Full Story

Title: Across the Window

Every night at exactly 11:14 PM, Lina turned off the lights in her apartment and stood by the same window.

Across the street, in a brightly lit apartment three floors above ground, a couple laughed together like they existed in another world. Wine glasses. Music. Slow dancing in the kitchen. The kind of happiness people accidentally envy.

At first, it was harmless.

Lina watched because she couldn’t sleep.

Then because she became curious.

Then because something felt wrong.

The woman kept changing.

Not dramatically. Just enough.

Different hair. Different clothes. Different body language. But always the same man. Same apartment. Same routine.

And somehow—

None of the women ever appeared twice.

One night, Lina finally pointed toward the window while Arman sat behind her on the couch.

“That’s not the same woman,” she whispered.

Arman barely looked up from his phone.

“You’ve been staring at strangers for weeks, Lina.”

But she knew what she saw.

The next night, she tested it.

Using a fake account, she sent an anonymous message to the woman across the street.

“He’s lying to you. Leave.”

Ten minutes later, shouting erupted inside the apartment. Silhouettes moved violently behind curtains. A lamp shattered. Then the woman stormed out crying while the man remained perfectly still in the center of the room.

Arman grabbed Lina’s wrist when she smiled nervously.

“Lina… don’t do this.”

But she already had.

The following night, the apartment across the street stayed dark for hours.

No music.

No woman.

Only silence.

Then suddenly—

The lights turned on.

The man stood alone near the window.

Motionless.

Looking directly toward Lina’s apartment.

Not searching.

Not guessing.

Knowing.

Lina slowly stepped backward from the glass, her stomach tightening for reasons she couldn’t explain.

That’s when she noticed something resting beside her front door.

A photograph.

Her hands trembled as she picked it up.

It was a picture of herself standing at the window.

Taken from inside her apartment.

Behind her, blurred in the darkness of the hallway—

Someone was watching.

Lina’s breathing stopped.

Because she suddenly remembered something terrifying:

She had never told anyone which apartment was hers.

Slowly, she turned toward the hallway behind her.

And realized—

Arman was gone.