3 FEET AWAY

"Ma'am?" she repeats, "What is the deadline you have decided for this

project?", she asks putting her palm on her forehead with those baggy

eyes. At this point, she was quite certain she'll have serious mental

damage if she worked from home for another 2 days. "Emma

Lancaster died due to working from home during the covid pandemic.

Is this what I should make them write on my tombstone?" She asked

herself dramatically. Everyone was going crazy in their homes

because of the uncertainty. Emma was really tired and hungry but as

she lived alone in her apartment she cooked her meals herself. Every

muscle in her body screamed of hopelessness. She inadvertently

called her mom and broke down because she wasn't feeling herself.

"Hi, mum." "Hey, darling what's been up? " She heaved a sigh, "I'm

having headaches, I ain't really sleeping through the night, which is

quite strange right mum? I never struggled to sleep before. I'm also

feeling nauseous a lot." Her mum replied, " Oh Emma, you always

stress over such things, don't think it over, maybe you are just feeling

very lonely and going a little crazy as everyone in the quarantine. It's

gonna be fine." Emma agreed with her mum and considering how

chatty she is she spent 3 hours on the call with her mum just rambling

and cribbing. Throughout the month she noticed an uptick in the

number of spiders in her apartment which was very unusual because

she was extremely tidy. She started complaining to her manager as

she got sick of the spiders and she really needed her to come. " Hello,

Violet I wanted to talk to you, I have recently noticed that there are a

lot of spiders in my apartment. Can you please send the maintenance

guy?" But her manager replied negatively and said she wouldn't send

anyone as it was the pandemic and it wasn't that big of a deal.

Honestly, it was the least of anyone's concerns. Emma survived a few

days but then she started to have a bad smell whenever there came a

heavy breeze. But again it wasn't something she put her finger on as she was just smelling it occasionally. She started to feel crazy

because she wasn't sleeping and the smell was bothering her a lot

and it had been going on for weeks. "Okay, Violet! You might think I

am a bit crazy but there are weird things happening inside my

apartment you know-" her manager said "Emma I know you are facing

issues, but it's the covid because of why I can't send anyone or come

out myself" she said interrupting. Emma got really upset and

disconnected. She started to feel that maybe her schizophrenic

neighbor's dog died. Days passed and Emma had this really bad

feeling that something was super wrong, she couldn't handle the smell

anymore and her manager was refusing to pick her calls. At last, she

called the police" 911 what's your emergency?" Emma replied freaking

out, " I'm feeling very nauseous and there's a terrible smell coming

from my neighborhood. I've got a strong feeling something is really

wrong!"

The police came as soon as they could. " It's okay we are here now,

we will do a check on your neighbor." The police knocks on the door

and there the old schizophrenic, Mr.Kaufman was standing with a

pack of nachos in his hands. The police enquired further and turned

out he was fine and everything was okay. The police said to Emma,

" If your manager doesn't convene in the next 48 hours you can call

us again." Emma's manager was really upset with her because she

was disturbing her neighbors and gave her a notice saying that she

can't be harassing people in the building. "What's happening to me?!

Why is nobody believing me? I literally feel like I am on a mission,

absolutely no one is listening to me and Violet is making me feel

crazy." Finally, after tons of messages and calls, her manager listened

and agreed to send up the maintenance man to meet her. After a

couple of hours, her maintenance man showed up. He couldn't even

climb up the stairs without starting to vomit. He ripped off his mask

and screamed " I'm going to get the master key! Someone is dead!"

Emma started freaking out and felt validated after weeks of feeling crazy. The maintenance man disappeared and never came back.

Emma immediately called the police, sobbing at this point. "Please

come fast I think someone's dead come fast please!" Things went

from zero to a hundred really fast. Within five minutes cops were

inside the building gathering information " Code 110 I repeat Code 110

everyone start busting down doors!" It was logical to start with the

neighbor who lived on the left to her because they had already talked

to the right one. The cops started banging on the door but no one

responded. "Is anyone in there!? Open the door or else we will take

actions you wouldn't want us to take! Hello, Is anyone there!?" One of

the cops asked to see if the door was unlocked. I said shivering, "Why

would it already be unlocked?" The cop shrugged and tried to unlock

the door. The cop held the handle, twisted the doorknob, and opens it

maybe an inch, and thousands of spiders started coming out flying.

The cop immediately slammed the door, "Oh my lord! We need tons of

backup! Call for lots of back-ups!". A few cops also started throwing up

beside the staircase railing. They told Emma to stay inside and not

come out. She was astounded and ran inside her apartment shedding

tears. The cops started screaming if the backup was ready or not.

They finally opened the door. "Oh, my good lord! This is the worst

decomposed body we have ever come across!!!" Emma was shivering

and called her manager immediately. "The number you are calling is

currently switched off. Please try again later". Emma's face was

blanched with terror...