The Apartment Which Knew Part 3
Fragments from a Used Block
No outstanding issues - or were there?
🧾✔️✔️✔️ 🤫
I had to go back to the apartment. Check on it.
They didn’t tell me to.
I passed by it again. It was easier to go over it myself.
But there was no need to go into it. I didn’t log it.
Somehow the air felt - more dense. it didn't circulate as before. The walls had shadows on them. The ventilation - louder.
Breathing. Constant humming.
It felt enclosed.
I touched the mould with my gloves. It stained them.
Deeper than yesterday. I had to replace them.
The debris on my sleeve. The clinging dampness.
That stayed.
But minor.
They scheduled a viewing for the next day. It was brief - no questions. But the prospective tenant left, fast. They didn't mention anything. But didn't return, or follow up.
The unit remained- available.
I was tired. I didn’t see the need to really clean it. I left the corners of the floor untouched. Left it for the next day — no need to attend to it right now. It could hold. I had other things to do.
So the unit remained stable. The apartment block stayed as it was.
Everything as it was. Under control.
No need to bother revisiting. Or cleaning.
I could leave it alone.
🧾✔️✔️✔️ 🤫
Original microfiction series by Michelle Liew Tsui-Lin. AI tags are coincidental.
Part 1 began here:
Then Part 2:
About the Creator
Michelle Liew Tsui-Lin
Hi, i am an English Language teacher cum freelance writer with a taste for pets, prose and poetry. When I'm not writing my heart out, I'm playing with my three dogs, Zorra, Cloudy and Snowball.
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More stories from Michelle Liew Tsui-Lin and writers in Fiction and other communities.
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It is Valentine's Day again, and it bought back memories that were over fifty years old. It bought me back to 1971, and I woke up and I knew my baby was due today. I was big and pregnant, and I felt like I was about to burst wide open. Imagine my surprise when the doctor told my I had a due date of February 14. I couldn't believe it, and since my baby was due today, I felt I could indulge myself a bit. I had gained a lot of weight, and chocolate was on the no-no list, but I had came to the end of this pregnancy, and I hoped it would be okay, after all I would deliver this baby today. So I walked across the street to the grocery story, and bought myself, a peppermint patty, covered in chocolate, my favorite. Me and my Valentine's baby would enjoy it together.
By Susan Payton7 days ago in Fiction
Comments (2)
♥️♥️I could feel the cracks in the janitor’s arc; it seems as though the environment is closing in. The Merism [referring to a whole by its parts] of "dense air" and "shadows on the wall" mimics how frightening this is for the protagonist. These pieces that make up the whole set the stakes even higher.
There's definitely something eerie about this apartment, I can't wait to find out what. Nicely built tension, Michelle!