In the bustling city of London, Margaret had always felt an unsettling presence in her apartment building.
The old structure groaned and creaked, but it was the strange, intermittent noises that bothered her most—scratching sounds, barely audible whispers, and, at times, a feeling of being watched.
Margaret lived alone on the fourth floor, with only the elderly Mr Jenkins and a reclusive tenant named Elise as neighbours. Elise was an enigma; she rarely left her apartment and was seldom seen in the halls.
Her pale, almost translucent skin and unusually large eyes only added to the air of mystery.
One stormy night, the power went out. The building was plunged into darkness, and Margaret’s anxiety heightened. She lit candles, trying to dispel the shadows that seemed to dance with a life of their own.
Suddenly, a loud crash echoed from Elise’s apartment above. Concerned, Margaret grabbed a torch and ventured upstairs.
She knocked on Elise’s door, but there was no answer. The door creaked open, revealing a dark, musty interior.
“Elise?”
she called out, stepping inside. The torch beam revealed walls covered in strange symbols and diagrams, alien in nature.
Margaret’s heart raced as she realised these weren’t the decorations of an eccentric artist but something far more sinister.
A low, guttural growl came from the darkness, and the torch flickered, momentarily revealing a figure hunched over in the corner.
It wasn’t Elise. The creature had long, spindly limbs and eyes that glowed with an unnatural light. Its skin was covered in a slimy, iridescent substance.
Margaret’s scream caught in her throat as the creature turned its gaze upon her. In a voice that was both human and not, it spoke,
“You shouldn’t have come here.”
The torch died completely, plunging her into darkness.
In the pitch black, she felt something cold and slimy brush against her arm. Panicking, she stumbled backwards, tripping over an unseen object and crashing to the floor.
The creature’s presence loomed over her, its breath hot and rancid on her face.
Suddenly, the lights flickered back on, and the creature was gone. The apartment looked as if nothing had happened, though the symbols and diagrams were still there. Margaret fled, her mind racing with fear and confusion.
She never saw Elise again. The next day, the apartment was empty, stripped of any personal belongings. Mr Jenkins claimed he had never seen anyone named Elise, and there were no records of her ever living there.
Margaret moved out the following week, but she couldn’t shake the feeling that she was being watched. Years later, in a different city, she saw those same symbols on a building’s wall.
The whispers began again, and she knew, with a chilling certainty, that the alien was still out there, hidden among humans, always watching.
Gareth Ellis - Author 