Just a Blur

  (Re-edited after review)


  I wake up, the past 5 months are a blur to me. I look around, and I see the bed
beside me, which is empty but not made up. I see the T.V. and the closed curtains on the
windows. It's obvious I'm in a Hotel. my room is dark, and it's like I'm in a daze.
My last memories are of me and my best friend, Sarah, ending up in a fight, and then weird
things started happening. Now I don't know what I'm doing here or why.
I get up and look around the room.
It's too dark to see anything.
    I turn the lamp on and see three luggage bags in the corner of the room, two of
which are not mine, but they look familiar. I go over to them and
search mine and find clothes that could last a long time, and then I search
the other two. I find clothes that look very much like my best friend's
clothes, but if they were, then where is she?
I look back at the empty, messy bed and wonder if she was the last one to
sleep in it. There's a knock at the door, and I go to answer it and find its one of
the workers at the Hotel.
The worker says,"You have 24 hours to check out or you can come down to the front office and extend your
stay."
"Thanks, I'll come take care of the matter in a bit."
  "Okay, have a nice day!"
"You too," I say and shut the door.
I am very confused at this point and still haven't found out why I am here,
so I decide to go down to the Lobby and lengthen my stay until I find out what's going
on.
    I take a shower and dress, then I head down to the lobby. On my way to the elevator,
I don't hear any noises coming from any of the rooms. I look out the window at the end
of the hallway and notice that I'm in an old town, and not many people are walking the
streets. The buildings look so old, they seem as is they will tumble to the ground at any time. The roads are a dull gray, and it's hard to see the yellow and white lines because they're so faded. All of the plants are starting to shrivel up and the trees look rotted. They have no leaves. I go to the elevator and travel to the lobby. On my way to the desk, I still see no other guests. I walk up to the front desk and only see one worker, and it's the
same one from earlier.
"Hi again! Will you be extending your stay?" she says.
  "Yes, I believe I will."
"Okay, I'll just add that to your bill."
  "Thank you, have a nice day."
"You're very welcome, have a nice stay."
    I walk back up to the elevator and to my room. I still notice there is not a sound
coming from anywhere, but as I am walking down my hallway, I pass another guest. I
smile at her and continue walking.
Once I get into the room, I notice a journal. I start to open it when there's
another knock at the door. When I answer, I see it's the same girl I smiled at in the
hallway.
She speaks to me like we know each other,"I know this seems strange, but I just noticed your
room is just a couple rooms down from mine and I was wondering if I knew you, because you look very familiar."
  "I don't know if we know each other or not, but I feel like you are familiar as well. I
can't seem to find my best friend."
"Oh, sorry to bother you, I hope you find your friend." She walks down the hallway to her
room. I shut the the door and sit around for a while just thinking, and all of a sudden I
hear a scream from down the hall.
    I run out of the room and look around, there's nobody out there. So I run down to the
girl's room and bust through the door. She's just sitting there when I do, and she jumps
and screams when I bust in.
"What are you doing?!" she yells.
  "I heard screams, are you okay?" I say.
"I'm fine, and I didn't scream. Are you okay? Why did you bust my door down instead of
knocking? Now it's broken!"
  "I thought you were in trouble, I was trying to help!"
"I think you just need to get back to your room. Now I'm going to have to call the lobby
for a new room."
About an hour later, the door to the room beside me opens and shuts. I go and
knock on the door, and the girl answers.
"I just wanted to tell you how sorry I was for busting in your door like that earlier.
My  name is Kyle."
  "I suppose I can forgive you, my name is Ann."
We shake hands and talk for a while, then both get sleepy and part to your rooms.
I have a terrible dream; I'm in a field, running. I don't quite know from who or what. All of a
sudden, I fall, and can't breathe. I start squirming and can't move. Someone or
something is attacking me, but I don't know what. It's like it's invisible. I finally
get enough breath to scream, and don't stop screaming. I'm being shaken, and words
are jumbling up in my head, getting louder and louder. I don't know what's happening.
I hear my name being called, the voice is familiar. Then, I wake up to Ann telling
me it's all a dream.
