I must sleep when others are sleeping

You hate the dark

You hate staying or going into dark places which is why back at home, you don’t turn the lights off when you sleep. But now, you’re in school and you have no choice but to stay in a room with three other girls.

Three of whom can’t sleep with the lights on. And you can’t sleep with the lights off.

Your roommates are very nice people but you can’t let three of them stay awake because of you alone. So, every night, you leave your phone’s flashlight on, peeking out from under your pillow. That way, it’s reflection doesn’t affect the others.

But you’ve heard stories of how student hostels are haunted. Although you’ve never experienced anything unusual yourself, you’ve heard stories from people that seemed to true to be a lie.

For example, your friend Marvellous who prefers to stay in school during the holidays because she claims she isn’t allowed to rest at home. She once sent a voice note to the friend group chat that she couldn’t stay in the room alone anymore and went home immediately.

According to her, she had gone to the toilet sometime around 1am. With sleepy eyes, she opened one of the stalls and in it stood a bloodied young girl. She claimed the race back to her room wasn’t something she’d ever done before. And she slept alone that night. She vowed never to stay in the hostel anymore, and true to her words, you’re surprised when the next session, she moves to another hostel.

Although you don’t want to believe it, some part of you actually does. Marvellous doesn’t joke with things like that.

There’s also the night some girls claimed they saw a green-eyed cat walking around the hostel. Even Steph, your roommate ran into the room that night claiming she saw it and rubbed the anointed oil her father who is a pastor gave her. With one finger dipped in oil, she imitated drawing a cross on everyone’s forehead. Binding and covering you and the others with the blood of Jesus.

But there’s something about you.

Whenever you try to sleep, after being the only one awake in the middle of the night, every horror story you’ve ever read or heard or watched comes flooding your memories. Making it harder for you to fall asleep at night.

You avoid sleeping too early so you don’t wake up in the middle of the night. You avoid sleeping too late for fear of your roommates leaving only you awake to your imaginative mind.

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You were too tired today so you slept earlier than usual. You had a field day at school today and at 8pm, you were fast asleep.

Being too tired did not make you sleep all night cause you woke up at 11pm and your eyes were so awake that you knew that it was definitely going to take some time to fall back into sleep.

You woke up to Steph’s phone by your side, under your pillow, her flashlight peeking out from underneath, illuminating your room just enough, you can make out the silhouette of things in the room.

Bless Steph’s soul. She left her flashlight on just incase you wake up at night. Most thoughtful roomie for a reason.

You turn it off and stretch your hand to drop the phone on her bed. You consider reading till you feel sleepy again but no, you’re too scared to let your flashlight linger on you so late at night.

You stay put on your bed, letting the laughter from girls in the room next to yours filter into your ears. Their voices keeping your mind occupied from all the dark around you.

After a while, their voices die down. They are going to sleep. Leaving you to your fears.

Instead, you open a pdf on your phone and continue with the romance book you’ve been reading, hoping it’ll distract you. But there’s this creepy feeling you can’t seem to push away.

And after sometime, you hear it.

The clinking of heels descending the stairs next to your room.

At first, you’ll want to assume its one of those girls attending parties but the time is odd. Its 1am.

You try to ignore it but this time, the sound is coming closer. Whatever it is, it is ascending.

You wonder if you’re the only one who can hear it. It wasn’t long since the girls in the next room slept. They should be able to hear it. Even if they can, your fear won’t let you open the door or even come down from the bed.

This time, you hear the steps at the balcony. Cold, calculated steps.

But that’s not what scares you the most. It’s the realization that the steps are only from one foot.

There’s only a click. No clack.

An image comes to mind.

Long John Silver.

The one-legged parrot-wielding pirate from Treasure Island.

You lie face down and draw your blanket over your head. But you still hear the click click of the heels.

It’s just that this time, it seems to be coming towards your room door. Luckily, your phone’s flash is facing downward. There’s no light in the room so you’re confident that nothing is attracting it to you.

Blocking the sound out, you begin to whisper promises to your maker if He lets you fall asleep in the next one minute.

After a while, you raise the blanket over your head ever so slightly when you’re sure you weren’t hearing anything again.

You open your eyes and the room is unusual.

There’s reflection coming from outside, illuminating the room. You trace the light’s source and that’s when you see it.

The door is open.

You stare wide-eyed at the door which your roommates never fail to lock every night.

This is no coincidence. Just then, lightening flashes.

There’s a creature standing at the door. You make out a man’s face with an eye patch over his eyes. A scar runs down from his forehead, into the patch and down his cheek. There’s a wide smile on his face as your eyes meet his one eye.

You’re scared shitless.

A scream erupts from down your throat before you can control it. Steph jolts awake.

But by then, it’s gone.

The door is closed. Leaving you to explain yourself without appearing a lunatic to your roommates.

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This is an entry into the inleo prompt for the month of September. Amazing prompts for every amazing day in the month of September. Do check it out here and feel free to participate.

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Header image was created using meta.ai

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