Chapter 2

I thought she was just talking.

But I learned fast what she was capable of. She lived directly above me, so she started making noise around the clock.

Every morning at five sharp she'd start hacking at pork ribs, mincing meat filling, running the juicer for orange juice, and whenever she wore herself out, she'd send her son Boyd up top to jump and stomp.

Once we left for work, she rested.

Then at night, when we were trying to sleep, she'd pick up right where the five a.m. racket left off, and it wouldn't go quiet until two or three in the morning.

The soundproofing in this building was nothing special, and worse, she deliberately did all of it on the floor right above our master bedroom, so my husband and I were worn ragged.

I knew Thelma was doing it on purpose.

But I still went up and knocked, and asked her to keep it down.

Thelma didn't bother arguing with me when she saw me. She just went smug and snide.

"What?"

"You white-collar city types think you get to run everything, and now you're going to run whether I can make breakfast in my own home too?"

"If I don't cook, what does my son eat? What does everyone else in this building eat?"

"If the noise bothers you, buy some earplugs or move out. Problem solved, right?"

I knew there was no reasoning with her, so I took some time off and went down to the building management office, hoping they could step in and mediate. Those management fees weren't cheap, after all.

The moment I walked in, I saw a lot of familiar faces, all neighbors from our building.

"Are you all here to file a complaint too?"

The other neighbors looked me over and immediately started talking over each other.

【You're the neighbor who won't buy Thelma's meal boxes, aren't you?】

【Are you people so broke you can't even afford a boxed meal?】

【You think you got off easy by not buying, but the rest of us are suffering for it!】

I frowned. I could tell they'd come to the office because of Thelma's noise too, but the way they were talking, somehow I was the one in the wrong.

Before I could get a word out.

The building manager pulled out a "petition," looking a little awkward.

"Ms. Wise, this is a formal complaint signed by the neighbors in your building."

"Except for your family and Thelma and her son upstairs, every single resident signed it."

"But the complaint is against you, not Thelma."

I froze. It didn't make sense.

"Thelma's the one making the noise, and Thelma's the one forcing overpriced meal boxes on people. Why are they complaining about me?"

The manager sighed.

"Ms. Wise, you have no idea. Thelma really isn't someone you want to cross."

"Nobody wants to buy those insanely expensive pre-made meal boxes, but if you don't, she goes off the rails, stirs up trouble, and makes the whole building miserable."

"You may not know this, but her son Boyd is intellectually disabled, and he's over two hundred pounds. There's nothing we can do about them."

"That's why the previous owner moved out and sold you the place cheap."

"You got a deal on the apartment, so just spend a little on the meal boxes. Then everything stays quiet."

I was furious.

So this was why she acted with such nerve. Because so many people were afraid of her.

"You're all afraid of her. I'm not!"

But watching the rest of these neighbors, the kind who bully the weak and cave to the strong, gear up to "reason" with me, I couldn't be bothered to stay. I turned and went home.

Maybe it was because I'd gone to management.

Thelma actually stayed quiet for several days.

But before the week was out, I got home from work and, just as I reached my door, I heard someone running up the stairs. My brand-new security door was covered in knife marks, and the smart doorbell camera had been hacked apart.

I stared down the stairwell.

"Stop hiding. I already saw you."

Thelma came strolling over, all smiles.

"I just heard someone chopping at your door, and I thought, a good neighbor's worth more than distant kin, so I came to check on you for you. But whoever it was ran off the second I came down."

"Just goes to show you've made quite a few enemies."

I knew it was her.

So I called the police right away.

"Hello, someone's committing an assault with a knife. Please come immediately!"