"What's going on?" I ask.
  "You were having a bad dream, and I heard you screaming from my room, so I came over."
"How did you get in my room?"
  "Your door was propped open. What was your dream about?"
I describe my dream to Ann.
"Hold on let me get you a glass of water," Ann says. She comes back with some water.
"I have something to tell you... Only if you can keep a secret."
  "Of course I can, I have to tell you something too," I say.
"Okay, well, I don't exactly know why I'm here. I woke up here a few days ago, and I dont
remember what's happened in the past few months or weeks and I don't even really know what
the date today is. I haven't noticed anyone else in this hotel either, and the town seems
almost empty."
  "I have had that same experience! That's why I haven't left, yet." I look around and see
the journal from earlier.
  "I have that thing, that looks used, but I haven't had a chance
to study it, yet."
"I have one of those too! Let me go get it!" Ann runs to her room to go get the Journal
and returns.
"Maybe we have some of the same things going on... Let's check it out," I say.
Ann and I start looking through the Journals and compare many regular notes looking
like we're just scouting for sites to do something on, but we aren't quite sure what.
Then we both find the exact same entry in our journals:
August 5th, 2011:
         I have been seeing the signs everywhere. I have been feeling like someone or something is
plotting against us, like we should be moving faster through the towns we travel. Maybe
we'll get away from it, maybe not. We just have to keep trying. We'll get out of this darkness, I know it. We just need to keep moving forward.

Ann and I look at each other and wonder why the entries are the same. We decide to keep looking through the journals and I keep finding strange entries in mine:
Auguast 10th, 2011:
                After that last place, I don't want to look anymore. Finding a place for Sarah and I is a lot of trouble. On top of it all, the darkness is continuing to grow. I do not even remember how this happened... I think it might have been because of that temple we scouted on the third of August... I thought going to a place to see a few sights would contribute to Sarah's likings, but Ann and I just found books with words we didn't understand. We asked the town librarian about it, and she seemed frightened. She spoke quickly, and told us about an old curse, having to do with shadows. They feed on strong feelings, being love, fear, or hatred. She didn't tell us any more even when we asked, then she told us to leave. I never understood why she was so scared.

I look to Ann.
"I still dont know where my best friend is... Do you think there'll be anything in the
journal about her?"
  "I don't know, but I'll be right back, I need to run to my room for a minute."
    I wait about five minutes then I hear a scream, so loud it sounds like someone being
murdered. Then, the fire alarm starts going off and so do the sprinklers. Our journals
are getting wet, and I have to get my stuff, Ann, and get out of here. I grab
everything and start running out of my room and into Ann's, but her stuff is gone and so is she.
Her room is neat and clean, and no trace of her is to be found. I don't wait any longer,
so I run down the emergency stairs and out the exit.
    I just ran out of the Hotel and the whole building is about to collapse. I'm out of
breath, and worried. I still have no idea what happened to Sarah, and now, Ann.
All of a sudden I'm blindfolded and my mouth is covered. I'm being dragged somewhere.
Everything goes black.
    I soon wake up... Everything is blurry. Drops of water are softly hitting my face, but they're gradually
getting harder. I can finally see my surroundings... I'm in an alley way. It's night time, and there are only two
street lights, giving the alley an orange glow. The rain isn't getting any softer. I'm still looking around when
two people dressed in black cloaks are staring at me from a distance. I don't know who they are. They don't speak to me, but they begin to come closer. I see bright yellow eyes; I'm not frightened. The emotional vibes I'm getting are that they need help, and they know I do too. They put armor on my head and chest, a sword in my hand and walk away. The ground begins to shake, and I look around gripping the sword as tight as I can.
    The ground in front of me crumbles and falls. A giant shadow comes up, its eyes are deep purple.
It roars at me, and a gust of wind goes by. I study the creature, and see it has something in it's hand.
No, not something---someone! It was Ann! She has passed out-- her body is limp. I don't know what I'm supposed to do. How am I supposed defeat a giant shadow being with a stupid sword? Did those cloaked figures believe I could stop this thing? Surely not.
