My name is Nan. I’m on vacation with my little bro and parents. We’re in a hotel for health and rest. My parents use their offered cures and we kids are chilling in our room. Me and my bro Lex are in one room and our parents are in a different one. It’s on the same floor but a bit further away.
Everytime we go down the way to their room, the lights on their side are out and turn on after a while when you walk towards it. That’s a little weird but altogether it doesn’t bother me.
Now my bro is more scaredy than me and he’s always freaked out to walk it down by himself. He tells me that it almost seems like he’s been followed or watched?
Of course, it was probably nothing. But my instincts told me that I should keep it in mind. You know, not like these people in the movies who brush it off and it bites you back later.
So I kept my eyes open for anything “out-of-place” here.
A couple of days later, we came back from a trip to the town and went back to our rooms to prepare for dinner. I was about to take out more comfortable clothes from the closet. It was in a corner of the room and you have to go past the window to reach it. It didn’t bother me really, I mean I’m just an average dude who’ll turn 20 this year. Who would like to see someone like me? The thought that someone happens to see me change my shirt isn’t that dramatic. But what if someone is watching me for it? On purpose. Now that’s just odd and so out-of-place that I smirk to myself and shake my head.
I turn to head out for dinner and got a glimpse out of the corner of my eye. There was a silhouette by a window. Because on the other side was a different building with other people from the hotel. The curtains are in front of the person and I can’t make out their face. It appears to be a rather tall individual.
It wouldn’t be strange to see someone in their room. But the way he wasn’t moving at all, I thought that it may be just a coat or something that someone placed there. Suddenly he started to slowly knock on his window and pulled the curtains away. I could see him clearly now. It seems to be a guy around my age with bleached white-blonde hair and dark eyes. He looks deathly pale and had this unsettling look on his face. He kept knocking faster and louder. All of the sudden, I noticed it. His hands were covered in something. Something sticky, and I realized. At that moment, he knew and smiled. His smile, from ear to ear like a kid. Then he clutched his hand and pointed with one finger against the glass, again and again.
My eyes were fixated on his finger, until I understood. He was pointing at me?
Suddenly I felt a hand on my shoulder. Startled I turned around to see that Lex was looking at me with an annoyed look on his face.
“What are you doing? Come on, let’s eat!” It took me a second to realize what he was talking about.
“Just a sec, do you see that dude over there?” I pointed towards the window where he stood.
His expression shifts to confusion, “I don’t see any dude but some other people.”
I turned my gaze towards it too now. He’s right. There are some people behind the windows curtain who seemed to talk and watch TV. But the guy was nowhere to be seen.
“He was there just a moment ago and it looked like his hands were covered in. Something. Blood or, I don’t know.”
Lex didn’t seem to be amused and starts to frown, “Listen men, if that’s a joke, it ain’t funny!” he turns and leaves the room. I scratched my head and couldn’t help but look over to the window again, before I turned to leave too. I couldn’t help but feel like someone is watching me, behind these curtains in the dark.
The next day, we went to eat breakfast in the cafeteria. I didn’t sleep well and couldn’t shake the uneasiness. Lex seemed to have forgotten all about it already.
I stood by the food and thought about what to eat. Eggs, salads of all kinds, some meat. I reached out to take a plate and bumped my hand with someone elses. I mumbled an apology and reflexively pulled it back. How embarrassing, I shouldn’t space out. I waited a bit and started to gather some food on it. Then I felt someones hand again, I apologized. So freakin stupid.
I finally went to gather a piece of bread. As I was about to grab it, it happened again. This time it wasn’t my fault. Simply because the person grabbed my hand itself instead of anything else. I waited a moment, for an apology or anything. But the person didn’t say anything. Even more so, they were still clutching my hand. The hand was pale and cold , very cold. Almost painful. It was bigger than my own and had fully grasped it. That’s enough.
“Excuse me, could you let go of my ha…” my voice stuttered and my eyes widen. I was at a loss. My hand trembled and my stomach turned. It was the guy by the window. His bleached hair was groomed back and his eyes seemed to be some kinda dark silver color. But they look almost black, just pure darkness and nothing else. Almost like a well. Even more so, with his white skin that made him look even sicker. Sick? Yes, he looks ill. Like he doesn’t go out at all and barely sleeps. Dark rings formed under his eyes.
“What is it?” my voice comes out worse than I wanted it to be. He blinked and smiled. Like that time before, like a kid. Suddenly, someone else hits his hand apart from mine and I took several steps back.
A strict looking older woman and men stood behind him. These are the people in that room with him. I remembered them from yesterdays evening.
My head hurts and I muttered something to finally take my leave. They apologized and explained that his behaviour comes from his condition and I’m hopefully not all too bothered by it. I was, but I just forced a smile and shook my head. Finally, I left these people behind. A shudder went down my back and I took a quick glance behind me. That guy was still smiling and looking at me with these dark eyes. With the plate in my shaking hands, I hurried back to our table.
Later that evening, my bro was about to go to our parents room. He always buys something to eat from outside and I didn’t like the smell. So he was about go out, then he suddenly stops at the doorway and leaned forward.
“Hey. What is this guy doing?”
I looked up from my phone, “What do you mean?”
He slowly backed away from the door. All of the sudden, Lex jumped and slammed the door shut in a matter of seconds. “What the hell?!” he yelled and frantically locked the door behind him.
