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The original was posted on /r/nosleep by /u/TomWritesTrash on 2024-07-02 18:45:09+00:00.
Sorry it took so long for me to push this update out, we’ve been… busy to say the least. First of all, I promised I would go straight over to the reception building and ask the staff what they knew. I did this, though it was certainly underwhelming.
The waiting room was bland; set up like a doctor’s office from the 70s, I had to approach a small window set into the wall to the left of the door. I had been here previously when the app we pay rent through was down and we had to manually hand over a check. Unfortunately, a different person sat behind the pane, unfamiliar.
It was an older lady, possibly in her 70s with thick ‘coke-bottle’ glasses perched at the end of her nose. A mess of gray hair tried it’s best to lay flat atop her small head. Everything about her exuded the word ‘librarian’.
I started to quickly and somewhat brutally explain the situation but stopped myself. Whoever this old lady was, she certainly didn’t need to face the brunt of my fear-fueled-frustration. Giving a fake smile, I asked if any management was in today. Be it my exasperated talking, or my crazed all-nighter appearance, she seemed uncomfortable enough to pass me off to someone else and hurried away.
Before long, a surprisingly young man confidently strode up to the window, his face so childlike it’s accompanying goatee could’ve been painted on.
“Do you run this complex?” I asked outright, skipping any pleasantries I might’ve exchanged regularly.
“Yes sir” he responded, nodding. “My dad owns it but I take care of the day-to-day.”
“Do you mind if we speak in your office?” I asked, noting a couple of residents walking up the sidewalk to the door.
“Of course,” he said, and pressed a button hidden from my view which released a nearby door with a buzz.
~
Saul, the manager, was your average businessman. From the expensive sport coat to the lapel pins, the guy clearly dressed for the job he wanted, not the one which currently landed in his lap. He had been managing the area for a couple of years ever since his dad’s health has taken a surprising turn. He was nice, professional.
I explained everything to that poor man in his plastic, psuedo-modern office nested in that run-down building. His jaw dropped when I explained the truck and it’s creepy warning, and his mouth stayed open for the remainder of my retelling. I was worried he’d catch one of the fat black flies which dotted the surrounding buildings.
“-and this truck, you ever catch its license plate?” He asked while opening various drawers seemingly in search for a pen.
“Nah, the only time we’ve really been close to it it was pouring down rain.”
“Fuck.” He muttered, before apologizing. "Can anyone besides you and your neighbors… neighbor… verify that you’ve seen the truck?
“Probably?” I half asked, upset with myself for not being more social. “My girlfriend and I aren’t the most outgoing people. Haven’t really talked to anyone else.”
“It’s just strange that no one’s complained about this before. I wish I knew when it started.”
“Been here since we moved in.” I said with a shrug.
“I’ll tell you what. Let me ask my dad about it, ask some staff, and I’ll get back to you. Hell, I’ll confront the guy myself one of these nights if I can catch him in the act.”
On my way out the door I had a minor epiphany and asked him about security cameras. He sheepishly explained that they do have one… aimed at the door to reception. It hardly sees any of the parking lot, let alone the vehicles that drive or park there. He told me he’d go through what he could anyways and with that I left.
I walked back across the lot to my building and, noting the empty space where Maddy’s car usually was, went back inside. Lex and I spent the rest of the day watching torrented TV shows and stress eating whatever snacks we had in the house.
Then we couldn’t sleep so we binged shows all night, switching to simple YouTube videos once we finished an entire season. Early into the morning we strained our eyes under the dim glow of synthetic scenes, until finally, our ruined bodies passed out from exhaustion.
We slept the entire day, into that evening. I had originally wanted to post an update after speaking with the staff, but after my lackluster confrontation and eventful night, I didn’t have the energy or substance to make one. We might’ve slept through the night, or at least well into it had it not been for the explosive knock at the door.
