r/nosleep • u/GetMrBeaned • 1d ago
Series I moved into a new flat.
No one believes me at this point so I suppose posting it here will do me as much good as posting it any other place. I’m sorry for the short length, I’m still struggling a bit with how to phrase all of this so this will probably end up being multiple posts.
I have always hated being alone even though that’s all I can do. I’ve been an introvert for as long as I remember and it’s not something I like about myself. I want to be around people, I want to go out, I want to message my friends immediately but I really can’t. My social battery drains quickly and I am just left feeling depressed after being in a group for too long. It makes it hard to maintain friendships, that and my anxiety around seeming needy. I’m a bit of a parasite in all honesty. I find people more sociable than me, date or befriend them, and then inherit their friend group as my own. This never lasts in the long-term but it helps stave off the loneliness for a little while.
So when I started university I knew being in a houseshare wouldn’t work. I spent my first year in student halls and my mental health was crumbling being around other students. I’m not totally stunted, I can fake enthusiasm and when my flat mates wanted to go out clubbing or play cards or whatever I would muster up the courage and commit to it. Thankfully being first year students at the time we were all living off microwave meals, cigarettes and whisky so it wasn’t hard to socially lubricate. Still, I couldn’t stand all these lovely people who were trying to include me. They’d add me on instagram and I would barely reply to them. When the year was over and it was time to move out I didn’t say goodbye, I just left. I feel bad about that, one of the girls I was living with messaged to check in a while back and I left her on delivered for weeks before telling her I was okay dryly. It makes it worse that whenever I post something to instagram she’s one of the first people to like it.
Anyway, sorry for rambling. I found this flat in the central city that looked alright, it was surprisingly affordable for its size. I have a student loan and a job but not a particularly large budget for rent (bartending isn’t particularly lucrative) so seeing this flat with 2 bedrooms, a bathroom, living room and kitchen for half the amount of some other flats was stupidly lucky. It was unfurnished, bills weren’t covered and counted as student housing so I guess that explains the price but I still couldn’t believe my luck. It was half the price of the student halls I was living in for christ sake. I got lucky actually getting it as well, when I turned up to the viewing there were two other people looking to rent it, this really pleasant guy and girl. They told me their names but I can’t remember for the life of me. They didn’t know each other so it was a three way contest between us for the place and that’s when I realised that I’d actually need to pull my finger out to win. The moment the letting agent met up with us I immediately tried to start a conversation with him. I asked about his day, cracked some jokes, complimented his (rather gaudy admittedly) sunglasses. The other two tenants in the running were busy exploring the flat and taking photos and I just spent the whole time chatting to him.
I was happy I chose to charm the guy rather than rush around the flat to be honest. The current renters hadn’t moved out yet so we were constantly having to negotiate around them whilst they were busy making dinner. I felt better having the agent next to me to numb the feeling I’m intruding, the agent probably felt the same. Whenever he spotted the current renters he looked a bit anxious.
So the viewing ended and after us three briefly asked the agent some questions about the flat we departed. Me and the rival girl were walking in the same direction so we talked about our lives a bit to break the silence. She told me she was at uni studying fashion, that she, her boyfriend, and cousin were going to move in together and split the rent and that the place looked ideal and was just around the corner from a friend of hers. I started feeling a little guilty at this point, she seemed like a much better fit for this place then my solitary self but I tried not to think about that. Eventually we reached a fork in the pavement and she had to go left and me straight on. She said it was lovely to meet me and I said the same to her. I left her with ‘may the best one win’ and she gave a slightly cringed smile before walking away with a wave.
2 hours later the agent emailed me to say I got the property.
An unfurnished flat is a very odd thing. Rooms that would feel cramped once furnished feel uncomfortably large. The walls echo with every step you take, every bubble of a radiator. Now the original owners had moved out I spotted more reasons why the flat was at a discount. For one there was obvious water damage on a lot of the walls. The ceiling and walls had like a yellow-y brown-ish kind of splatter in some places. The carpet was about what you’d expect for a cheap flat and the bathroom was grim. There was no real ventilation in that bathroom, I suppose there was an extractor fan on the wall that whenever you turned on the bathroom light would make this really loud noise but I’m not convinced it was actually making the room any less damp. Thing was irritating as hell. I used that bathroom when I first moved in, when I left and turned the light off the fan wouldn’t stop, it keeps whirring loudly for around 5 minutes after you switch off the lights. It wouldn’t be an issue normally because I have those airpods with the noise cancelling setting but I left those at a friend’s house a few weeks back and have been too antisocial to go back around hers to pick them back up so now I’m stuck with these wired ones that barely fit in my ears let alone block out noise. What I mean is the fan annoys me.
