Alagich Katya

I Thought The Noises I Heard In My Apartment At Night Were Caused By Roaches, Unfortunately The Truth Was Much More Terrifying

At night, when we’re almost asleep, we can just barely catch the scuttling sound as they hurry across the hardwood floor.

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There’s a moment where the silence in the apartment seems electric, almost crackling, and I get this wild impulse to jump up and lock my bedroom door – which is exactly what I do, just as the knob begins to rattle beneath my hand.

“Jesssssssica,” Marnie says, the ‘s’ in my name coming out in a slow hiss, “Let me in, Jesssssssica, I want to talk to you.”

“I’m getting ready to take a nap,” I blurt without thinking. “Do we have to talk right now? Because I’m getting ready to take a nap, so, you know, I’m about to take a nap.”

A slow tap-tap-tap of fingernails on the door.

“Jesssssssica, can’t we jusssst talk for a minute?”

I look down to see one, two, three cockroaches creeping under the door. In a manic moment of disgust I stomp down on each of them – one, two, three – and I swear I hear Marnie hiss again. The roaches leave cake-batter smashes on the hardwood.

“No, I’m pretty tired.” I’m already reaching for the pile of dirty tee shirts in my hamper; I grab a handful and shove them under the door, blocking the entrance for any more curious cockroaches. “Just gonna lay down, get some shut-eye, you know?” ‘Shut-eye’? Am I a folksy old grandma? Clearly I’m not good at improvising but the tap-tap-tap only comes one more time before I hear her footsteps trailing away, towards the living room, and when Marnie is out of earshot I let out my breath in a relieved whoosh.

I dial Jack’s number again. Still nothing. I shove more tee shirts under the door and hope that will stop the disgusting little fucks.

Marnie is clearly unhinged. I don’t know what caused it – if I had to guess, her unemployment, and how that meant crawling back to her parents for more money, which she swore she’d never do – but something has happened, she is not in her right mind and she has been pushed over the edge. I would call her family but I don’t have their number, and right now I’m honestly too scared to leave my room unless I know she’s gone.

I check my phone again, uselessly. Nothing.