13-E:Gulberg's silent floor


13-E: Gulberg’s Silent Floor

Psychological Thriller | Lahore Shadows

By Faraz Parvez
Professor Dr. (Retired) Arshad Afzal
Retired Faculty Member, Umm Al-Qura University, Makkah, KSA
(Pseudonym of Professor Dr. Arshad Afzal)

“Some addresses are not meant to be lived in. They live in you.”

In Lahore’s bustling Gulberg III, the apartment at 13-E, top floor of the newly-built but mysteriously vacant Sulaiman Residencia, became the talk of whispered conversations.

It had been bought in full cash by a young woman named Sundas Areeba, a clinical psychologist who’d just returned from London, seeking peace after a traumatic incident in her past. But what she found was not peace—it was the unraveling of reality itself.

I. The Perfect Silence

Sundas moved in on a rainy Tuesday. The elevator didn’t show a button for the 13th floor. She had to swipe a keycard to access it.

The strange thing? All other floors had tenants—families, children, working professionals. But the 13th? Silent. Not a whisper, not a footstep.

The guards told her, nervously:

“Madam, that floor wasn’t part of the original blueprints. It was… added.”

II. The Woman in Flat 1303

On her third night, Sundas woke up to soft knocks—not at the door, but on the inside of her full-length bedroom mirror.

She dismissed it as exhaustion. But later that day, she met Zeenia, a beautiful, red-eyed woman who claimed she lived in 1303—next door.

Zeenia said:

“I used to be a therapist too. Until I treated someone… who treated me back.”

That night, Sundas checked. There was no flat 1303.

III. The Unseen Session

Sundas set up a small therapy office inside her apartment. But patients started reporting strange occurrences:

  • Feeling like someone else was answering with their voice.
  • Hallucinations of floating staircases and dripping clocks.
  • Dreams of being trapped in rooms they’d never seen.

One patient, Usman, shouted mid-session:

“Why are you pretending to be Zeenia?! You’re not real. This room isn’t real!”

He never returned.

Later, Sundas found a recording from the session. Her voice wasn’t on it. Only Zeenia’s was.

IV. The Archive Room

Compelled to uncover the truth, Sundas bribed a worker to show her the basement archive of the builder. There she found something chilling.

Flat 13-E was originally a therapy clinic in the 1970s. The head psychologist, Dr. Zeenia Faheem, went missing with 7 of her patients. Rumor was, she had created an illegal "Mirror Therapy Chamber”, a room made entirely of reflective walls meant to force patients to face their traumas—literally.

All 7 patients went insane.

No one ever found Zeenia.

V. The Choice

The next morning, Sundas found a second mirror in her room—an antique, oval-shaped one with an inscription in Urdu:

“Reflections don’t lie. People do.”

And then came the note, slipped under the door:

“It’s your turn to listen now. Welcome, Doctor Zeenia.”

Sundas tried to leave. The elevator wouldn’t work. The stairs went in circles. Her calls wouldn’t go through.

She looked into the mirror.

And someone else blinked.

Today...

13-E is still listed on property websites—at an unbelievable price.

Buyers who inquire receive a voice message.

“We’re accepting therapists again. Just one condition: you must be willing to treat yourself first.”

🕯️ Mystery, Trauma & the Mind

“13-E: Gulberg’s Silent Floor” isn’t just a thriller—it’s a journey into how trauma, guilt, and unsolved cases haunt both spaces and souls. In modern-day Lahore, not all ghosts are from the past. Some are waiting... for the next therapist.

🖋️ Enjoyed this mind-bending thriller? Don’t forget to share with fellow lovers of suspense and Pakistani noir.
📚 Follow our blog for more powerful stories that stir the mind, soul, and imagination.

By Faraz Parvez
Professor Dr. (Retired) Arshad Afzal
Retired Faculty Member, Umm Al-Qura University, Makkah, KSA
(Pseudonym of Professor Dr. Arshad Afzal)


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