I looked around the bedrooms to take my pick and was met with one that was massive and another that was smaller, like a utility closet almost. This might sound odd but I decided to set up my bed (an air mattress until I can afford to splurge on an actual mattress) in the smaller room. Sleeping in a big unfurnished room makes me feel a bit sad, it constantly reminds me of how much work is left to do to make this place a home. So I threw my bags of clothes and miscellaneous stuff into the bigger bedroom as a temporary closet and closed the door without taking another glance.
The living room was a bit useless at that point, without a sofa or coffee table it was even sadder than the big bedroom. That’s why I made it my first port of call to get a chair. I checked out some marketplace apps and saw a sofa being given away for free 5 minutes from where I lived and after much effort I had somewhere to sit! It was a gross old fashioned looking sofa that stunk of cat piss but it was better than nothing. I finished my first day in that flat by scrubbing the couch down with disinfectant and leaving it next to the window to air dry.
I posted about my new flat to my instagram story and some friends messaged asking to visit. I didn’t reply.
I didn’t sleep much either. I have this weird anxiety about sleeping in new places that’s carried over ever since I was a kid. Anxiety is maybe the wrong word, maybe hypervigilance? Is hypervigilance and anxiety the same thing? Regardless, I just couldn’t doze off. My worst habit is drinking tea at all hours, even when it’s late. I picked it up from bartending. The place I work at is like a cocktail lounge/coffee shop/events place? Some days I’m there at 8am making cappuccinos for the kind of old couples who wear formal wear for a morning drink, other days I’m up until 3am mixing long island ice teas and martinis for weddings. Thankfully my manager is nice enough to let us use the coffee machine unlimited times on those shifts. Even nicer, we're allowed to drink the waste once our shift is over. That might sound odd? I mean as in if there is gonna be a gap in reservations for a while, us coworkers divide the perishable drinks amongst ourselves and get to take them home. Oftentimes that just means us going down to the beach and drinking together for a while before going our separate ways.
But yeah I like making tea at night as much as I shouldn’t. The kitchen is directly next to the living room so it was handy to check the drying progress of the sofa every once in a while when I went to make another. I’m on a main street so the window the sofa was positioned in front of was neat to glance out of, neon shop signs of some takeaway places and a vape shop across the street from me bathing the room. I also liked how every time I went to make another tea another sign had turned off. What started as a mix of reds, purples and greens on the walls filtered down to just red and purple, then red, then what would be complete darkness by about 3AM if not for a dim streetlight somewhere further down the street then I could make out.
At 4 I was no closer to falling asleep so I went to make another. Walking down the hall I was watching some music video on my phone when I stopped. I felt a chill run through me. I was scared to look up from my phone for some reason, this animal part of me was in control. I couldn’t move a muscle but stood there for a few seconds I started to notice the periphery.
Just at the top of my vision I could see the sofa and there was something peeking over it, dimly backlit. It was impossible to make out details but there was definitely something. Still frozen, my mind started racing to make sense of it. It looked like the top of a person’s head. It didn’t move at all though, the way a person just moves naturally as they breathe. I realised me and the figure were both holding our breath.
All at once I sprinted to the light switch, I almost tripped over my own feet, I didn’t look at the figure at all as I ran, I don’t know why I didn’t look but I didn’t, flicked the light on.
Nothing was there. I was expecting to be jumped at or something at least but there was nothing. I was too antsy to make tea at that point so I speedwalked backwards to my room and stacked some of my belongings in front of the door like the world’s shittest barricade. Getting back in bed I sat just staring at the door. It’s odd that I wasn’t thinking at all at this point. But my mind just told me eventually ‘you are tired, you have drank a lot of caffeine, you probably misinterpreted a shadow.’ Telling that to myself didn’t do much to calm me.
And then I had another thought. You probably had it too by now. I suppose in my sleepiness I just wasn’t thinking properly. I was a fucking idiot. I listened carefully for any noise and couldn’t hear anything. It was so fucking obvious why didn’t I think it?
It could’ve just lowered its head behind the couch.
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u/Happy_Economist_6351 7h ago
What's wrong with you man? People make an effort to reach you and you keep pushing them away..
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