The Neighbor Who Was Watching Through the Wall

I rented a unit in an old subdivided house, and from the first week I could not shake the feeling of being watched in my own bedroom. It was not a ghost feeling. It was a person feeling, that prickle on the back of your neck when someone is looking at you. But I lived alone, and my door and windows were locked, and I told myself it was nerves in a new place.

The bedroom shared a wall with the next unit, which the landlord said was vacant. On that wall hung a framed picture that had been there when I moved in. I never questioned it.

One night the feeling was so strong I got up, turned on the light, and really looked at the room, and behind the frame, in the gap where it hung slightly off the wall, I saw it: a small hole drilled clean through the plaster, at the exact height of the bed, angled to see it.