The house guests

The doorbell rings.

Mcayela hurries, stuffing her clothes in her closet, pushing Lego bricks under the bed, and arranging pillows and chairs properly.

She's supposed to have guests over, just a casual meet-up since she's new to the apartment, but she's barely prepared anything. And they're an hour early.

The doorbell rings again, more insistently this time.

"I'm coming!" Mcayela exclaims, checking her hair in the mirror as she goes.

There's no one outside the door.

Mcayela feels embarrassed. Maybe they left because she hadn't answered the door in time.

She opens her phone to call them and apologize. She doesn't have their number.

Strange, she remembers laughing with Jamie and Marco, and them jotting down their numbers on her phone.

She scrolls through her contact list again. They aren't there.

Two hours later, when the house is clean and they still haven't shown up, she goes to check in on them.

Their apartments are empty, old, and abandoned.

Mcayela walks home, slow and confused, and sinks into her sofa. In a last attempt to reassure herself, she Googles her neighbors.

The doorbell rings.

Mcayela looks at the search results. They come up empty. They don't exist.