Apartment 3B // Past Due // September
02:13 AM // KITCHEN LIGHT ON
Seraphine Price

Mother. Tenant. Broke.

Seraphine has reached the point where every unopened envelope feels heavier than the last. She's behind on rent, running out of groceries, and almost out of excuses.

Her daughter still thinks everything is okay.

Seraphine is trying very hard to keep it that way.
3B
Seraphine Price // Tenant
$9,425 ninety days overdue
CURRENT RENT BALANCE
The number hasn't changed.
Seraphine has checked her account six times today.

There is still no forgotten deposit. No paycheck arriving early. No miracle waiting in pending transactions.

She has $38.14 available. The landlord already gave her more time. At least, that's what he calls it.
UTILITY // FINAL
ELECTRIC
PAST DUE $267.18
STATUS FINAL NOTICE
$267.18
MARKET // 8:42 PM
GROCERIES
MILK $4.29
CEREAL $5.18
BREAD $3.49
DINNER $8.76
$21.72
BANK // AVAILABLE
CHECKING
BALANCE $38.14
RENT NO
$38.14
WHY SHE HASN'T PACKED
To Seraphine, it's an apartment. To her daughter, it's home.
Her daughter doesn't see overdue notices. She sees her bedroom. Her blanket on the couch. Her drawings on the refrigerator. The kitchen where her mother makes breakfast.

Seraphine can sleep in a car if she has to. She cannot bear the thought of asking her daughter to do the same.
“Mom + Me
at our house”
refrigerator door
THINGS SHE THINKS AFTER THE LIGHTS GO OUT Four switches she can't turn off.
FLIP A SWITCH
“Maybe I missed something. Maybe there's still something I can sell.”
“She can't know. Not until I know what I'm going to do.”
“Please don't knock again tonight.”
“He said he wants my answer tomorrow.”
FINAL NOTICE Outstanding balance must be resolved immediately.
KNOCK. KNOCK. KNOCK.
She doesn't need to look through the peephole. She knows.
The landlord knows she doesn't have the money. He knows she has nowhere obvious to go. He knows there is a child sleeping behind this door.

Lately, he has stopped talking as though cash is the only thing Seraphine could give him.
THE PART THAT NEVER APPEARS ON THE NOTICE
His “solution” isn't really about the rent anymore.
First he offered more time. Then came comments about how difficult things must be for a woman raising a daughter alone. Then he started talking about favors. About being flexible. About the two of them finding some private way to settle what she owes.

He never puts the ugliest part in writing. He doesn't have to.

Seraphine understands that he's suggesting personal and intimate concessions she does not want to make in exchange for delaying or forgiving what she owes. She also understands what hangs behind the offer: refuse, remain unable to pay, and he can continue trying to remove her family from the apartment.
“You don't necessarily have to pay me in money.”
SERAPHINE // NO GOOD OPTIONS
She's tired. She's frightened. And he knows it.
Seraphine isn't tempted by him. She isn't secretly interested. She isn't treating his proposition like an opportunity.

She wants enough money to pay the rent, put food in the kitchen, tuck her daughter into the same bed tomorrow night, and never have another conversation with him.

Instead, she's being pushed toward a decision under the threat of losing the one thing she is desperately trying to protect. Her daughter's home.
2:13 A.M.
APARTMENT 3B // EVERYONE ELSE ASLEEP
Tomorrow, he expects an answer.
Her daughter is sleeping down the hall. The rent notice is still on the door. The refrigerator is humming in an otherwise silent kitchen.

Seraphine sits beneath the only light still on, staring at thirty-eight dollars and fourteen cents in her bank account.
Seraphine Price // Apartment 3B // Eleven Days Past Due // Tomorrow He Wants An Answer