Paavo

Mr. O’Connell

Writing S04

March 20, 2020

The Apartment

It was a regular, calm, and peaceful Monday morning towards the end of November.

Seattle, Washington had just received their first snow last night. Julia Sanders was about to take

off for University. She was 21 years old and in her third semester in university. Although 21

years old, Julia was very scared, and child-like. Sometimes she thought; all children, except one,

grow up. She believed that one was her. Julia lived in a single apartment on the daunting 31 st

floor of an apartment building. She grabbed her coffee, packed up her bags with all the

essentials.

“Do I have everything I need? Laptop, books, phone, Air Pods,” She murmured to herself. With

the conclusion that she had everything, she quickly stormed out of her house. Luckily, the

University was just a couple blocks away from where she lived.

Thereafter arriving, she couldn’t focus, but instead spent her lectures staring out of the

window at the glaring snowflakes dropping down from the sky. As she finished her day, she

noticed how much snow was on the ground. At this point, at least half a foot of snow created a

layer on the asphalt.

She made it to her apartment, where she ordered a pizza, and fell like a dead body onto

the couch. About an hour passed, when she glanced outside and saw an old, skinny, and lanky

man shoveling snow. At first, Julia didn’t think anything of him, in fact, she thought that he was

a nice gentleman.
 Julia repeated her schedule for a while, and the one thing that she always noticed was the

old man. By the end of December, she started seeing him, not only after university, but also early

in the mornings. At times, Julia wanted to believe that something was wrong about that man, but

she knew that it was just her head messing with her. Her head messed with he so bad, that Julia

would see the man outside of just her apartment. Last night, she had gone to a party and every

time she took a look at the DJ, she could swear she saw the man’s face. She was petrified. One

day she went to the Northgate Mall with Beccy, one of her classmates from university.

“Beccy, I just don’t know what is going on,” Julia told. “This man, I’ve seen him since

November. Look there he goes behind you!” Beccy glanced behind her to see nothing. The man

had, in reality been there, but had just gotten away in time. At this point, Julia was certain that it

was in her head.

She returned home that night, where once again, she saw the man. She even went as far

as using the fire exit to enter the building just to avoid the man. When she got up to her building,

she noticed that her door was unlocked.

“How weird. I was always lock my door,” Julia said. Anyways, she opened the door and saw a

chair in the middle of her living room. Sitting on the chair, was the man.

“Hello there, darling,” He said in the softest, most elegant, British accent. “Have a seat, will you.

I’ve prepared us some tea and crumpets. I think you’ll love them,” He explained.

So many questions were running through her head. Who was this man? What did he

want? How, on Earth, had he gotten into her home? Without thinking, Julia grabbed her phone

and rushed to the bathroom. She called 911. She glanced at the chair and the man was gone. His

jacket was still there, but not him. She looked out of the window, where the man was giving her

a frightening stare as he shoveled snow. Julia, furthermore, glanced back at the chair. There was
no chair, no jacket, no tea, no crumpets. Julia went crazy. When the police arrived, she refused to

open the door.

As she finally got some sense into her head, she walked over to the door and collapsed

with the most terrifying fall of all time. The police managed to find themselves into the home as

they lifted Julia’s head.

“Kill me, now,” she whispered quietly before everything went black. Her mind, eyes, body,

mouth. Nothing worked. Suddenly, the only thing she could see was a British, tall, old, lanky

man standing in front of her.

“Oh, trust me. We will meet again. Ha ha ha!” the main said before laughing like a villain.

“Helppppp! Can anybody hear me?” She tried to scream, but to no avail. Was she dead? Is this

what death feels like? She thought to herself.

Julia woke up. Beep. Beep. Beep. The heart rate monitor blasted next to her.

“Are you feeling better darling?” the nurse said. Julia had heard that voice before. It was the

man! Before she could scream for help, the man pierced her with a needle. All that was heard

was a small shriek of pain, that no one, absolutely no one could hear.

“Ha ha ha ha ha!” the man’s laugh slowly faded away as Julia became numb.