VACANT

Mara and James needed a fresh start. A quiet street. A clean lease. A charming Victorian duplex that felt like a promise. Frank, the landlord, is clear about one thing: the upstairs is vacant—locked and off-limits. No one lives up there. Then the first night passes… and the house learns their schedule. At the same time every night, footsteps cross the ceiling above their living room—three measured steps, deliberate and heavy, like someone pacing a room that shouldn’t exist. Mara starts documenting. James wants explanations. Frank offers rehearsed reassurances. And the more they push for the truth, the more the building responds—turning ordinary maintenance into a tightening pattern of pressure, denial, and escalation. Because the upstairs isn’t empty. And whatever lives in that space doesn’t want witnesses—it wants attention. VACANT is a slow-burn, claustrophobic haunted-house thriller about boundaries, bureaucracy, and what happens when the most dangerous thing in a home is the one door you’re never allowed to open.