"Blind to the Bones."    by Stephen Booth.

When you live alone for a long time, you become a hermit and the outside world becomes a threat.  You here someone's footsteps in the corridor, and hope that they will pass by.  And when they do , you take it as another sign that the world has rejected you, that you are not wanted.  In that way you paint yourself into a corner, building a barrier that the world can never cross.  And you hole up for a siege.