I saw a homeless man sleeping in the laundry room

I delayed it for a day. I was too tired the night I got back from Alabama. There was almost two weeks worth to do, starting from the tail end of my roadtrip to Florida, mixed in with my running gear, and topped off with the laundry I collected in Auburn. The basket was overflowing, I needed to get it done that night. It didn't happen.

I got to the 10th floor laundry room and immediately sensed something was wrong. The lights were out and the garbage can, normally situated behind the open door, was in the middle of the little room. I stopped in my tracks - felt like something was alive in that room. That something had two eyes staring me back from behind the hinges of the open door of the dark room.

The elevator was immediately summoned back to the 3rd floor, transporting a pile of dirty laundry and a mixture of unexpected disbelief and controlled panic. I spoke with an unsurprised apartment security operator, who in turn dispatched an officer to the building. The whole interaction felt like I was calling about exterminating a rat. I hid in my apartment the rest of the evening, a mountain of dirty clothes taking up space on the floor. I just wanted to do laundry. It didn't happen.