I awoke in front of a door. Mind blank with one thing set, to attend the sleepover. I walk into the house, no one is surprised by my arrival, my friends all sat around the dining table, gleaming with excitement for the upcoming night. Feeling groggy and disoriented I go to the bathroom and splash water over my face. An immediate sense of dread washes over me, the hairs on my back begin to rise as my heart beat quickens. Something is approaching.
I reluctantly reach the door knob to go into the living room. Hesitation.
I’m walking, an eerie silence has drowned the halls. I sit and call out for somebody, anybody, but am met with the echoes of my own voice. Yet again the sensation is back. This time the hairs on my arms and neck stand up, the compulsive urge to look at the window behind me, scratches at me like nails on a blackboard. I turn. I jolt.
A face pressed onto the fogged glass, a result from the condensation of its heavy breaths, stares at me. It doesn’t blink. It stays crouched down by the lawn out back. It’s blurred, but has piercing eyes. A shadow? A figure I couldn’t make out clearly, an obscure silhouette, even if only a few inches away from my face.
I get up in search of my friends. They are all sat at the dining table, but why hadn’t I heard them earlier? I shrug that thought aside and join the conversation, laughing, smiling, enjoying the company. My friends hadn’t questioned where I was, matter of fact they hadn’t acknowledged me much at all.
A rattle? The table begins to shake as wind passes through underneath the cloth. An earthquake? Everyone seems unaffected by the sudden occurrence, but my mind paces and the hairs on my legs stand up. They begin to itch, as I feel the light touch of someone’s hand begin to crawl. Pause. Mind blank. The laughter slowly fading out as my heart drops. Frozen in place, I wait for the cold touch to leave, but it continues to move higher. I abruptly stand up and the sensation leaves. My friends, all quiet now, blankly stare at me, eyes wide and mouth agape. I blink. Everyone is back to chatting.
I hesitate to sit back down, but ultimately decide to brush off the incident as paranoia, I had been sluggish since I arrived, maybe the lack of sleep has finally gotten to me. I join in the conversation, this time acknowledged. My friends asking why I had stood up, I stutter over my response, as their faces morph into confusion. Amidst the uncertainty I hear a groan. The groan is coming from under the table. My friends urged me to take a peak, justifying it with reason on how I had been the only one experiencing strange occurrences. I bent down and searched. Nothing. But the noises became more prominent with my head still under the cloth. I yell out “Nothing is down here!”. It’s quiet. I bring my head back up to find myself all alone, with a lit candle; used napkin; cluttered plates and cutlery. Out of the corner of my eye I catch the movement of a dark figure, the same figure, outside of the same window. This time it’s standing straight, taller than the front door of the house. I rub my eyes. They open. It is smiling at me. That uncanny smile reaching from cheek to cheek, paired with his lanky limbs and my inability to identify if it’s human or something much sinister sends me off edge. It suddenly moves and begins running out of frame. The door creaks. My heart sinks to the bottom of my feet, as its footsteps approach. The lights begin to flicker. The silence is deafening, the atmosphere is thick. I turn my head to find myself confronted with its face a few centimeters apart from mine. I scream. My vision darkens, as the vertigo consumes my head. THUD. It’s all dark. Hands all over me, not one, not two. I can feel breathing all over my body. My head continues to get lighter. My body limp. I can’t move, and I can’t speak.
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