Chapter 3: "Hey Liv,..
476 Words
Olivia just lay on the couch, feeling very tired. The apartment felt heavier than usual, quiet in a way that pressed against her ears. Her mind wander toward Ethan’s door down the hall. Quiet. Too quiet.
The message from Daniel still glowed on her phone:
"Baby girl hope your day was good, sorry I could not call earlier, I was busy, sorry love I would make it up to you"
Her chest tightened. calm, almost unreadable — but now, alone in her apartment, she felt alone , Just her and the neighbors downstairs
Her phone buzzed. A message from sarah
“Hey Liv, what’s up? How are u doing?
No reply.
A low sigh escaped her lips. She had tried to distract herself all day at work, throwing herself into orders, serving tables, dodging the manager’s shouts. But now, here, alone, it all came back. The exhaustion. The tension. The sense that something wasn’t right.
She moved to the window and peered down toward the street. The evening was settling in, the wet pavement reflecting the dim lights from the building. Nothing seemed out of place. Nothing… except the man downstairs. Ethan.
Her thoughts jumped to the faint scrape she had heard last night, just before bed. Something small, almost imperceptible, yet it stuck in her mind. Furniture being moved? Or something else? She couldn’t be sure.
Another buzz. Daniel again.
“Am coming over, I made a little time"
Olivia’s thumb hovered over the reply button. She hesitated. Was he really coming to see her? Or was it just another careless message, meant without thought? The mixed signals made her stomach twist. She didn’t know whether to feel hopeful or suspicious
She put the phone down. Silence. Then… a soft knock at her door.
Her heart jumped. Who could it be? Not Daniel — she just saw his message.
She approached the door cautiously. “Hello?”
No answer. Just silence.
Her hand trembled as she slowly turned the knob. The door was slightly ajar.
She froze.
Ethan’s apartment was down the hall. Could it have been him? But why would he knock on her door and leave?
Shaking off her fear, Olivia stepped inside and locked the door behind her. She moved to the couch, trying to steady her breathing
Her thoughts raced. Daniel’s sudden, messages. Ethan’s quiet stare this morning. The scrape she heard yesterday. something she didn’t understand yet — and she had the strangest feeling that tonight was only the beginning.
Olivia sank onto the couch, her hands gripping her phone. She didn’t know whom to trust, but she knew one thing: nothing about her life in this building was as simple as it seemed. And the man downstairs, calm and unreadable, was at the center of it all.
A shadow moved past her window.
Her breath caught.
She wasn’t alone.
- Writer
