The First Night
The apartment felt strange to Meera, though she could not know why it felt like that.
She stood inside her flat, her hands on the closed door’s knob, looking at it for longer than she needed to. It felt like something had gone quiet the moment she walked in.
Meera let out a breath. “It’s a new place,” Meera said to herself and turned inside.
The apartment was simple. A small living room with a window facing another building, a narrow kitchen, and a bedroom that felt slightly cooler than the rest of the apartment. The apartment was what Meera had wanted. Quiet, private, nothing complicated.
By the time Meera finished unpacking her things, it was late.
She lay on the bed. She looked at her open bedroom door and got up and moved to the hall. Her hand was on the main door’s knob. She rotated the knob once again. She felt it was locked. Still, Meera stood there for a moment.
She moved to the bathroom and splashed water on her face. She paused, looking at the mirror. She paused when she noticed a line of smudge. She looked closer. Her eyes widened as it was like someone had dragged their finger across the surface of the mirror. She wiped it with her palm, and it spread.
“Might be some workers.”
She collects the water on her palm and rinses its surface. She looked at her distorted image. The lines disappeared.
She strode to the bedroom. Her phone buzzed. She looked at it, an unknown number. She thinks it might be the agent’s calling to check if she has moved in. She pulled out of the charge.
“Hello?” Meera said.
There was no reply on the other end, not even the static sound.
Just silence.
Meera was about to pull the phone from her ear, and she heard something faint. It felt like breathing. Soft enough that Meera could not be sure.
“Hello?” Meera said again.
She heard the disconnected tone. Meera stared at the screen for a moment, then locked.
“Wrong Number”, Meera muttered.
She felt something that moved close to her bedroom door. She turned off the lights and slept. Meera suddenly woke up at midnight. The room was dark. For a second, Meera lay and tried to understand what had pulled her out of sleep. Nothing moved nor the sound. Still, something felt off to her.
She turned on the light and looked at her bedroom door, it was locked. Meera kept looking at the door.
Her phone buzzed.
She reached to pick it up. There was a message, an unknown number. She opened the message. She saw.
‘You should lock the window too.’
Meera’s chest tightened. Meera turned toward the window. The window was slightly open. Wide enough for the curtain to move a little. Meera frowned, trying to remember if she had kept open. She couldn’t recall.
After a moment, Meera got up. Walked over to the window. Meera’s hands felt colder now. Meera shut it properly. Locked it pressing against it once, to make herself sure. Meera turned and moved toward the bed.
She paused. She had the feeling that someone had been standing.
Meera turned quickly.
There was no one. Meera stood still for a second, then shook her head lightly as if trying to clear the thought.
“It’s nothing “, said quietly.
Meera did not turn off the light. She was lying on the bed. She kept turning from side to side. She could not sleep.
The sunlight was shining into the room steadily. She hadn’t slept the whole night. The building across the street looked closer in the daylight, and she saw people’s clothes on the balconies. She opened the window. Someone was arguing on the phone. A bike went by, and its motor sound became softer and softer, and gone.
Meera stood near the window for a moment, taking it all in. She closed the window. She checked it anyway, pressing on the frame. It did not move. After a second, she stepped back. Let out a quiet breath.
She looked at the message on her phone again.
‘You should lock the window too.’
She read it again, then locked the screen, and put the phone face down on the table. She did not want to think about it.
She went to the office. She pulled her task from the task application, she was assigned a task to prepare a blog for the door lock. Her mind drifted to last night. Her hand was on the keys. Her nearby colleagues called her. She was lost, and she shook Meera’s shoulder. Meera suddenly looked at her colleague.
“What happened?” her colleague asked.
The words formed in her mind. She wanted to say that she had received such messages. But she felt it would sound weird. Too vague. Too easy to dismiss. So she did not try, just dismissed.
“New place, no sleep, that’s it”, she said to her.
And she did not say it to anyone. She stuck to her routine. She checked her emails. She went to meetings. She had lunch at her desk. These were things that kept her busy to prevent unnecessary thoughts. By evening, the night didn’t feel far for her. Almost excessive.
She wanted a life to be alone, she thought it would be easy, but on the first day of being alone. Made her think.
She said to herself, “It’s new, you will get used to it. You have waited for this.”
She reached the apartment. She slowed down in the corridor as she stepped towards her door. She heard the carried sounds behind the closed doors. Television, mixies, talking. She liked this unmuted life more than her muted life in her house.
She unlocked her door. Paused, looking at the door, and pushed it open. She looked at the room, scanning. She stepped a little and looked for a second. Then she walked inside. Closed the door behind her. Her eyes moved across the room, stopped briefly at the window, the hallway, then the bedroom. And locked the door immediately.
She lowered the bag from her shoulder, and it fell gently from her hands to the table. Her phone buzzed. She looked at it it was from the same unknown number. She opened the message.
‘How was the day?’
Her finger paused. Her eyes were on the screen. Her eyes scanned the room again, inch by inch. She strode to the window. Looked out. A few windows open, curtains shifting slightly in the breeze. She didn’t see any. Nothing that she could suspect. She stepped away. Her fingers moved quickly over the screen.
She typed “Who is this?”
She looked, and a message popped up at the bottom.
‘Blue suits you better. You look softer.’
Meera’s grip tightened around the phone. She glanced down. She was wearing a blue one. She looked at the screen and locked immediately. She strode inside, opening the doors one by one. She looked at the bathroom. The bedroom. She opened the closet. She keenly looked at every corner.
She came back to the living room. She stood near the door, and her hand was on the main door’s knob. She rotated and pressed the lock, and she heard the click. It stayed in her for a second longer.
She kept the television on to fill the silence. Every now and then, her eyes drifted to her phone. She got up from the couch. She left the lights on in the living room, and she went to the bedroom. She kept her phone near her pillow. Looked at that dark screen.
Her eyes opened, and she took her phone. The light filled her face. No messages from the unknown number. She looked at the Time, it showed 11:48 PM. A notification pop-up, a message from the same unknown number. She opened the message.
‘You keep checking the lock.’
Her eyes moved to the door. She looked at the living room. The light was on. She got up and went to check the locks of the main door. The phone buzzed again in her hand. The message said.
‘It’s okay.’
She stared at the words. Another message poped.
‘I’m here.’
