In The Woods Somewhere... (A creepypasta researcher story)

Chapter 1- The Fever Broke

The hot water pelted against the skin of my back as I sat on the tile floor of the shower. I hugged my knees close to my chest and closed my eyes, letting the lingering thoughts at the back of my mind drown out.  My shoulders felt raw from the harsh downpour but I hardly concerned myself over it. There were more important things to worry about. Silencing the workings of my thoughts was proving to be more challenging than I would've liked.

A loud knocking suddenly broke the relative silence and pulled me from my lingering. I reluctantly raised my head and let out a sharp breath, staring ahead at the white-tiled wall. The knock came again but this time in a more urgent manner.

"Just a second!" I shouted and sorely got to my feet.

I turned the faucet down and shut off the water, vaguely aware of the repetitive dripping from the faucet as I stepped out of the shower. The sound of the water dripping echoed off the walls and only seemed to grow louder with each drip as I grabbed a towel and wrapped it around my lower half. I took a step towards the foggy mirror on the wall in front of me and wiped the condensation away. I glanced at my appearance half-heartedly.

Water dripped down from the ends of my straight, dirty blonde hair which fell just below my jawline. My icy-blue eyes were bloodshot from the sleepless nights and sickness that plagued my body. Droplets of water quickly slid down my honey-tanned skin, catching on the indentions of my chest and abdominal muscles. Two thin yet raised scars rested on my strong but slim face. The first scar crossed down my right eyebrow, creating a defined nick. The second scar began at my lip and traveled down the left side of my chin. Both were long, unsightly reminders of the past that I promised myself I would never look back on.

The bathroom swayed as I reached for the doorknob, my hand lingering there against the metal. The dizzy spells I experienced would come and go as did all of my other troubling symptoms yet I noticed they had been coming on more often and more strongly than usual in the past week or so. I shut my eyes tightly for a brisk moment before opening them again in attempts to blink away the feeling of the world swaying. Other than this I had little way to combat this symptom. No medicine out there could cure this sickness of mine. Aside from an occasional pain-killer, I had to simply endure.

As I stepped out into the living space of my depressingly small, dingy motel room, I heard the sound of a key turning inside of a lock. I looked to the front door and noticed the handle begin to fidget and turn. I quickly rushed forward and grabbed the handle just as the door began to swing open. Standing on the other side of the threshold was the owner of the motel.

He was a short man with a burly build and strangely oversized arms in comparison to the rather narrow stature of his legs. He had short, curly black hair and a wildly scruffy beard. Overall, the motel owner was noticeably unkempt. Several mystery stains decorated his faded, army green T-shirt and his jeans had clearly seen better days. He glanced down with narrowed eyes at the towel that was wrapped around my hips and grumbled something under his breath.

"Payment is due by 10:00 tonight if you wanna extend your stay by another week. If not, make sure you're out by 10:00 AM sharp in the morning. No excuses, no exceptions." He scowled, the obvious stench of whisky on his breath. I almost completely forgot about the deadline of my stay. So far it'd been three weeks since I arrived at this particular motel with a string of others not far behind me. I'd continue paying for week to week until I grew tired of this place and move onto the next. Drifting, some might call it but I call it searching. I was searching for something and someone with high enough importance to lead me to throwing my life away in hopes of finding it.

"Oh, yeah sure thing, Mr. Hendrickson. Sorry about that, I must've lost track of time. I'll drop the money off at the front desk in about 30 minutes." I forced a half-hearted smile and began to sluggishly close the door.