I've been wanting to change my environment for a while now.
Having finished school, all I sought was a new apartment, new city, new people, and a breathe of new, fresh air.
That's why when I saw an ad for a fairly cheap flat in a rather small city nearby that looked absolutely breathtaking, I completely ignored the "Only immediate purchase" text written with a couple of exclamation marks on every photo being rather strange, called in and said I'm taking the apartment.

They sounded delighted, truly. I found it a bit suspicious that I couldn't check the apartment before I actually payed for it, but to me it made sense that they were simply in dire need of money and couldn't afford to delay the payment any longer, and after all, it really was a steal.

That's when I found myself standing outside of the apartment building only three days after I've made the call in broad sunlight, waiting for my landlord to bring me the keys and finally show me my new place I payed for upfront. And when he came, he seemed much less delighted than he was three days prior in the call.
Without a single word, he unlocked the front doors and took me inside.
"Absolutely do not take the stairs, ever," he finally said with a raspy voice.
I didn't ask why, I was glad this place had an elevator - well, I'm not exactly an active person - and besides, I just wanted to get out of this uncomfortable situation, the sooner the better.

When we entered the building, we passed by some stairs leading somewhere underground, walked through doors leading to the ground floor that apparently "absolutely had to be closed at all times" and walked towards the elevator.
Like a true gentleman, he speechlessly signaled me to get inside, followed me and pressed the seventh floor, the highest number there was. As we waited for the door to close, I noticed there are no numbers below 0, which I found rather strange, but before I could ask, I was taken aback by the landlord bursting out in laughter.
I looked at him confused. His eyes were full of panic, but he seemed to not be able to stop laughing anyways. Frankly, I found his laughter actually quite funny, and so I began to laugh with him. His laughter escalated and I noticed he seemed to be relieved.

The elevator was awfully slow, so it finally stopping and the doors slowly opening, revealing a big number 7 hanging on the wall felt like I was rescued from the first ring of hell.
I semi-ran out of the door and waited for the landlord to finally give me the keys, though his look turned serious and bothered again so suddenly I didn't even have the strength to ask him about anything anymore. I just wanted it to be over.
I took the keys out of his hand as soon as he reached it out, unlocked my doors, and frantically closed them behind me as soon as I entered, hearing the elevator doors closing followed by laughter somewhere in the distance.

I sighed and looked around. The apartment was true to its photos and I absolutely loved that the landlord actually moved all my stuff in prior to my arrival. He said he will do anything as long as I actually take the place, and I felt like what wrong could it possibly do to take a bit of an advantage of that?

Nevertheless, as much as I loved the new place, I felt like the empty fridge gave it a bad look, to which my stomach loudly agreed. It was actually getting considerably late, but I wanted to see whether there's something interesting going on around this place even in late hours, so I decided to go out.
As soon as I left my apartment, a little red arrow by the elevator pointed downstairs and with yet another, this time feminine laughter echoing through the halls, I figured I might as well test the stairs.

Like a horror movie cliche, the floor below was also marked 7. And so was the one below that one. And it kept going like that until I furiously stormed down the stairs faster and faster, when I counted to what was supposed to be the ground floor.
It was still marked 7.
I looked over to where my door was originally meant to be. The exact same damn doormat. What a joke.
I decided to try again. To my surprise but also relief, the floor has finally changed. I saw -1 hanging on the dim lit wall and almost screamed with happiness. I could barely catch my breath, but wanted to investigate anyway.
Disappointed, I layed my sight upon a... Laundry room. A loud washing machine somewhere in a corner suggested it's being currently used, though the room was empty. It was awfully eerie. I pretty much immediately turned around, walked up the stairs and found myself in floor 7 yet again, entering my apartment  with the  bitter taste of surrender in my mouth.
.
..
...
I figured the next day, I'd simply use the damn elevator. I woke up with a heavy rumbling in my stomach and as soon as I finished my morning routine, without a second thought, I found myself standing in front of the elevator doors. I felt almost disconnected from reality. Everything about this building was so weird but I figured asking one of my neighbors later would be the simplest fix. After all, I really couldn't afford to move elsewhere already.

