Oneshot

Every morning when I check my peephole or leave the apartment for work I see what looks like feet in the thin line under my neighbour’s door.

The sight wouldn’t be so unusual if it wasn’t happening at all hours of the day. I work a rotating roster. Two weeks at a 6am start, two weeks at a 12pm start, two weeks at a 3pm start, so I have a lot of opportunities at different times of the day to see if they’re standing there and every time I look I see the feet under their door.

It makes me feel anxious, like they're standing there watching me. What are they doing when they're not standing behind their door? It isn't possible for them to be there every time I leave and come back, Why would they be doing that? Lately I've been tempted to try and look through their peephole when I notice their feet. It probably wouldn’t work as peepholes are designed to be looked through, not into, but I can’t help but feel like I should try. Even if I did, it would probably start some kind of confrontation. I never used to check my peephole before noticing the feet, unless there was a knock at the door of course, But as the days went on and I kept noticing their feet in the gap under their door it became more and more of a habit.

On Thursday, not yesterday, the one before that, I ran into a eighbour I see on my on my 6 am starts, Ben. We talked and I asked him if he'd noticed anything like I had. He said that he had and that after a few weeks of thinking they were getting nosey he knocked on his neighbour's door to try and resolve it. He said that he ended up waiting for around 30 minutes before getting annoyed and leaving. After that, the feet under his neighbour's door and any other odd feelings had gone away. He recommended that I do the same, that if I were worried about starting a confrontation that they were probably more concerned about it than I was. The same ‘They’re more scared of you than you are of them' attitude you'd pay to a spider.

The next week after a 12pm start I was midway through opening my apartment door when it struck me to look back. The feet were present as unfortunately expected. After a moment of hesitation, it occurred to me that I had to take Ben's advice. If this kept happening I would never stop looking over my shoulder. I approached the neighbour's door with the feet under it, I raised myself to look through the peephole to see-SLAM!

Looking left to right in the hallway to try and find which door that had slammed I saw a door five apartments down on my right reach the end of its arc, closing gently. I found myself already inside my apartment before the thought “no, I’m not doing this today” could enter my head.

Over the next few days I found myself checking my peephole religiously, it became a putrid hobby. Was I looking for Ben? For someone else looking out of their doors? Regardless of what I could have been looking for. I saw no one, only doors which I was sure contained people behind them, as there were feet present under every one.

Sick leave only took me so far, I was back to 6am starts at work. If there were any time to see Ben again it would be then. I paced up and down the hallways before leaving. 6am passed, I knew I was going to be late, but I had to see him so that he could help me with this. A door somewhere behind me closed. But I didn’t see anyone as I was pacing.

7am passed, I had to get my things and go to work. It felt like eyes were at my back as soon.

as I left my door. I looked to see my neighbour's apartment opposite, their feet under their door, their eyes on my back.

I had enough.

I lunged across the hall and pounded on the door, shouting about being left alone.

Finally, their feet moved away from the door.

Freedom.

there is no way their eyes specifically could be on me. I went to work, at peace.

The next day I went to visit the superintendent to ask about Ben. "Don't know, If you see him before me let him know that his stuff is going into storage and I'm re-leasing it if he doesn't make good on his rent” as I turned to leave he followed with "Oh, and let him know that he has noise complaints from the hallways“. I left, having only learned that I was slightly more alone in the apartment building and that he disappeared after getting some noise complaints, which I could only assume was from when he had confronted his neighbour.

I made my way back to the apartment, looking for feet under the passing doors only to arrive at mine and find a letter under it. I took out the thick wad of papers, reading what was... Noise complaints? One after the other- There had to be at least 15 of them, the earliest dated from around when I first noticed my neighbour's shadow. I heard a door close further down the hallway, but I was alone in the hallway. I looked under my opposite neighbour's door. No feet, my only reassurance.

After the weekend I was on a 12pm start, a nice sleep in, a brief respite. After a shower and breakfast I moved to leave.

My hand on the doorknob sent a minor shock through my arm, past my elbow and up to my shoulder burrowing into the base of my spine making the hairs on the back of my neck stand on their ends. The doorknob had resistance. The slightest resistance. it didn't stop completely, it had a little bit of give when turning that slowed to the point of fighting the doorknob.

Before I looked under the door I already knew what I was going to see… Feet. My head moved towards the peephole. Hand still on the doorknob I tried to will my head to stop moving, I did not want to see what was on the other side, there couldn't be anything there... My doorknob was surely just broken, it had to be.