The CCTV app loaded agonizingly slow on her phone, the lobby feed grainy in night-vision green. “Come on, come on,” Yelena muttered, scrolling back to midnight, then to one, watching the empty hallway in fast-forward. There was nothing but the occasional flicker of the motion light, a stray moth, and once a delivery driver dropping a package.
She checked the fire escape camera next, the one bolted above her bedroom window facing the alley. It was completely empty the whole night, not even a stray cat wandered by. She sat on the edge of her bed, letting out a long, shuddering breath of relief. “Okay. If nothing came through the lobby, and nothing climbed the fire escape, then it’s nothing.”
“It’s just the building,” she told herself firmly, setting the phone down on her nightstand. She convinced herself she could sleep now, and for the first time all week, she actually did. It was a full, dreamless stretch that left her almost embarrassed in the morning at how worked up she’d let herself get over a few creaks and groans.