“Jesus, what in the world are you…?!” but my voice was interrupted by the violent banging from the outside. Outside our door. I was officially freaked out by this and got up to walk closer towards the intense knocking.
“Who are you?! If you continue this, I’ll call the police!” as I was about to get my phone and call my parents, it stopped. The silence filled the room. Lex was cowering behind his bed and was visibly shook by this.
“Is he gone?” his voice was nothing more than a whisper.
“I’m not sure. But we shouldn’t just stay here. We need to call for help. This freak could be anywhere.”
My heads were shaking too and I slowly started to dial the number of my mom. After a few seconds, someone picked up.
“Hey! Here’s Nan. So um, just now… someone tried to break into our room. I know.. sounds weird. But we are um, kinda freaked out. So could you come over and..” I stopped and listened. Mom didn’t say anything. There was just a heavy breathing on the other side. It was clearly a male voice. My own breathing was getting faster and my heart seemed to burst out of my chest. Why is this guy on my moms phone? Where is she? Is it the same guy as before? Questions and worries were overflowing my mind. As I was about to lose it, I heard something on the over line. His breathing got hasty and then he giggled. It was unnatural and kid-like giggle. The guy from this morning popped into my mind now. Anxiety and fear overlapped my brain and my vision got blurry. Suddenly Lex was grabbing me by the sides and shook me.
“Come on! What happened? Tell me!”
I blinked and finally got a grip on my composure. “I have to check something out. Just a moment.” I turned towards the door and was about to open it.
“HEY! Are you stupid?! That guy is out there!”
Lex was right. It is a stupid freakin idea. “Then I check at the doorway. I close it right away if something looks fishy.”
Lex just shook his head, obviously he didn’t agree. Of course not, I just endanger him and myself. But I want to do something, ANYTHING. At that moment, I hear something from outside. But it wasn’t from the door. It was the window. I looked down and saw that I still held my phone in my hand. I put it to my ear and listened. Silence. He hung up already and now he was on his way to us. I threw my phone on the bed and ran to the window. The curtain was half closed and I saw a shadow behind it. Before it crept his hand to the side of the window, I screamed to Lex.
“Get out! NOW!” he jumped up and ran towards the door at full speed. When he got out, I heard the click of our window and it flew open. I didn’t wait and just sprinted towards the door myself now. Just a little bit and I’m out! But it didn’t happen. The door shuts right before I could get out. No. No no no NO NO! I punched and kicked at it. Nothing happened. I could hear him. His heavy breathing and the cold. I could feel his hands coming closer. Not like this. I won’t let this freak get me without a fight. I turned to face him. He was right behind me. His pale smiling face was looking back at me.
Before I could even try to fight back, he grabbed me by the neck and pulled me up. I couldn’t breath! I tried to pull at his hands but they seemed like cold, heavy chains that would strangle me like a noose on a ceiling. White and red dots formed in front of my eyes and my mind seemed to go blank. I was about to pass out.
“Please, no.” I whimpered weakly under my losing breath. The guy blinked several times and tilted his head to the side.
The guy suddenly loosened his grip on my neck and pushed me down. I felt the air rushing in my lungs and coughed several times. Everything was spinning and hurting.
He kneeled down to me and opened his mouth unnaturally wide. It was even darker than his eyes. I tried to get away from him. But he just grabbed my face with his hands and held me still in that painful grasp. I couldn’t move and couldn’t speak. It seems as if death itself already had a cold grasp on my life. I just whimpered and cried, even though I wanted to scream and fight.
His mouth was like an endless pit of darkness. His teeth were sharper and bigger. I could smell death and blood. I didn’t want to die. Then, silence.
When I got outside, I screamed out frantically for help. I saw that Nan didn’t run out and the door just closed by itself. My head hurts and I couldn’t breath. Mom and Dad came from the stairs, they were on a cure and then they got back, someone broke into their room. They got help and the people who heard me also called out some staff.
It was late at night when we finally opened the door. Apparently it got stuck because someone used a lot of force against it. I gulped and knew that it had to be that guy who tried to get us. I told mom and dad about him and what he did to us. They informed the police and already started to search the ground.
Inside the room, we saw them. Nan was on the floor and the other guy was lying in front of him. We immediately rushed other to him. He was lying face down. I didn’t notice the bad smell until we went inside. I saw the source, it was blood. Just dark red blood everywhere. I didn’t knew who it belonged to. Both were covered in a lot of blood. But whose?
Suddenly, one of them got up. It was Nan. He slowly stood up and grabbed his face. He looked up. I broke into a cold sweat. His face and body had so much blood on them!
“Nan? How are you? And… what happened with him?!” I pointed at the unknown guy who was still on the floor.
Nan didn’t react he just stared blankly. What worried me was the way he looks. His pale skin seemed even paler and his usually green eyes seem weirdly… dark?
“How are you feeling?”
He turns his head very slowly towards me. I gasped when I saw his look. He slowly formed a wide grin and stared at me. Shivers went down my spine and I couldn’t help but feel sick.
“I’ve never felt so alive,” that’s all he said and giggled. Mom was talking with the ambulance and I heard that they found out whose blood it is. It wasn’t even mixed and it belonged to one person. It was all Nans blood. The other guy was dead and through the inspection it seems like that guy was dead for a longer time.
I don’t know what really happened and I may never will. But one thing I know for sure. My brother Lex and our parents never took me home.
Because on that day, I died.