Strange neighbors at the new neighborhood

N. T. Lazer
5 min readFeb 17, 2020

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Photo by Wynand van Poortvliet on Unsplash

I slowly closed the curtains, as their noses came closer to the glass and stepped back. I could still hear their harsh outside noises.

Thump thump. Sniff sniff sniff.

They took long inhales at the small crack in the window as well as the space under the front door. At this point, I really hoped this was a prank, but the look in their eyes was not something I was taking risks for. The guy who sold me this place, Tim, I think, told me the neighbors were eccentric and that’s why the place was so cheap. He also warned me to check them out before moving in. But I guess that’s what I get for never meeting Tim in person to hear his tone. Or even checking the place out before moving in, even after he warned me.

The two of them seemed to be climbing over one another by the noises they made outside. I was going to open my mouth and ask something, but I heard one scamper to the backdoor. I spun my head so fast, my neck cracked. I don’t think I ever locked the door in the back. One of them was fidgeting with the door handle in the front of the house. I made my way to the back door.

The window on the door was uncovered, but I couldn’t see anyone outside. I breathed a sigh of relief, but as I did that, something breathed very deeply just from the other side of the door.

Sniiiiffff

I clamped my hands over my mouth and slowly inched my way to the door to lock it. I heard a small tink tink tink coming from the window with the crack in it. Ignoring all instincts to run, I reached my hand out to lock this door.

Lock the door, run to your room. Lock the door, run to your room.

The instant before my hand reached the lock, the doorknob slowly began declining. I yelped involuntarily and smashed the lock in place. I breathed hard. The world was silent.

Tink tink tink

I turned around to look at the window.

SNNIIIFFFFF

This was from the back door. This time it was done aggressively like they were trying to suck me out with their breathing alone. I heard the sound of teeth clacking together just on the other side of the door.

Tink tink clink

The window had definitely cracked wider. I heard the one behind the back door scamper to the front door, teeth chattering the whole way. I ran to my room. I slammed the door behind me.

Clink clink clink

My hands shakily ran over my door, groping it all over before my brain finally registered that there was no lock to my room.

Clink clink CRASH

The unmistakable sound of glass hitting the floor came from the other side of the door to my room, followed by sniff sniff sniff. I heard scratching at the bottom of my door. I ran to my bed, then thought better of it, I couldn’t hide under there.

Sniff sniff

I threw the closet open, hardly worrying about the sounds I was making anymore when they were so close.

Clack clack clack

I threw my clothes aside to hide behind them, hoping their new smell would mask my own when I realized that there was a little trapdoor in there. Something to lead me below the house. I fumbled the top of it.

Scratch scratch

I heard fingers touch the doorknob.

Sniff sniff sniff

I threw the trapdoor open and jumped in, underestimating how long the fall would be. It was higher than I was tall. I ended up landing badly on my ankle. I may I twisted it. Or broke it.

The door to my room creaked open from above me.

I used all of my strength, operating against the pain of my leg to throw the trapdoor closed again with the tips of my fingers. The sniffing was muffled above me by the trapdoor and I bit my tongue hard to make sure I didn’t make any noise, myself. I probably bit myself too hard. I tasted blood.

“You too, huh?” someone whispered from the corner.

“AHHH!!!” I screamed, throwing my hands in front of my face. Peering through my fingers, I saw a guy about my age in tattered clothes sitting across from me. He went pale and stared directly upwards. I heard a couple of thumps as they continued crawling around, but no scratching.

“Please don’t scream,” he said. His chest was covered in blood and he was sweating profusely in this damp under-space.

“Who are…” My eyes had slowly adjusted and I recognized his face from online.

“Tim??” I asked in disbelief.

“Yeah, hey,” he said sheepishly.

“Why are you here?”

“I’m sorry, I told you about the neighbors, right? I said they were weird and you definitely want to check them out?”

“Wh — yeah, you did, but I — “

“And they chased you in here when you did?”

“Well, no, I never checked on them to begin with,” I said.

He stared at me blankly as the thumping continued above.

“You didn’t even look at them before you moved in?” he asked, clearly upset.

“I really needed a place. I didn’t really care if there were wacky neighbors! Why are you — “

“Wacky neighbors??” he hissed. “You saw them, right? Out of their minds, sniffing at everything that smells like a human? They’re not wacky! Probably not even neighbors!”

“THEN WHY DID YOU SELL A PLACE LIKE THIS?”

He pinched the bridge of his nose.

“No one believed me when I called the police, authorities, or whoever. And when I put the ad online, I made it super cheap, so someone would come and see the things for themselves, and they would deal with them for me.”

“Oh…” I looked down at my ankle. “That was supposed to be me?”

“Yeah, but now we’re both stuck here, eating the errant rat that comes by.”

“Eww, I’m not eating rats, Tim.”

He pointed to his blood-soaked shirt.

“You say that, but give it a day or two. You won’t even mind the squeals.”

I resisted my nausea.

“Ok, now what? Call the police and report a domestic disturbance. They’ll come to check it out, right?”

“Already tried that. That’s why there are two of them. One of them was a cop.”

I looked down at my ankle again, unable to think of anything.

“Okay, then what now?” I whispered. The thumping faded away as they went back to check out the front door again.

“I’m putting the ad back up,” Tim shrugged. “Hopefully get someone that will follow instructions this time.”

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N. T. Lazer
N. T. Lazer

Written by N. T. Lazer

A microfiction, flash fiction, and general fiction author. With more stories at https://ntlazer.substack.com/

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