Vindicated

I heard the noise, but they didn't sound real so I continued to sleep. It had been a hectic day for me and I needed all the rest I could get in readiness for the next day. There was a loud bang of something hitting against metal. I jolted from my sleep and listened, there was no sound again.

"Arrgh, who's making this noise now?" I muttered to myself and checked the time. It was 3 am, and I wondered who it would be that would hit something by that time of the morning.
Suddenly, it occurred to me that it could be a housebreaker. I heard the sound of running feet, and my chest tightened with fear. I had the urge to go out and see who it was, but the fear that the person or group of persons might be armed couldn't let me move from the bed. Some minutes later, I fell asleep and woke at around 6 am, when I started hearing the voices of our neighbors.

I rubbed my eyes and stretched, but I still felt sleepy, so I decided to close my eyes a little more. The voices grew louder and the sound was disturbing. I threw the blanket off my body and went into the bathroom to wash my face. As I dried my face with a towel, I heard a familiar voice. It was the voice of a neighbor I dreaded so much. At first, we used to be close when I moved into the apartment, but with time, I noticed that she was just too weird and I stopped talking to her. I went to my door and listened, then I heard her say my name.

"I think you people should ask Jane about this." She said to the people she was talking to, and I rightfully assumed that they would be my neighbors too. I wondered what she'd want them to ask me.

"What reason would she have to do something like that? She does not even associate with us, so why would she steal our properties?" The other voice asked, and I froze.

'Steal?' I asked myself, then the night event came back to me and my eyes widened at the realization that they had accused me of being the culprit.

"The fact that she doesn't associate with you people, in fact, she doesn't associate with anyone makes her a bigger suspect. If you ask me, I'd say we storm her room and search it before she hides those things." Joy, my weird neighbor said, and at that moment I opened my door and walked to where she stood. Before she could say a word to me, I slapped her hard on her face.

"Are you crazy? Who are you calling a suspect? So if I decide not to associate with the lots of you, that makes me a suspect for robbery. Are you mad?" I yelled at her, and the other neighbors rushed out from their rooms.

She tried to fight back, but the neighbors were already holding us back. I was so angry that the neighbors had stepped in because all I could see was red. I wanted to press her against the wall and beat the craziness out of her.

"You guys want to search my room right? Come in and search it, but make sure none of my things leave its rightful place. I will not forgive that, and if you're done searching and you do not find anything, I'm calling the school security and Joy, you'll compensate me for this accusation. I'm not going to let it slide." I said in annoyance and threw my door open for them to go in.

After a long search, they couldn't find anything in my room. I picked up my phone and called the security department and in less than twenty minutes, they were at our building. They quickly retrieved the CCTV footage from a nearby store that faced our building, with the hope that they might see the culprit walking out of the compound.

While they went through the video footage, we, the occupants of the building were called one after the other for interrogation. When I was called, I locked my room and went in to meet the security man in charge of the interrogation.

"You were the one that made the call? He asked me, and I replied with a nod. "So, what did you do last night?" He began the interrogation.

"I slept, of course. I had a strenuous day at school and I was exhausted, so I slept off after taking a bath. I even missed dinner because of that." I replied.

"Are you saying you didn't wake up till dawn and you didn't come out of your room?" He asked me again, and I told him all I could recall from the other night and my reasons for not coming out to check who the culprit was.

"Why do you think your neighbor accused you of this mess?" He asked me after keeping quiet for some time.

"Well, that's her problem, not mine. If you had observed her well during your interrogation with her, I'm sure you'd noticed that she doesn't act like a normal person. She's weird, and you can ask anyone who lives here to attest to that." I said in response and rolled my eyes.

Some minutes later, the other security man who had been going through the footage came back upstairs to the balcony where we all were. He showed us a picture of a lady and asked if any of us could identify her. The victim of the robbery identified the lady as her friend, whom she had quarreled with a day before the incident. The security said she was the culprit, and I immediately lunged for Joy; before they could pull her out, my fingers scratched her face and left a deep mark on it.

The security men tried to calm me down, but it wasn't working out for them.
"Why in the world would this girl accuse me of stealing? Of all the things to accuse me of, she chooses robbery. What did I do to her? Is it a crime to decide to stay on my own and not get in anyone's way?" I shouted and shouted out of annoyance.

Source

The men gave her a chair to sit on, and they asked her why she accused me, and she began to stammer, saying too many things at the same time.

"Young lady, give us a straight answer. Do you realize that you could be penalized for this?" The security man scolded her.

"She doesn't talk to the victim, just the way she doesn't talk to me anymore. So I assumed that she might've done that to hurt them." She replied.

"You assumed? How can you accuse someone based on assumptions simply because she doesn't talk to you? Does she have to be friends with all of you before she'd be seen as a good person?" The man asked her, with his voice slightly raised.

"Sir, she doesn't talk to any of us living on this top floor." She was saying but another tenant that stays at the top floor interrupted her.

"Speak for yourself. Jane talks to everyone except you and those girls, and it's obvious why she wouldn't want to do that. It doesn't still justify the fact that you accused her of robbery. All this nonsense you're saying here is a load of balderdash, and I think you should be punished for this." The tenant said.

I was tired of listening to them. I heaved a sigh and wiped my face with my palm.
"It's a good thing they found the real culprit, but Joy, I need you to understand that I'm not buying this nonsense you just spewed here. You have absolutely no reason to accuse me of committing such a crime, and you claim it's because I don't talk to you people. If you were me, would you talk to yourself? As weird and annoying as you are. I won't let this slide, and I strongly advise that you avoid me with everything in you." I warned her and walked back into my room.

The security men left with the victim to find the real culprit from the footage, and some neighbors went with them. The crowd was soon to disperse, while the rest still scolded Joy and advised her to apologize to me.

Some hours later, a knock came to my door. I opened it to see Joy standing there.

"See Jane, I know you must be annoyed at the whole situation, but if you were in my shoes, you'd feel the same way..." She was saying, but I cut in quickly.

"Just as the other girl told you, all of this nonsense you're saying is a load of balderdash, and I don't want to hear it. I will never be in your shoes because I'm not as stupid as you are. Now, leave my door and heed my warning. I won't be this nice to you again if you come here." I said in response and shut the door.