life into a rented box truck and told me to run. We had lived across the hall from each other in this old, creaking apartment building for three years.

Our relationship was built on standard neighborly pleasantries—loaning each other a cup of sugar, holding the heavy main door open when our hands were full of groceries, and occasionally exchanging frustrated glances over the strangely invasive behavior of our landlord, Mr. Vance.

Mr. Vance was a man who took “property management” to an uncomfortable extreme.

He lived in the basement apartment and always seemed to be around, lingering in the hallways, adjusting the thermostat in the common areas at odd hours, and asking far too many personal questions about our schedules.

But it was an affordable building in a safe neighborhood, so Clara and I both chose to overlook his eccentricities. Until the day she abruptly decided to break her lease.
On her final morning, Clara looked entirely different from the calm, cheerful woman I had known for years.

Her skin was pale, dark circles shadowed her eyes, and her hands were visibly trembling as she taped up the final boxes. When I stepped into the hallway to say goodbye, she didn’t smile. Instead, she grabbed my forearms with a desperate strength that caught me completely off guard. Her voice dropped to an urgent, terrifying whisper that sent a chill straight down my spine.
“Don’t stay here,” she warned, staring straight into my eyes with an intensity that made me want to look away.

“Pack your things and leave too. Get out of this building, Sarah. You’ll regret it if you don’t.”
I dismissed it at the time. I convinced myself it was just moving-day stress, or perhaps some private, heated financial drama she had over her security deposit with Mr. Vance.

To soften the incredibly tense atmosphere of our goodbye, Clara turned around and picked up a large, beautifully potted peace lily from her remaining boxes. She pushed it into my hands, telling me it was a parting gift and to take good care of it.

She specifically emphasized that I should keep it right by my front window, on the small wooden table next to my entryway, where it could get direct sunlight and be seen clearly from the courtyard below.