It’s been about six months since the girl Lisa moved into the apartment above mine. It’s turned over a few times since I started living here, so I just said hello when I saw her on the stairs. She was very pretty and much younger than I was. She kept walking while replying with a pretty dismissive, “hey”. I didn’t think much of it until I heard her moving furniture around and making a lot of noise ... At 3am in the morning. Over the next few months, it happened a lot, especially on weekends where you would hear several people troop up the stairs into her apartment and then move things around.

Then there was the time she apparently set a wood bowl on fire by putting it on the gas grill. Luckily there was no damage and no one got hurt, but I can still hear her laughing and giggling with the firemen. Let’s just say that the neighbors all started forming opinions of her and weren’t worried about sharing them.

I’ve been in the building for a while but the older retired woman, Anna, who lives two floors above me has been here much longer. She loves to talk about all the other people in the building. One day I was standing outside talking with her while she was signing for a package. The box looked pretty heavy so I offered to carry it up to her apartment for her. As we passed the younger girl’s apartment which shared my ceiling and her floor, she asked “what do you think of this one?”

I laughed a bit and very conscious that we were outside Lisa’s door, I replied, “She’s quieter then the brother and sister rock band a few years ago ... but not by much.”

Anna chuckled and said they had been pretty bad but while this one makes her share of noise, it’s mostly grunting. This didn’t sound like what I had been hearing, but being above someone and below could lead to hearing different things I guess. She shared that “this one is acting all high and mighty because she is young and beautiful, but she’ll learn that being snooty carries a high price.” Anna grimly repeated, “she’ll learn one way or the other.” I just laughed in agreement.

About a week after that conversation, Anna asked me to help her move something heavy in her apartment which I gladly did. While she cleaned up afterward, she thanked me and mentioned that she’s been hearing even weirder noises below. Had I heard anything different?

I had to think for a second, but couldn’t come up with anything in particular. She thanked me again and I left her apartment.

As I walked down the hallway towards the stairs, I was wondering what exactly was going on in Lisa’s apartment. A step or two down the stairs, I heard a thud below me and a door swing open and hit something. I asked, “Hello, everything ok?”

Not hearing a response, I bounced down the stairs a bit faster to find Lisa sprawled across her doorstep. I ran over to her and bent down to check on her while pulling out my phone in case I had to call 911.

Looking beyond Lisa’s body, I saw another body on the floor in the apartment and then when I took a better look, I saw a third. What was going on here? It took a second for me to make sense of what I was seeing. There were two women, mostly undressed, tied up in ropes and leather. One was on her side facing away from me, but the other was on her stomach looking directly at me. There was a bright red ball in her mouth and she was making urgent sounding noises at me.

Checking Lisa, she was breathing and somewhat quivering I’d guess. Maybe a seizure? I slowly stepped into the apartment and bent to undo the straps around the girls head.

She spat the ball out quickly and said, “Thank you! Lisa’s having a seizure but if you undo me, I have her rescue drug. She’ll be ok.”

That sounded pretty rational so after taking a look at how she was tied up, I saw what I had to undo. It only took a second or two before she shakily stood up, went to the counter and opened a purse.

I stepped back out into the hallway feeling a little uncomfortable with what I was discovering about my neighbor and some of those noises I was now starting to understand.

The newly freed girl bent down and put some sort of pill onto Lisa’s tongue. After a second or two, Lisa’s body relaxed and sort of slumped down. The girl then stood back up and turned to me, “I can only imagine what you’re thinking, but thank you for helping us.” She didn’t seem to be embarrassed by how I had found her, in fact, despite her words being thankful, she mostly seemed really angry. Not at me, just, I’m not sure, maybe in general? I got the strong feeling I had no idea what was going on here.

I asked, “Does this happen to Lisa a lot? Will she be ok?” After a second, I added, “Should we untie the other girl too?”

While I was asking these questions, she had pulled Lisa into the apartment, leaving her on her back. She turned back to me and answered, “She’ll be fine in no time, I’ll make sure of it. What is your name, I’ll make sure to tell Lisa so she can thank you.”

“I’m Tom, I live in the apartment below her.”

“Thanks again Tom, I’m sure she’ll be very grateful for your help. Thank you for not flipping out about”, she waved her hands around, “all of this.” She then closed the door.

As I walked down the stairs, I tried to imagine how Lisa would behave the next time I ran into her on the stairs. I also decided that I didn’t want to share this story with the neighbors. Running into Anna a day or two afterwards, she remarked how quiet it had all gotten. I suggested, “perhaps Lisa was traveling?” I silently considered whether she had instead gone home to her parents because of the seizure I had witnessed. Anna just laughed and said, “maybe she’s just controlling herself a bit more.” Over the next few weeks, I listened carefully but heard nothing upstairs at all. I kept looking for Lisa on the stairs, but it’s not like I really saw her that often to begin with.