Dark and Gloomy

It was dark and gloomy, but I knew I shouldn't have called for room service. The figure that gave service was encased in the shadows of the night. There was no expression on the man's face, but there was a slight dent on his face that indicated that he was smiling. Sensing something terrible about his hidden grin, I decided to preserve the lighter and knife in my left pocket. As he approached me, he stretched his arm forward, holding a wrapped object. The blanket that enshrouded the item matched the color of his barely-visible pale skin of his face. The man left the room and left the object on the bed without speaking or making any noise, and left a red stain on the floor, and I ignored it.

The blackout did not last, and the electricity returned to the television that was powered before. As minutes turned to hours, static flashed on the television screen. The static was not the usual black and white, but red and black. Pushing the useless buttons on the remote did not help remove the static, instead the volume increased, and muddy noises were heard in the background. The static seemed hellish, but its infernal twin was yet to appear in this twisted version of reality.

It began raining with an eerie mix of lightning. Shivering in the dismal night, I noticed that the lights were slowly receding unnaturally. Coming from outside the window were streaks of shadows that slithered towards the door that exits to the hallway. As more and more streak swirled inside the room, the weak light that came from the window diminished and became untraceable. The door where the streaks were coiling towards was expanding inward towards the room. Afraid that the door was "alive", I ducked behind the love seat expecting to see a mutated version of the man from before to run at me. The door stopped "breathing", but it took me forty minutes to stop my hyperventilation.

My breathing became calm, and I knew I was inside a "dream", but everything still seemed real. Everything could be felt, and smelled; the mind fools. Knowing that I was going to get attacked anytime soon, I still could not wake myself up until there was sharp pain in the body. To attack my nerves, I decided to walk out of the room to kill the nightmare even if I were to suffer from fright. As I sneaked outside the room, I grabbed the knife and lighter that remained in my left pocket. Knowing that the lighter's energy would give away my position, I decided to use the knife only. Little did I know that I would soon be stalked by a mass of flesh that was crawling away from the room-the same object that the man left on the bed.

I began to try and stumble down the building's stairs to try and wake up, but I also did not want to fail and end up being "touched" by the fleshy crawler. I decided to get everything over with, so I covered my sensitive spots on my neck that would feel the perturbing "touch" from the assailant. I held the knife for support and sprinted to the flesh creature. I felt my small hairs on my shoulders and neck stand while I made contact with the crawler. As soon as I "touched" it, I was awake but still could not move. I felt and sensed the man's hand on my neck and shoulders, so I forced myself awake, successful and proud that the dream was not real and my life was given back.