couple days so we had the police check in on her. They went inside the room and they found her sitting in front of the TV. She bashed her head and chest in with a hammer. It took weeks to redo the whole unit.”

I stood there practically pissing myself. “Are you sure you're supposed to be telling me this?” “Today's my last day here. I don't give a fuck about anything anymore.”