Emma was nervous about not living with her parents anymore. As Emma entered the apartment building for the first time it wasn’t what she had expected. The lobby was small and dirty. Emma hoped that this wasn’t a sign as to what the rest of the building would look like.

Before Emma could say anything the front desk attendant glared up at her annoyed and said, “What do you need?” Emma was taken aback by this. 

“Hi! I’m Emma Wilson. I was told to get my key for the apartment at the front desk,” Emma explained. The front desk attendant looked her up and down for a second before turning around and entering the room behind her.

The front desk attendant emerged from the room with two keys. She handed them to Emma. Then she  explained that one was for the apartment; while the other was for the mailboxes in a dusty corner of the lobby. The key had a tag for apartment 427.

Emma looked around the lobby before realizing there was no elevator. She headed towards the stairs. Once she reached the 4th floor she was exhausted.

She reached the door and entered the apartment. As Emma looks around, her hopes of the apartment being up to date are crushed.

After Emma had taken it all in she sat down at the round wooden table and called James who was a few hours behind bringing their furniture and other necessities. James answers on the third ring.

“Hey, I just got to our apartment. How far are you from here,” Emma asks. 

“I’m about 30 minutes out. What do you think of the apartment so far?”

Emma thinks before answering, “It’s not what I was expecting, I don’t hate it but it feels off. I’m not sure why, I think I might just be getting used to this place.”

“Okay, well I need to get back to driving so I’ll talk to you when I get there.”

With that James hangs up. She put down her phone with a sigh, and decided to rest until James arrived. She heard the door opening and she turned to see James entering the apartment struggling to open the door with a box in hand. James looked around the apartment before saying, “Can you help me bring up the rest of the boxes?”

“Of course,” Emma replied. She followed him down the stairs to the U-haul they had rented. Emma helped James open some of the boxes after they were all in the apartment. Emma started to set up the bed while James cooked some Ramen. After Emma had eaten she got ready for bed. 

One day Emma came home to see someone moving into the vacant apartment across the hall from them. After greeting James, Emma sat down at the table and started to do her homework. Until there was a knock on the door.

“Hi?” Emma said, sounding a bit confused.

“Hello, I’m your new neighbor Mark.” He said. Emma was trying to process this when Mark spoke again, “I was wondering if you would care to come over and allow me to introduce myself some time.” The longer Emma was in this situation the more uncomfortable she became. 

She responded, “Maybe, I’m pretty busy with college.” Mark accepted this as an answer and turned to go back to his apartment. After Emma closed the door she shut, securing the deadbolt. After some time had passed Emma went looking for James who had just gotten out of the shower.

“Hey what’s wrong,” James asked. “You look like you’re going to be sick.”

“Well I just met the new neighbor,” is all Emma could say before she felt bile in her mouth. She rushed to the toilet and threw up. 

When Emma was starting to feel better she talked to James and explained how uneasy she felt about their new neighbor. James listened and told her not to worry and that he would talk to him when he got back from his business trip. Emma didn’t want to be alone that long with the new neighbor across the hall, but James assured her it would be all right. 

By the time James had come back from his business trip Emma hadn’t slept for 2 days. When James found out about the lack of sleep from fear he urged Emma to go to sleep seeing as it was late already. He assured Emma that before he went to work the next day he would go and talk to Mark. 

Emma had left before James that day as she had an 8 am class that she couldn’t miss. Emma was thinking about James all day. She didn’t expect for them to both be gone when she got back to the apartment. As she reached the 4th floor she noticed Mark’s door was ajar. When Emma looked inside the apartment was cleared out. This concerned Emma. 

When she opened her own apartment there was a note taped to the door. It was in James' handwriting saying he couldn’t live his life anymore, it just wasn’t worth it and that he loved Emma. This scared Emma even more. Alarm bells were going off with Mark and James gone she was worried. The police told her they could send a patrol car out to see if they could find James but that was about all they could do.

As the months dragged on after James disappearance Emma spiraled. Her parents were worried. She wanted to know what had happened to him. Emma threw herself into schoolwork. That was never enough though and as the years dragged on James was always in the back of her mind. That was until she received an envelope from Mark which only contained a polaroid with the date of the day after James went missing and a photo of James body tied up, battered and bruised. No way to tell if he was alive when that photo was taken or not.