New Apartment

Alexis stares at the ceiling of her bedroom, her covers pulled up to her nose. Her eyes wide, as they follow the sounds coming from above. Creak, creak, bang, bang, bang, creak, bang, bang. Over and over, like someone was stomping around then hammering nails into the floor. At three in the morning, in the attic.

She whimpers when a bang echoes from the sheetrock just above her bed. Quick footsteps sputter across the ceiling to the other side of her room. More banging follows. It continues for an hour, then stops. The footsteps do not retreat, they just end.

Too scared to sleep, the moment it is quiet Alexis flies from beneath her covers and to where her cell is plugged in beside her door. She opens it up and starts to dial her mom. She stops just shy of hitting the call button. Her eyes dart to the ceiling.

If I call her now, in the middle of the night, she will demand I move back home, Alexis thinks, staring at the glowing screen. It is probably just first night jitters, she logics as she puts her phone down and climbs under the covers. She forces her eyes closed, but every creak of a tree outside, or a car backfiring in the distance would jolt her to full wakefulness. Until the welcome glow of dawn comes hours later.

The tiny townhouse is quiet when she rolls out of bed thirty minutes before her alarm. She keeps looking at the ceiling as she starts the shower and prepares for her day. Alexis pulls herself to her coffee maker and heads to work for what she knows will be a long day. Night classes after work keep her out far past dark.

The collection of townhouse apartments is well lit, the parking lot with its assigned space and sturdy gate. Alexis hesitates after parking her car in her spot. She stares through her windshield at her little place, her own place.

“Tonight will be better.” She says pulling her keys from the ignition.

She unlocked her door and steps into her apartment, she freezes with the door open. All of her furniture is in different places than when she left that morning. “Oh God, no, please this isn’t happening.” She puts her things down and pulls out her phone.

“Mom, I'm coming home. I can’t stay here any more.” She hits send on the text just as her eyes notice the paper tacked to her fridge. She heads for it.

“Lexi, Stopped by and did some unpacking for you. Love, Mom. P.S. You know how feng shui wows, what were you thinking?” A heart drawn after the note. Alexis lifts her phone to her ear as her mother’s ringtone fills her kitchen.

“Sweetie, what’s wrong?” Her mother demands from the other side of the phone.

“Nothing now, seriously mom you couldn’t have texted. A note on the fridge? What is this nineteen-forty?” Alexis growls into her phone.

“Did you think someone had broken in?” Her mom asks. “You sound scared, are you sure you’re okay?”

“Yeah, I’m okay, I thought something had happened. It just freaked me out. Please don’t let yourself in anymore.”

“I’m sorry, sweetie, I just had some more of your clothes from the dryer. Oh and I put dinner in the fridge for you.” Alexis sighs.

“Thanks, Mom. I’ll call you Sunday.” Alexis says.

“Alright, if you’re sure you’re alright. You can come home if you need to. There are ways out of a lease.”

“Thanks, Mom, I’ll be okay. You just freaked me out by moving my furniture.” She puts her phone on speaker and starts to move her smaller furniture around.

“Well of course, Lexi, it was all out of whack.” Her mom says, Alexis rolls her eyes.

“It was fine the way it was Mom, the place isn’t big enough for what you’ve got going here.”

“Well, you don’t want the negative energy to get trapped, do you?” The phone asks. Alexis freezes in moving the side table.

“Um, well no, of course not.” Her eyes lock on her ceiling. “I’m going to have to let you go, Mom.”

“I love you, Lexi. Don’t mess with the feng shui.”

“I love you too, Mom.” Alexis leaves her phone on the counter, and continues to rearrange her furniture to the way she had it originally. Her lights flicker when she plugs her table lamp into its new spot. She glances around and tests the lamp. It clicks on and floods the room with a warm glow. She shrugs.

She pulls out the leftovers her mom put in the fridge and sits down to eat and watch TV. The clock is just past twelve when she stumbles to her bed. She does not notice the figure standing in the shadow of the dinning nook.

Alexis opens her eyes to the dark of her room, a scraping noise spills through her open door. Something heavy being drug along her faux wood flooring. A thud, then footsteps, followed by more scraping.

Alexis climbs from her bed, her bare feet touch the cold floor, and she takes slow steps to the door. Her eyes strain to see in the darkness, she can see her couch is not where she had moved it to.

“Mom?”

“Lex-i?” A broken voice. Splits the darkness, Alexis feels the hair on the back of her neck stand up. The voice sounds like it is coming through a speaker. “Feng shui. Negative energy.” Alexis catches movement in the corner of her eye. “Lexi?” The strange voice is a half mimic of her mother. She steps back towards her room. “I love you, Lex-i.”

A sob escapes Alexis’s lips, she slams her door shut and locks it. She reaches for her phone by the door, but the charger is empty. She stares at her door, the image of her phone on her counter flashes through her mind. The handle on her door rattles, she scuttles across the room and to her bed. “Go away!” She screams at the door.

“Lexi, negative energy.”

A crashing boom comes from the attic, Alexis screams, huddling down in her bed. The banging, knocking and stomping echoes across the ceiling as someone runs back and forth in the attic. “Lexi, trapped, negative energy!” A mechanical feminine voice echoes through the gap at the bottom of the door. Her door handle rattles and a fist bangs at her door.

The sun rises on an empty apartment.