Unwanted Company

My upstairs neighbors are loud... like really, really loud. They walk around likes it's their business to step as heavily as they can, they play twangy country music over dinner, and they love to start the washing machine- which happens to be positioned directly above my bed- promptly at 5:10am as often as possible. I can hear them laughing, I can hear them watching crime shows on the t.v., I can hear them talking on the phone. I feel like I have two extra people living in my tiny, one-bedroom apartment, but alas, I have been alone for many years.

Then... well, there's something else, something that goes beyond just being inconsiderate and moves into, well... into the uncomfortable. I am plagued by their constant crying, sometimes for hours at a time, always in the wee hours. I can't even remember the last time I slept the whole night through without hearing this wimpering. Sustained sobbing, floating down into my open bedroom window, but nobody else seems to hear it. I've asked other people in my building if they are bothered by this noctural lamenting, and all I get is blank stares, as if I'm the crazy one. "Upstairs?" they say, as if they've never heard the word.

The worst part is I have tried to talk to the people in the apartment above me about this, thinking if they knew how they were tormenting me, perhaps I can get them to turn it down a little. I don't enjoy confrontation, and I have never actually seen them in person, but I've walked up the stairs and knocked on their door more than once; I've never received an answer. In fact, they must have heard me coming those times, because when I get up there the silence is startling, almost like there is no one living in the apartment at all. It almost feels like if I opened the door I'd find nothing but dust and empty spaces. So I'll walk back down, and yeah, it may be quiet for an hour or two, but eventually, the crying always starts back up.