    The creature roars loudly again, the wind pushes me off of my feet. I'm on the ground, crawling towards a trash bin.
I hide behing it trying to think of what I'm supposed to do. I stare at the sword and curse at it under my breath.
The shadow blows the trash bin away from me and I curl up gripping the sword as tight as I can. I close my eyes telling myself  this is it. This is how I'm going to die. Through a small opening in my eyes, I see a bright light from right in front of me. I open my eyes, and to my surprise the sword is glowing with a pure white light! The creature cringes and backs away. I glare at it, and stand up. If this thing is a shadow, then light can defeat it!
    I move closer to it, swinging my sword. It keeps backing up and shrieks. I throw the sword like you would a dagger, I feel high with power. The sword pierces the monster and beams of light come from multiple spots of it. The creature drops Ann, and I run to catch her. She lands in my arms. I watch the monster fill up with light and disappear. Ann slowly wakes up.
The rain hardens.
"What happened?" she asks me.
  "You're never going to believe this, but I just saved your life from a giant shadow monster."
"Yeah right," she laughs. Ann sits up and looks around. Her eyes stop, she's looking in the distance past me.
She narrows her eyes.
"Say, Kyle," she says, "what's that?" She points. I turn around to look... I can't believe my eyes...
That looks like Sarah! I run
over to her and pick her up.
  "Sarah! Sarah! Wake up! Please!" I'm desperate for her to wake up. I sit with her head on my lap for about an hour,
not moving.
I'm about to give up when I hear a moan.
"Unghh," Sarah moans.
  "Sarah!" I grab her face in my hands. She opens her eyes.
"Wh-what happened?" she asks.
  "I don't know, I thought I'd lost you forever!" I tell her of what all I'd been through, and as I'm telling her
about the monster, she shifts her gaze behind me to Ann.
  "Sarah, this is Ann! She's the one that the monster took!"
Sarah all of a sudden becomes angry. She twitches, and stands up, glaring at Ann. Her eyes turn purple, just like the
shadow being.
  "Sarah, what's the matter?" I ask. Sarah growls. Ann starts to back up, she's terrified. Sarah runs after Ann and jumps
on top of her,
attacking her.
  "Sarah, stop!" I run after Sarah and try to pull heoff of Ann. She bites me, and I back off for a moment trying to
put together what was happening. Sarah violently tears Ann to shreads, I can't get to her. I fall to my knees out of
despair and start crying. I see the sword out of the corner of my eye. I pull myself together and start crawling over
to it. Sarah must have sensed what was happening in my head, and turned around to glare at me. I stop moving, and
so does she. We stare into each others eyes. I know this isn't Sarah anymore... I get up and scramble to the sword.
I turn around with the sword gripped with both hands. Sarah is right in my face. She starts to attack. She tears my
shirt, and her long nails claw through my skin. I try to get up enough stamina and courage to stab her, but can't.
She continues to attack. I'm at rock bottom. I'm not moving. She's distracted by a light in the distance.
Now's my chance, I can do this.
    I think of Ann, and lift the sword. The light fills the alley way and Sarah is mesmerized. I stab her in the heart,
and I turn the sword.
"Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!" I yell as I thrust the sword deeper into her heart. She screams, first sounding like Sarah,
then a monster, and it switches back and forth for a minute... The screams finally die down and she's on the ground,  silent and still. The rain is flooding the streets now, blood is washing away. Ann's blood, Sarah's blood... and mine.
I know I will not live... I reach into my pocket and pull out a small blue velvet box and open it.
I stare at the diamond ring that I was going to propose to Sarah with. I finally remember how I got to the hotel...
Sarah and I got into a fight over a small matter, and I wanted to make it up to her.
We went off and ended up here in this nice little town. I was going to ask her to marry me.
Why did this have to happen?  I didn't know. I'm losing too much blood. I can't hold my hand up anymore.
The box drops, and the ring comes out. It bounces and goes down the sewage drain. Down the drain...
Just like my life. It's gone. I use what little strength I have left and move my head to stare into the sky.
The rain is still pounding down, but I don't care. I close my eyes...and drift off into oblivion.