The Intrusion

Six

[Jordan]

When I get home, I swing the door to the apartment open and step inside. The place is silent. Lifeless. Even the air is still. Before getting to Vancouver, I hadn't had a roommate since college, but now, I've gotten used to always having someone else around. It's crazy how quickly that happens—falling into routines. Getting used to things.

I head into my kitchen and throw a freezer dinner in the microwave. The gentle whirring sound soothes me into a relaxed state of calmness. When the beep finally rings, I'm so startled I practically jump where I'm standing.

I snatch the meal from the microwave and devour it, tossing the package into the trash bin once I'm done.

I make my way over to the window in the living room and look out. Almost all the windows across the street are alive with light, but for whatever reason, watching Chad and Rebecca and Jack and Spot and Clair only makes me feel more lonely. This was Mel's and my thing. It doesn't feel the same without her.

I look over towards the room where I saw the man staring at me last night.

The room is empty. The light is off. Guess he's not home.

I check the time on my phone and yawn. It's past nine, but I don't care. My bed is calling me.

After I shower and brush my teeth, I head into my room and plop down on the mattress. My head hits the pillow, my eyes shut, and my mind drifts off to sleep.

...

I don't know how long I have been asleep, but when I wake up, everything is dark. I don't know what time it is, but I know it isn't morning. It's far too dark out to be even close to dawn. The windows aren't even glowing yet.

I think about checking my phone for the time, but I can't bring myself to move my arms. My mind isn't sending the signals right now. I'm frozen.

I must not be fully awake yet.

As I'm wondering if maybe I'll just fall back to sleep, out of nowhere, a sudden gut feeling of dread pulls at the pit of my stomach, like it has lurched out of place. It's that intense falling feeling you get when you are plummeting down the first drop on a rollercoaster and your stomach falls down to your knees, or maybe more like the feeling you'd get if you were in an elevator and suddenly the mechanism snapped and the whole floor dropped out from under you.

I'm falling from the top of a ledge, but I'm not moving. Instead, everything is rising around me.

Vertigo.

I don't know how I know this, but somehow I know that something is coming. There is something in the lobby of the building, heading towards the elevators. Something dark. And it's coming for me. It knows where I am.

Did I lock the door when I got home from dropping Mel off at the airport?

Oh God.

I don't think I did. Mel always used to lock the doors. I don't think I did. I don't think I did. I don't think I did.

I need to get up and lock the door. Something is coming. It's in the elevator now. Rising up, up, up.

It's coming.

It's coming for me.

I need to get up.

I try to send thoughts from my brain to get my body to move, but nothing works. I can't move my legs. I can't move my arms. I can't move anything. Nothing works!

I'm paralyzed.

It's coming.

It's in the hallway now. This dark, sinister thing. It's coming towards my door.