The Strange Case of the Jackson Building

Chapter 9 - Break

Chapter Nine

Break

"Good morning, dear."

"Good morning, miss."

"Good morning," Petra replied, surprised that she was actually having a pleasant and normal exchange with someone from her building, for a change. She held the elevator door open for the old, sweet couple as they slowly got out of it. With them was also a small, short and old dog that followed them loyally. It was an adorable sight, which made her smile.

That scene comforted her.

Apparently, she had just met her front door neighbors, she noted, as the old lady opened the door to the apartment right in front of hers. They didn't even flinch at the sight of the fresh white markings, nor looked twice at the scratches on their door. She assumed they were probably used to it.

The old man then started to speak in French but, as his wife had already gone inside, she was left in confusion. Was he talking to her? She recognized the language, but understood very little of it.

It was then that she noticed he was staring at the dog and the pet, in turn, was sitting and staring back at him, looking as if it was actually listening and understanding.

Petra was trying to decide if the scene was cute or odd when the old man noticed she was still there and staring at him.

He smiled gently. "He only understands French, you see? Had to go to Spain to learn French for him."

Petra nodded, even more confused. Why would a dog understand a foreign language? Why would someone actually learn a new language specifically to talk to a dog? And who goes to Spain to learn French?

The man smiled again and walked inside, closely followed by the French dog.

"Well, that was quirky," she mused, divided between feeling confused and entertained. Petra walked inside the elevator. "But then again, I've seen worse."

While the elevator went down, she remembered the shady events of the previous night, especially the elevator creep.

She felt mainly embarrassed of how she had handled things. Obviously, Mr. Creepy would've made any girl nervous, but she had taken it to a whole new exaggerated level. In fact, she was now convinced that she had freaked herself out, to the point where she started to have some weird recall of her previous nightmare.

And that was it.

The footsteps had been nothing more than a product of her twisted subconscious. Or something like that.

She couldn't let it happen again. Olivia was right. About everything.

She was stronger than this.

Nothing justified her shameful surrender to the pills and the moronic lists. Petra decided she could never allow herself to succumb so easily to her paranoia and mindless, ridiculous fears.

Once the elevator trip was over, she quickly headed towards the door. She stopped midway though.

On the other side of the door, on the outside, there was the crazy old woman again, only this time, she wasn't alone. The woman was talking to two young guys, they were probably Petra's age. They both carried heavy bags and luggage and looked at the old woman with confusion and, maybe, a little entertainment.

One of them was searching for something in one of his bags and pockets. She assumed he was looking for the keys. If the old lady was half as scary to them as she had been for her, then they'd be in a hurry to get inside and get away from her.