A reality worst than a nightmare

“Come on, no one will come to your room even if u don’t bolt it.” Said Kyle in a witty tone and added “I think I’ll creep up at night to scare you girls”

With this said she chuckled and headed straight into her own room that was parallel to Samantha and Janice’s room.

“Samantha, have you locked the doors”, Janice asked looking up from the book she was reading. It was still early to be in bed, but ever since the semester exams had been over few days ago…the two friends had gotten into the habit of going early to bed.

“Didn’t you hear Kyle say no one will come. Moreover, I think I have done that.” Samantha responded and saying that she got herself covered in the blankets. Too lazy to get up Janice also heeded her friend’s words and turned on her side after having the lights switched off.

The calmness of the night had taken over the otherwise crowdy and noisy surrounding of the Girls hostel. Except for the barking of dogs in the serene night, everything was so quite that even a whisper could be heard. The moon was at its full and apart from the glowing light of the moon that penetrated through the curtains, everything else was dark.

It was amidst this darkness when something near Janice’s feet suddenly disturbed her and she turned to face the other side facing Samantha. In the midst of facing the other side, she just opened her eyes for a fraction of seconds and it was at this time that she saw a black figure standing near the foot of their bed.

“This is just a dream! Lately I have been watching too many movies and now I am imagining things..This is a dream…I wont see it if I open my eyes again”

With these thoughts in mind, Janice tried to sleep again but something inside her said that it wasn’t a dream. To console herself that it was indeed a dream, she opened her eyes again and to her horror, the black figure was still there but had moved a little away from the bed now.  As if he (in the light of the moonlight, she could make out that it was a man..though unsure of whether it was some dirty humans or a spirit) had been aware of Janice being aroused.

As soon as she saw the black figure again..Janice tried to scream, but the sound stuck in her throat.  Janice tried to scream again and her scream escaped with a blast in the otherwise serene night. At the same time, she threw her hand on Samantha as if it wasn’t a part of hers and woke her friend up. 

“There’s someone in our room! Wake up Samantha” Janice babbled out.

Despite her screams, the black figure refused to go..He was as adamant as stone. By this time she was sure it was some filthy stubborn drunk guy. It stayed by the door with his half body inside and the other half ready to move out. Samantha jumped out as quickly as she could and switched on the light that was on her side. As soon as the brightness of the light filled the room, the figure made its way out of the door making heavy sounds on the stairs that led down to the main entrance.

The corridors that led to the rooms of the hostel which otherwise was brightly lit even at night was pitch dark. It seemed that the person who had been in their room had intentionally switched off all the lights in the corridors. Samantha was quick enough to close the door of the room and even with that done they were petrified. The two barely spoke to each other scared and shocked at what had happened.

“ What had he intended to do?  What would have happened if I didn’t wake up? Was this some kind of dirty jokes that the boys had kept a bet on? Would he be still looking around to find some doors that have not been bolted from inside?”

Numerous thoughts popped up simultaneously in her mind but she couldn’t even utter a word. Samantha was as scared as she was. They were eager to know who had been the person that had just terrified them. All Janice had seen had been in the dark and as soon as the lights had been turned on, the pupil of her eyes had been unable to adjust the brightness at that instant.

“Don’t you think that person will go to the other girls room as well if we keep quite” Samantha at last broke the silence that had lingered between them. Should we not arouse the others?.

“It would be difficult to go back to sleep now after what had just happened. But how are we to arouse them? “questioned Janice.

They couldn’t go out of the room of the fear that the stalker would be out there waiting for them to come out in the dark corridors. The only option they had was to shout and awake the others. With all their might, they banged on their door, tried banging on the walls as well and shouted.

After what seemed like eternity, a familiar voice sounded at the door.

“Samantha, Janice what happened? Are you girls allright” It was kyle and Tracy. Tracy was their roommate as well but she had gone to sleep over in Kyle’s room since Kyle’s roommates had been out.

Samantha and Janice opened the door and flung themselves into Kyle and Tracy's arms as they sobbed out their story of what had just happened.

Kyle couldn’t help feeling guilty “ I shouldn’t have said those things. I should have made sure that you locked your doors."