Pulse

Chapter 1: No Sleep

It all began when I woke up.

A loud, irritating noise echoes in my bedroom walls. I can hear something banging on the other side of the wall. My neighbor Burt, an old and occasionally hostile man, lives on that other side of that wall. It seems he is hitting the wall with something repeatedly. It doesn't seem to ever want to stop.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

What makes it worse is that it's 3 AM in the morning. And the fact that he's hitting the wall right where my bed is.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

I groan out of anger as I turn my body to the other side of the bed. What the hell is this guy even up to? My eyes are still closed and blanket wrapped around my body. I really do not want to leave my bed and deal with my neighbor. Please. The loud bangs are not only repetitive, they're rhythmical. And they've been going on for the past fifteen minutes. Yelling at him didn't work, it made it only worse and the banging got louder.

"Burt, go the fuck to sleep! My bedroom wall is not your private drum!" I yell again, covering my face with my pillow.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

I sit up and sigh loudly. I know it wouldn't help yelling again, but there is honestly nothing else I can do. Except for calling the landlord of the apartment, but that's a big no. Perhaps I should call the cops?

"Please, just stop already!" I yell frustrated for the last time, my voice cracking.

The banging stopped.

I hold my breath. He stopped. I exhale reliefed and look around in my dark room. My apartment is small, but it has enough room for me and for what I need. The only downside is the landlord who's a major asshole and Burt, who's now my public enemy number one. Other than that, I'm happy with where I live. I get to keep my apartment, and get to live undisturbed (except for right now). And I get to do what I want, mostly.

I turn over my pillow and fix it properly so I can sleep on the cooler side of the pillow, then I lie my head down on it and close my eyes. Sleep is holy and sweet for me, like syrup. But it doesn't last long, because instead of loud banging I hear something else. Something worse, in fact.

Ssshhhhriiiiieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek!!!!

I jump out of my bed and cover my ears as the piercing noise startles me. I have never heard something like this before in my entire life. It sounded like old rusty grinding metal, but more animal. And it came from the other side of the wall. As I stand up I also turn on the lamp on my bedroom table. I look around, my outdoor clothes on my chair. The window is open so that I can get some fresh air into my room. The white walls are decorated with family photos and my little TV is attached to the wall. I look out of the window and it's silent, the shrieking had stopped. My heart is beating fast and an uneasy feeling is creeping up in my stomach. The streets look like they're dead, because they're completely silent. Which is usual, but it's unusual to have a dead kind of silence. Then I see a woman, screaming and crying at the same time. She's running away from a man who's running after her. She pleads the man to stop running after her but he continues to go after her. After a minute they passed my apartment and the silence is back again. I close my window and pull down the blinds. I push myself against one of the walls, near the window, as I cover my face with my hands. I should go down and help that woman, I really should. But this uneasy feeling tells me to stay inside my apartment. Hopefully I won't regret my decision.

I shake off my feelings of guilt and I sit down on my bed, deciding to turn on the TV. It's 3:30 AM now, and what there's mostly on for now are old long movies that you usually fall asleep in front of because you tire from watching the long movies. I browse through the different channels and stop on the news channel. The news anchor looks tired, but she delivers news about a volcano eruption in Hawaii and cities being overrun by aggressive humans in different parts of Europe. I frown, what is happening to the world lately? The news channel provides footage taken from above with a helicopter of people, men and women, running around destroying buildings and screaming. They're acting like animals, attacking other people. I couldn't see very close because of the city being filmed from a helicopter, so you only see people attacking other people. Perhaps there's some sort of riot going on? The news channel goes back to the tired news anchor who advises everyone to stay home. She also advices that it is still unknown if there is some kind of revolt going on or if there is a bigger picture to the situation, more news will come.