The Strange Case of the Jackson Building

Chapter 5 - Insomnia

Chapter Five

Insomnia

When Petra woke up the next morning, the odd happenings of the night before were all but forgotten or diminished into overly active imagination and high stress levels. She was much too consumed with the exhaustion her recurring nightmares caused and the worries of attending university for the first time.

Late as always to catch the bus, Petra flew out of the apartment without even seeing Natasha. She closed the apartment’s door and ran to the elevator, pressing the button to call it repeatedly, as if it would somehow make it reach the fifth floor faster.

She finished swallowing her toast and took a quick look around the hall. It was like it was still night. She was still questioning the bizarre choice of having no windows, when she noticed, for the first time, that the ugly dark walls weren’t completely bare. There were primitive drawings and weird symbols drawn with white chalk on the walls. She had no idea if they were there last night but, regardless, she wondered why someone would do it. The drawings were in every wall and, most daunting of all, in all the doors.

Petra walked closer to her own door and noticed the white, archaic symbols were there too. She was sure she would’ve noticed them had they been there last night. It was early in the morning, which meant someone had to have done it during the night.

They were kind of creepy and unnerving but, at the same time, eerily beautiful, almost pure looking. She was ready to convince herself some misbehaved child or teens with way too much free time on their hands had done them, when she turned around and looked at her front neighbors’ door.

The white drawings were there too, but they weren’t alone. The door was severely scratched. The wood sported deep cut wounds, animalistic, beastly even and she wondered what kind of animal or even object could perform such a display. It was disturbing and they were dispersed in a way that suggested it hadn’t all been done at the same time. The door of the neighbor at the end of the hall was the worst though. It was a wonder it wasn’t shredded completely.

The elevator signaled its arrival and for one blessed second, Petra forgot about her vandalized building and ran to it. As it descended the five floors, she unfortunately found time to think about it again. The only logic explanation was that some very nasty people were having fun entering the building and wrecking it to their will. What she couldn’t understand was why no one reported the situation to the authorities or maybe, probably, they already did, she just didn’t know it. How could she, really, she had just arrived.

She just hoped she wouldn’t run into any vandal while she walked home at night.

But those scratches had to be there before, there was no way anyone could’ve produced such profound cuts to the wood without making heavy noise. And she hadn’t heard anything nor had she slept much either.

The elevator doors opened, interrupting her train of thought. She ran out of the building and abruptly stopped at its entrance. She had just realized she had a very poor idea of where the bus stop was. 

Last night, she had been right. It was a very busy street indeed. The outside of the building brought with it relief and peace. As she had predicted, the houses on the other side of the road caught very little sunlight and the building behind her cast a formidable looming shadow over them. Still, she felt free, like she had been having trouble breathing for a long time. The traffic noise, the voices and the loud and vibrant sounds emanated from the city made her feel as if she had been deaf, the light and the vivid colors made her feel as if she had been wearing shades for hours.

She felt alive again, lighter.

Looking around to see which direction she should take, she had a vision that froze her blood and brought her momentarily back to the silent, heavy, dark world she had just stepped out of.