They Told Me To Endure Her, Until They Faced Her Nightmare Too Chapter 05

By morning, the building group text was exploding with notifications.

Wendy posted first:

[@Summer, what is with that door?! It woke my kid up screaming. Took me an hour to put him down!]

Derek jumped in right beneath her:

[@Summer, get it sorted today. I didn’t sleep a wink and nearly missed my train this morning.]

Even the guy down in 1A chimed in:

[I heard it on the ground floor. Sounded like someone was tearing the place apart. Kept me up till sunrise.]

I set my coffee on the desk and typed a short reply:

[Hannah’s the one hitting it.]

Wendy fired back within seconds:

[It’s your door! What do you mean Hannah’s the one hitting it?!]

I added: [Talk to her. The door didn’t hit itself.]

The thread went silent.

Derek asked if I had any plans to replace it with something quieter.

I replied:

[The old one was splintered. The new slab and rush installation cost me nine hundred dollars out of pocket. Are you footing the bill for another one?]

Silence.

Wendy typed: [Did you pick something that loud on purpose?]

I didn’t dodge it.

I typed back:

[I picked a solid door. It holds, and it doesn’t swallow noise when someone attacks it. But I wasn’t the one out

there swinging at it at three in the morning.]

I uploaded the inspection clip from yesterday.

The door swung shut in the video with a soft, clean click-nothing more than the deadbolt sliding into place.

I added:

[It stood there all afternoon without a peep. If anyone thinks an inanimate door violates quiet hours, have

Miller come check it.]

Derek went quiet for a solid minute before finally texting:

[Someone has to fix this.]

I gave him a quick reminder:

[Two nights ago you said we can’t reason with Hannah Shaw. I couldn’t. Want to take a turn?]

This time, he didn’t tag me.

He tagged Hannah.

[@Hannah, we need an answer. Is this happening again tonight or not?]

It took Hannah an hour to respond:

[I’m so sorry, everyone. I just checked my phone. I must have been sleepwalking again. I swear I didn’t mean

to.]

Wendy snapped immediately:

[Not meaning to doesn’t cut it every single night! We can’t function on two hours of sleep!]

I posted into the chat:

[Careful, Wendy. Don’t trigger her.]

A second later, Wendy pinged my private messages:

[Summer, don’t get cute. That was completely different.]

Staring at the screen, I remembered how easy it was for her to tell me to just call a handyman two days ago.

Her kid was scared. Her stress was real.

It just didn’t matter to her until it was on her side of the hall.

I texted back:

[I’m not the one waking him up, Wendy. Take it up with Hannah.]

The office was packed that morning.

Wendy paced the floor with her toddler, Derek took angry work calls by the door, and Miller’s desk phone

wouldn’t stop ringing.

“Yeah, I hear ya,” Miller muttered into the desk phone. “No, it wasn’t work on the pipes… Someone was

beating on a door upstairs.”

Turns out complaints actually got answered when they weren’t just coming from me.

When Hannah walked in, her eyes were rimmed in red.

“I honestly didn’t-”

Wendy cut her off on the spot.

“If you didn’t mean to, do something about it! Have a friend stay over or see a specialist. We can’t keep living

like this!”

Hannah blinked at her, stunned.

“Wendy, you were the one telling everyone not to trigger me…”

Wendy shifted the boy to her other hip.

“I’m trying to solve a problem.”

I sat in the corner, taking a slow sip from my travel mug.

Amazing how fast words stopped being “triggers” the moment someone else had to say them.

Miller reviewed my installation receipt, then headed upstairs with Derek to confirm there were no illegal

attachments on the frame.

He didn’t bring up taking the door down.

Instead, he called Hannah’s landlord directly to report the recurring disturbances, then promised he’d

personally check the upper floors before turning in for the night.

Derek posted an update in the group chat:

[If there’s any noise tonight, call the emergency line immediately. Note the exact timestamp-we need a

paper trail.]

I took a screenshot and saved it.

Back when I asked for a paper trail, they told me I was making a big deal out of nothing.

That night, the super checked the fifth floor at nine, then again around eleven.

I never expected anyone to babysit my landing until sunrise.

Sure enough, at three sharp, the steel erupted.

Before she could even start her sniffling routine, a roar ripped across the hall.

“Hannah! Drop whatever’s in your hand!”

It was Derek.

His heavy steps pounded up from the floor below.

Then Wendy’s lock disengaged, and doors clicked open all down the stairwell.

By the time the super jogged up the steps, Hannah was already huddled against the plaster wall, wiping at

her cheeks.

“I just woke up here… I don’t know what happened…”

Derek aimed his phone screen right at her face.

“Every single second is on record. We’re calling your landlord the second his office opens.”

Hannah looked up, wide-eyed.

The people surrounding her were the exact same crowd as before.

Only this time, not a single one turned to make excuses to me.

They were staring right at her, waiting for an answer.