Neighbors

The ceiling shook from the bass of the neighbor's speakers. The vibrations kept Daniel awake. He sighed and yanked his body out of bed. He looked around the messy room; paper and napkins were on the floor. The empty Chinese food container sat on the small nightstand, and the many half-drunk water bottles were scattered everywhere. He made direct eye contact with the overflowing bag of dirty clothes.

He shoved his feet until his sneakers and picked up the bag. The bag spilled clothes everywhere, so he thought it best to put it in the shopping cart. He grabbed his keys and the small bag full of quarters and headed down the hall. The laundry room was filthy. People left food and clothes lying around.

Daniel walked over to the two big washing machines and quickly shoved in his clothes. Just as he was putting his quarters in, a man wearing nothing but sweatpants and sneakers walked in. He took his clothes out of the washers and put them into the two big dryers.

Daniel sighed.

He hoped the man wouldn't take a long time to return to take them out because he needed to use them. The smaller dryers didn’t dry anything, and it would cost him more money, which he didn’t have.

The man left in a hurry; Daniel added the detergent and fabric softener, then pulled up a chair and waited.

Thirty minutes pass, Daniel's clothes are about to stop. He walks over to the door to see if he can see the man coming to remove his clothes from the dryer. Unfortunately, the hallway was empty.The lights in the laundry room flicker.

“Crappy ole building can’t even afford good wiring.”

Daniel waits forty-five minutes, but no one is in sight, so he chooses to remove them himself. After all, there is a rule about leaving clothes unattended, written on the signs on the walls. He puts his clothes in and puts them on high heat. As soon as he pushes the button, the man arrives. He walks in and immediately notices his clothes on the nearby table. He balls up his fist.

“Nobody asked you to touch my clothes!”

“I needed to use the machine.”

“You could’ve waited”

“I waited forty-five minutes for you.”

The man walks over to Daniel aggressively.

“Look, I don’t want any problems.”

“Too bad”

The man swings and punches Daniel in the face. Daniel falls back, and his head hits the top dryer. He tried to block the hits, but the man was powerful. He continues to punch Daniel everywhere. After about five minutes, he stops and spits on Daniel.

“Don’t touch my shit again!”

Daniel takes in a bunch of rapid breaths. He stands up, hunched over; his head is pounding. He notices a massive piece of glass sitting on top of one of the washers and grabs it. His teeth clench, and the veins in his face appear as he charges straight at the man holding this glass piece with both hands.

He pushes the glass into the man’s neck from behind. The man falls over, frantically trying to cover the wound; he gargles on his blood, Daniel pushes it further. It didn’t go through because the man’s neck was so thick. Daniel used all his strength to push the glass through for a clean cut. The man’s head falls off, and the rest of his body slightly twitches. Daniel picks up his head and throws it in a washer machine. He checks the man’s pockets for quarters and turns the machine on. The head spins around and around, and water starts to surround it. Daniel looks down at his shirt and sees blood.

“Great, now I need to wash this shirt too.”

The laundry door opens, and another man walks in and sees the headless body lying on the floor. He freezes; Daniel sees the man and realizes it’s his noisy neighbor from upstairs. The neighbor stares at Daniel in shock. Daniel smiles at him.

“You’re next”