Horror story. Guy realizes that things are starting to disappear. He has an obsession with counting things in his apartment building (e.g., 14 steps becomes 13 steps the next day, keep disappearing). Read around 2010-2014. Spoiler.

[Gabriel]

Hi everyone!

I have been looking for a horror story that I read some years ago (around 2010-2014), and I don't remember the title or the author. I would appreciate any help to find it.

The story follows the protagonist-narrator living alone in an apartment, who has an obsession with counting all the things in his home. Every morning he gets up, opens the curtains, looks outside his window, puts a pen in his shirt, gets outside of his apartment, and walks down a certain amount of steps to get out of the apartment building.

The next day, since he has this "counting obsession", he realized that this time, the stairs have 13 steps instead of 14. He thinks it was just a mistake, but the next day the stairs have 12 steps, then 11, 10, etc. until someday that he "realizes" that he never lived on the second floor, since the stairs are gone.

He gets up, and he doesn't have to worry about the window, because "apparently" there was no window in his room. Same with the pen, there was never a pocket in his shirt.

The story ends with this guy trying to go out of his room, when he realizes that the door is not there.

It was a story that freaked me out when I read it, and, for some reason, I forgot the title and author of this story. (If I get to realize that this story never existed, I'm going to be freaked out again lol)

[Kris]

Gabriel, is this novel or short story - for adults or teens?

What is the guy's job? Location/ country?

Sounds like he has OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder)?

I copied some book details to the topic header. Feel free to edit it.