Empty apartment knocked three times every night before Dimitri left for work
When Dimitri's neighbor moved out, the knocking from next door continued. The pattern matched his schedule until he found what was hiding in the wall.
The empty apartment next door knocked three times before Dimitri left for work. It happened every night. When he came home, the wall answered with one knock.
Dimitri lived alone and the neighbor on the other side had moved out months earlier. He blamed old pipes until the knocks matched his phone alarms. So he left early on Tuesday.
The knocks came early
The knocks came before his alarm. On Wednesday, he stayed home. That evening, a folded note slid from beneath his bedroom door.
You forgot Thursday. Dimitri checked the calendar. Thursday was his late shift, ending after midnight.
The landlord opened the empty apartment
He called the landlord, who unlocked the empty apartment next door. Dust covered the floor, except for a clean path from the shared wall to the bedroom. On Friday, Dimitri slept at a friend's place.
At dawn, his phone showed six missed calls from his own number. The last voicemail held his breathing, then three knocks. He came back with a hammer and opened the wall.
Inside the wall
Inside, a narrow cavity ran between the apartments, just wide enough for a person. A chair faced his bed. On the chair sat a calendar.
Every date was crossed out except tomorrow. Beside it, Dimitri's name was written in his own handwriting.