I slowly walked into the elevator and noticed a note hanging by a huge mirror covering the entire elevator wall. I couldn't remember if either of those things were there yesterday.
On the note, there was a rather awful joke written with a shaky handwriting.
"What does a koala do when the forest is on fire?" I scoffed, already aware of what follows. Dark humor was never my cup of tea.
The door behind me started finally closing and suddenly I got hit by an aura I was fairly familiar with, always followed by a migraine. My ears started ringing and a burst of light took over my sight. I attempted to cover my ears to stop the high pitched sound, unsuccessfully. The light kept getting more and more insufferable. This was the worst one I've ever experienced. All of it was so painful, like my head was about to burst.
And then, it stopped. A stranger's hand peaked through the door, attempting to stop it from closing, as a middle aged, pleasant looking lady entered the elevator and started laughing, gently patting my shoulder.

"Wha-" I attempted to speak, but she quickly covered my mouth with her hand and desperately looked me in the eyes.
After what felt like an eternity, we finally reached the ground floor and stormed out of the elevator. She again gave me no room to ask questions as she quickly walked through the back doors, closing them behind her with a loud bang and all I was left with was the echo of her high heels hitting the concrete and this wide elevator mirror staring at me from within the closing doors. And before they closed completely, I had a glimpse of an awfully gruesome face peeking at me behind my shoulder.

I ran outside. I couldn't take this anymore.
I aimed for the closest grocery store I was aware of as my stomach wouldn't shut up to let me think, where I, thankfully, stumbled upon my landlord.
Admittedly, I wasn't exactly polite when I frantically yelled at him as he was picking up some fresh vegetables. He turned around, quickly glimpsed at me but immediately lowered his gaze as if he refused to look at me.
"Mrs. Novak," he said with his low, raspy voice. "I assume you haven't found the little note on your kitchen table."
It felt like I was about to burst. "What goddamn note?"
"I see." He began to fish in his pockets for something, still refusing to look straight at me. Finally, he took out a small crumpled paper and forced it into my hand.
Before I got to fully straighten it out, I noticed there are couple of bullet points with rules scribbled out in the same terrible handwriting as the joke I saw a few minutes ago. He mumbled something along the lines of "Leave it on your kitchen table at all times, in case something happens to you."
"1. Do not bother the landlord" is all I got to read before I briefly looked up, noticed the landlord is by now gone - to no one's surprise - and then kept on reading.

"1. Do not bother the landlord
2. Keep the doors to the ground floor closed at all times - it keeps Him from going outside
3. Absolutely do not use the stairs
4. Do not ever use the laundry room, simply walk back upstairs, He will not tolerate it
5. Ignore knocking - those are not your parents nor friends
6. Do not call anyone while outside of your apartment
7. If you're woken up at 3 am, do not look outside of your windows, He is waiting there
8. Remember to laugh in the elevator"
There was a point 9, but the bottom of the paper has gotten wet previously and I couldn't make out what does it say.
Now, while the handwriting was the same as the one in the elevator, it was noticeably different than the one I saw the landlord use while writing in our contract for the apartment, which only raised more questions; who is writing all these?
I carefully folded the already rather ruined paper, put it in my pocket and shopped for groceries, ignoring all the questions it has raised for now. It's not like I'm going to get any answers anyway, it seemed.

When I returned to the apartment building, I glanced down the stairs to ground -1. What I assumed was a laundry room with audible washing machine noises coming out of it had a concrete wall built over the entrance with absolutely no way to enter.
I shrugged it off, carefully closed the doors behind me, and rode the elevator up to my floor. Of course, the entire way up I laughed while staring at the same koala joke with disappointment. "They burn with it," really? But I wasn't going to find out what happens if you don't follow this rule on my own.
I started unlocking my doors when I heard the elevator travel one floor below mine. The doors opened, someone walked in, the doors closed, silence. Complete silence. Until ear piercing screams echoed through the halls. I froze, holding my keys as if I was holding onto my dear life. The scream didn't last for long, though. I heard couple of thuds and then the elevator came back to my floor. I turned around. It was completely empty. I expected something cliche like blood or a dead body but there was nothing at all. I couldn't think straight until I heard knocking only a couple of meters away from me, on my neighbor's door. Perhaps even less surprisingly, no one was standing there, though someone began talking.
"Hello? I think something happened to me. Hello, James? Please let me in?"
What the hell is happening here?