Apartment 903

Day 6, and I have started to hallucinate. Up on the 9th floor of this apartment, I’ve no clue what is happening anymore.

It all began last Saturday, on my way to a meeting, I took out ten minutes to check out an apartment at Ashok Vihar, in a hurry, leaving everything in the car. At the gate, I met my property dealer, Naresh, with his pouch hanging at his wrist and his phone jammed to his ear, like always.

A newly constructed apartment, I climbed up to the 9th floor, Naresh gestured me through the rooms while making a deal on his phone. Unconsciously, he went out the apartment and into the opposite one, and oh! It was a matter of few seconds the door banged shut and the keys hang outside. Naresh never came back; I am assuming he believed I had already left. I have tried everything to open the door, but unsuccessful. I sit here, staring at that garbage trolleys, on day 3, it had 84 cockroaches, 11 insects and two half full water bottles. Today, there are 73 cockroaches, 4 insects and no water. I have started to hallucinate, I see people wandering in their balconies, their clothes drying off the stings, but I know there is nothing! I look at the reflection on the floor, and I know there is nothing. Engulfed in the construction noise, no one can hear me, or perhaps I have lost my voice after hours of shouting for attention. Here, at 903, I sit with an escape plan in my head but the keys hanging outside.

Photo credits: Instagram, Akash Chhabra