They Told Me To Endure Her, Until They Faced Her Nightmare Too Chapter 04

The installers hauled the new slab up the narrow stairs the next afternoon.

When the old door came off its hinges, Wendy cracked hers open to watch.

“You’re really dropping money on a new door? The old one was fine.”

The lead installer pointed to the split wood around the strike plate.

“Frame was cracked inside. That patch job wasn’t going to last the week.”

Wendy scoffed, eyeing the new door.

Raw industrial steel coated in matte gray primer. No woodgrain, no trim, no soft edges.

“Looks like a jail cell,” she muttered.

I signed the delivery slip. “It holds.”

Miller came up from the basement to make sure everything stayed within building code.

The slab was hung in the original rough opening, swinging inward, encroaching zero inches into the hallway.

The crew anchored the frame, hauled out the splintered wood, and checked the deadbolt.

I held up my phone, recording a clean video of the door latching shut.

The tech tapped the middle of the steel panel with his knuckle.

CLANG.

The metal echoed hard down the stairwell.

I looked up toward the skylight.

It was an old building with bare walls and wooden stairs that carried every noise. Drop a set of keys on the second floor, and the sixth floor heard it.

My old wood door had soaked up the hits, keeping the banging quiet for everyone else while shaking my whole apartment.

This steel door didn’t keep things quiet. It made sure everyone heard.

The installer wiped his hands on a rag.

“Latches tight. Just don’t let anyone bang on it with anything heavy—the whole building’s gonna ring like a church bell.”

“Good to know,” I said.

It was an off-the-shelf commercial unit. I hadn’t added anything to make it loud.

I just hadn’t wasted a single dime soundproofing it for the person trying to break it down.

I pulled the handle shut.

Click. A solid, airtight seal.

Wendy stood in her doorway, arms crossed with a smug little nod. “See? Problem solved. If you’d just done this from the jump, we could’ve all skipped the drama.”

I slipped the brass keys into my pocket.

“Right. At least next time, it won’t just be my problem.”

She missed the edge in my voice, turned, and let her door swing shut.

At dusk, Hannah trudged up the stairs carrying a plastic takeout bag.

Reaching the fourth-floor landing, she stopped dead, staring at the raw gray metal.

“Oh… you actually changed it.”

I didn’t answer. I shut the door.

After dinner, I ran a cloud backup of every active design file.

With the final client review coming up, I booked a workspace two blocks away. If things went sideways tonight, my deadline wouldn’t take the hit.

I took a hot shower and was in bed by ten.

I slept soundly until a pair of dragging soles scuffed past the landing.

I opened my eyes. Darkness pressed against the blinds.

I didn’t reach for the lamp. I didn’t get up to check the peephole.

This time, the sound didn’t need an invitation.

BANG—

The first hit cracked against the hollow steel like a bat against a dumpster.

I pushed myself up on one elbow.

Outside, the hall went dead silent for two seconds.

Hannah hadn’t expected the volume either.

Then, panic took over. She threw herself against the lock again.

CLANG. CLANG. CLANG.

The raw metal screamed, sending violent acoustic shockwaves racing up the hollow stairwell and crashing straight down to the lobby.

Before I could grab my phone, the baby in 4B burst into frantic shrieks.

Across the hall, Wendy shrieked through her door: “What the hell is that?!”

Up on the sixth floor, something heavy shattered against the floorboards.

Then Derek’s furious roar tore through the hall.

“Are you out of your fucking mind?! It’s three in the morning!”

Outside my deadbolt, Hannah dissolved into hysterical sobs.

“I didn’t know… I thought—”

Before tonight, I was the only one standing in the dark, begging her to stop.

Now, from the ground floor to the roof, deadbolts were throwing open all at once.