Noises Next Door

"One year..."

She looked at the ceiling of her bedroom, mourning about the events of a year ago. That snowy day when John left her. Or better to say, she left him but managed to keep this house. After the four years they spent together, after four years stomaching his abusive behaviour, him professing his superiority towards during his drunken episodes.

And those drunken episodes took place far too often. John was rarely violent towards her but he preferred to humiliate his victim when he was drunk. And each morning after he was drunk, he made promises that it would never happen again. A promise that only lasted a week or so.

The details of the break-up had fainted away but the pain was still there. She also quit her job that day, in order to give them some space, so they could continue with their lives. She was a nurse in the local hospital while her lover was the chef surgeon of the hospital. The constant confrontation with each other was something she wanted to prevent at any cost. Since then she was looking for a new job without any success. All her application letters she had sent, remained unanswered. But the only thing she could do, was wait and hope some hospital would answer.

She closed her eyes, hoping to catch some sleep. Two light flashes explodes before her eyes, before a loud breaking noise from next door awakes her from her slumber.

Her neighbours had broken a vase or something. Moments she listened if she hears something else. Nothing. She shook her head, what was she actually expecting to hear? She closed her eyes again and turns on her side.

That was the problem with a terraced house if your neighbours made loud noises, you would be disturbed by those noises. Her neighbours weren't that loud, her previous neighbours were far worse. In their first house, a few years ago, they had neighbours with a fond for heavy metal. And they seemed quite dedicated to let their neighbours join their fun. She had no problem with the music genre but not in the middle of the night. But now it was time to sleep.

This second attempt to sleep was thwarted by a loud screaming and yelling. She almost fall out her bed by hearing it.

"What the fuck is going on right there?"

The screaming only got louder and she start to hit the wall with her fist: "Can't you be quiet!"

The only response she heard was: "No, please, no..."

It was hard to tell who's voice it was but it was quite clear it was a female voice. What was happening. More screaming followed, joined by breaking noises. She jumped out the bed and grabbed the cell phone on her nightstand. She had to call 911. Something was definitely wrong.

As she quickly pushed the numbers, she tried to listen if she heard something else. She never had saw Alan McAllister as a violent man, but violent men didn't always look as monsters on the outside, now did they?

"Hello, hello..."

No answer. No answer? She looked at the cell phone and then saw the phone was dead. With no idea where her adapter was, she ran through the house.

Quickly she grabbed a jacket and the reserve key of the Alan and Katy's house. They gave it to her for when there was a problem of some sort. That was definitely the case now. But before she could leave the house, she heard the faint echo of what could be gunshots.

She sprinted out the house in her pyjama and her jacket and rushed to the door of McAllister's house. Shaking of fear what she was about to see when the door opened, she pushed the key in the door. With sweaty palms she opened the door and looked in the dark hallway. Nothing to see. She sneaked through the hallway to the door that led to the living room. When her hands closed around the latch of the door, she breathed heavily.

She had to take a minute before continuing. But now she was calm, calmer than before, she realized that the screaming, yelling and begging had ceased. When did it stop? She put her ear against the door. No crying, not even sobbing. Was she too late? Had Alan silenced her for good? She didn't dare to think of it. Could it be really the sound of a gun she heard when leaving her house?

"Why didn't I brought a weapon with me, just in case?"

She pressed her back against the wall, keeping her mouth shut with the palms of her hands. She didn't planned to speak out loud. Her heart was beating at a rapid rate. Any minute now, Alan could come out the living room, possibly armed, to investigate the noise. He would see her and her life as well. It was not like he would anything to lose yet. Minutes passed by without anything happening. She slowly lowered her arms, careful not to hit anything.

"Come on, Anny. You can do it." she whispered to herself as words of encouragement.

She turns to the door and pushed it open slightly as a light enter the dark hallway. She heard two voices coming from the room: "One year... I can't believe it's already a year ago. I still can't believe what happened that night, Alan. How did it come we never noticed!"

"Sometimes things aren't meant to be known. But most important, John has paid the prize."

"Indeed..."

Anny looked at her hands. With the words of her neighbours the memories of that fateful night returned to her. How John came home, drunken as hell. How he broke the vase of her mother. How they yelled at each other. How he hit her hard in the face, knocking her to the ground. How she grabbed a gun...

"This morning I read in the newspaper he got the life sentence."

"That bastard deserved death row for what he have done with Anny!"

How he disarmed her. How he killed her in a drunken rage...