“Where am I?” I thought out loud. I checked my watch. It was 5am. “Didn’t I just sleep?” I asked myself in confusion. “Maybe a hangover?” I didn’t have anything to do. I picked up my phone to scroll through the photos from yesterday’s party which I had hosted in my rented dorm room. Many photos and a couple of videos. About 53 of them. “Damn.” I thought to myself. Some of them were selfies and some were group photos. There was a video of my friends cheering me to chug a bottle of beer. I don’t quite remember chugging a bottle of beer.
“Whatever.”
I remember taking a last group selfie wherein we decided to pout our lips together. I was the one taking the selfie. Soon everyone left and I crashed on my bed in the black, skinny dress I was wearing. In no time I was fast asleep. I swiped to the next photo and suddenly my eyes widened in confusion. It was of me sleeping with my hands clumsily spread out over the bed, clearly visible. I strained my mind trying to figure out who might have taken this picture. I was sure I didn’t ask anyone to take the photo. Was someone in my room? Is he still here, hidden behind the curtain or under my bed? Scared and sweating, I refused to look down under my bed. “Oh god! I can’t die today!” I thought to myself. I mustered some courage and bent down to peek under the bed. Nothing. No one. I felt a brief respite. I took a quick glance around. I gathered myself again, got out of bed, wrapped my blanket around, hoping it would protect me from being attacked. I slid into my comfy slippers and tip- toed to my bathroom. I picked up a wooden bat along my way, just in case. I carefully crept and switched on the lights hoping to find
someone. No one there! I went around my room and looked everywhere but didn’t find anyone. Not even behind the curtain. Right then, I noticed something very unusual. I saw that the latch on my door was unlocked, even though I always lock it before I go to sleep. And I do remember locking the door yesterday night as well. “Who got in?” I asked myself out loud or was there a ghost in my room? I brushed aside the thought of a ghost and tried to reason out that it was just a prank that my friends played on me.
After thinking for some time, I decided to call my friends because I refused to believe that this conjuring like stuff was happening to me. After all, there weren’t many people here last night. I look at a group photo when I suddenly heard a thud from outside the door. I was startled. I opened my door and the cold, heavy wind hit my face. I noticed that my potted plant kept outside my room was lying shattered like someone kicked it. There was a small window in my dorm corridor, open and crashing around. A strong, dark storm was brewing outside. I said to myself, “It’s probably just the wind. Calm down, it’s ok.” But I didn’t quite believe that. Did someone just escaped through that window?
I came inside, locked the door and decided to stick to the plan of calling all my six friends. I remembered their names, Nora, Phyllis, Dave, Matt, Leila, Lucy and checked the picture, to see that all of them were creepily enough standing in the same order as I remembered them. Nora picked up after two rings. Guess she was also up early, which I found very suspicious. She told me that she had been vomiting all night due to all the booze. I told her a little bit about what happened, and asked her if she was the one who did it. She said no. I said that I believed her, thanked her and cut the call. I made a group call to Phyllis, Dave, and Matt to save time. All of them answered in sleepy voices. I repeated the incident to them. All of them refused and told me that they had been passed out since they got to their own rooms. Thanking them was just a formality.
I dialed Leila next. We were old friends and thought she would listen to me carefully. She, as well refused and assured me that she could never even think of ever doing something like this and that she respected my privacy. Now for the last person I could see in the picture, Lucy. I knew her only through Leila as she was her roommate. I called her but I was sent straight to voicemail. I got a bit paranoid so I called her over and over again. But it took me to voicemail every time. I texted her to call me back as soon as she could. Within a minute, I saw that she had read my message but still didn’t respond.
Could she have done it?