It ripped me from the false sense of security which my dreams had so thoughtfully provided me. I shook off the blanket that covered us and shambled out of the room, my mouth desert-dry. Stumbling up to the door I took a breath and swung it open.
Maddy was standing there, hair a wild nest and eyes a startling puffy red. I stood there stunned for a second b fore she motioned inside and I quickly welcomed her in. I started a pot of coffee as she waited on the couch. The door to the bedroom creaked as lex stepped out into the hallway, making worried eye contact before striding into the living room. One or both of them started crying.
I hovered at the border between kitchen and living room, not wanting to join the massive hug taking place, but not wanting to seem distant. After a short time Maddy sniffled and started explaining. It was a long conversation, frequently interspersed with cries and sobs, so I’ll spare you the verbatim transcription.
Doug had been epileptic since he was a kid, and she had personally seen him through five or six seizures. They were scary, sure, but they had never been anything life-threatening. Maddy and Doug had lived here for three years, their first place together after dating off and on for a year. A couple months or so ago, Doug had lost his job at a nearby construction company due to a surprise drug test and a joint. Around that time, he started “living online” as Maddy put it.
Frequenting niche forum sites and 4chan conspiracy boards, he began getting interested in the stranger side of things. The weird and unexplained. It was also around this time he started getting interested in the warning. He would count how many times the truck drove around the lot, how many times it looped the message, would chart out the numbers over time. He had convinced himself there was a deeper message there, he had something physical to hyperfixate on. It was no longer other people’s stories but his own, and he was determined to make his have an ending.
Apparently this kind of behavior was typical for Doug, he found new interests and hobbies as easily as a pig finds shit. Something about this one though, it was just different. While Doug was always happy to learn new skills and information, this was the first time Maddy had seen him wholly determined to make that information appear. He craved it.
She sent both lex and I a small album of photos on Snapchat, explained that he had taken them the week prior. I tried to play it cool, act like their contents didn’t make my heart stop dead in its thrumming steps.
The pictures sprawled out like a slideshow across my screen. They showed the truck, close.
He had been outside.
As I swiped through the images the truck got farther and farther away. Each image clear, taken with his new Android phone; the license plate perfectly readable. It said simply: U R I E L
I knew immediately it was a fake plate, it almost looked sharpied on in the pictures, minute inconsistencies with the lettering and spacing. The question is why? A liscense wouldve been something tangible, an actual thread to yank on. This was almost nothing. And why did I care so much?
I realized that Maddy had started talking again and shook myself from my thoughts. She said that it was also around a week ago when his “episodes” started, as she called them.
He would have sudden, fuming outbursts screaming about random things in “words that weren’t his”. Anything could set him off; a movie, a social media post, a picture. Though they were never accompanied by a seizure until… that night.
And that was it. She went home shortly after and packed a bag. Apparently the apartment was too much for her then, so she was staying with her mom a state over for the foreseeable future.
It was past eight when she left, and I could already feel the warnings presence looming overhead, counting down the seconds until it could make it’s voice heard. Lex settled back down into bed and started clicking through YouTube once more. We had both called into work for the next couple days, much to the disdain of my manager, so I was prepared to hibernate another day at least.
Before I joined her though, I got on my computer and ran a search for the words “URIEL”, “TRUCK”, and any combination of the words I could think of. Absolutely nothing. Aside from a company called “Uriel Trucking”, the Internet was just as empty-handed as me. Two hours later and knowing no more than I had previously, I retreated to the bedroom and prepared for another sleepless night. I thought about making an update once more, but just couldn’t get in the right mindset.
I didn’t even know if I had an update, let alone the energy to write one. I mean, so what, the guy went outside while the truck was here. I had no evidence to suggest that meant anything. I’m sure dozens of people get home late and step outside when the trucks there.
Except no they didn’t. It hit me then like a freight train on NOS. Aside from the cars parked along the border of the lot, I…
Content cut off. Read original on https://old.reddit.com/r/nosleep/comments/1dttdpt/every_night_a_truck_drives_around_my_apartment/