Image is AI generated
Stacy had been living in her new apartment for about a month. It was a small place, but kinda nice, nothing special but enough for her. The rent was low, which was good, and it was close to her job so that was all she cared about. But lately, she started feeling weird, like somebody was watching her. She looked around, but there was nobody there. It made her feel real uneasy, but she figured she was just being paranoid or something.
One Saturday, while Stacy was clean up, she noticed something for the first time near the ceiling, above the wardrobe. At first, she thought it was just maybe dirt or something, but when she climbed up on a stool to look, she saw a small camera. A hidden camera fixed up in the corner, well hidden trying not to be found.
“What the hell?” she said to herself, climbing down real fast, heart beating kinda hard. She didn’t know what to think, so she called her landlord, Mr. Jacobs. He picked up the phone after a couple of rings, sounding like he wasn’t too worried about nothing.
“Hey, Mr. Jacobs,” she said, trying to sound calm but kinda freaked out. “I found a hidden camera in my apartment. It’s above the wardrobe. Do you know anything about it?”
Mr. Jacobs was quiet for a bit, and then he just goes, “Oh yeah, I forgot about that. That camera was from the first tenant who lived there, way back. He put it in for security or something. It’s probably broken by now.”
“What? Seriously? You just left it there?” she asked, getting mad. “What if it’s still working?”
“Nah, it’s been years, Stacy. Don’t worry about it. I’ll come by tomorrow and take a look, all right?” he said, sounding like it wasn’t a big deal.
But Stacy didn’t wanna wait for tomorrow. She felt super weird about it. After hanging up, she decided she had to check herself if the camera was working or not. She pulled the wardrobe out of the way, finding a wire running down the wall, and followed it until she found a small recording box hidden behind a panel. It was dusty, but still plugged in. She pressed "play," and to her shock, the thing worked.
The first video was old, from three years ago. It showed some woman unpacking her boxes, setting up her furniture, just living her life. Stacy felt bad watching it like she was peeking into somebody’s private stuff. But for some reason, she didn’t stop. She kept clicking through the videos, seeing another couple who moved in after the woman. Just normal stuff again: eating dinner, watching TV. Nothing crazy, but she couldn’t stop herself from watching more, skipping ahead to see what else was there.
Then, she hit a different video. A man she didn’t recognize was in the apartment, pacing around real nervous, looking out the windows. He was wearing a hoodie. A few minutes later, a woman came into view, but she wasn't walking. She was dragged into the shot, her hands and mouth tied up. Stacy’s heart started pounding. The guy stuffed her into the closet, then he sat down on the couch like nothing happened.
Stacy felt sick to her stomach. She paused the video and sat there, trying to figure out what she just saw. It didn’t feel real. But when she went back and watched again, the woman’s face looked too familiar. She grabbed her phone and searched online, pulling up a missing person report she’d seen just a few days ago. And there it was. The woman in the video was the same one from the poster. She was missing!
Stacy started panicking. She didn’t know what to do, but knew she couldn’t keep this to herself. So she grabbed the recorder and drove straight to the police. When she got there, she tried explaining what happened, but she was talking so fast the officer had to ask her to slow down. Eventually, they understood, and they took the device from her, saying they’d look into it right away.
For the next few days, Stacy couldn’t get it out of her head. She kept thinking about the woman and wondering if she was still alive. Then, a few days later, she got a call from a detective.
“Miss Stacy, thanks to the footage you brought in, we were able to catch the guy in the video. He’s been arrested, and we’re working to find the woman. You did a good thing bringing this to us.”
Stacy hung up the phone, feeling a relief. She couldn’t believe what she’d found. The camera had been hidden away all this time, watching everything, and she was the one who discovered the terrible thing it captured, something that was not meant to be seen
