The Last Symptom

May 1, 20__

I had the most peculiar dream last night. I was standing in a dark room alone. A single light illuminating only me. There was movement out in the dark.

"Hello ?" I called out.

Nothing.

Then a rush of wind blew through me with a voice barely above a whisper.

"I'll win," it said. "I'll win."

The voice sounded sweet yet intimidating. Like it wanted to warn and threaten me all at once. It got louder and louder until I had to cover my ears to keep them from bleeding.

As the voice echoed and grew there was a hot searing pain that painted its way across my neck. A warm liquid dripped its way down to my shirt. I looked down and saw the red pouring and pouring. I took my quivering hands, not caring anymore about the sound or the ringing in my ears, and clenched at the blood-soaked clothing then traveled up to feel the gash that was across my throat.

I wanted to scream. To beg for help. Plead for my life. But my efforts were useless as everything was silenced. Replaced with the gargling noise that made my stomach turn.

A pair of hands snatched my face and I stared into eyes that looked so familiar that I could have sworn I saw them every day. Or maybe in a past life. It laughed a screeching soul-shattering laugh. "You're going to die," it said during its fit. As it laughed the world started to fade into a shade of crimson. I was being consumed by it. There was nothing I could do about it either. Then it felt as though I was being pulled from quicksand. Back to reality.

I jolted up in my bed, a blanket of sweat covering every inch of me. Panting and looking around I saw nothing. As I got my heart rate to slow down I saw it was way past what my alarm was supposed to be.

I guess that's a good enough excuse to not go to work. Maybe my boss will believe I'm sick. It's a likely story. Maybe not four days in a row but you never know! I could be dying of the flu.

Picking up my phone I decided to scroll on TikTok for a few minutes. Any person knew that was complete bullshit. A few minutes turn into hours of just mindless scrolling. Though the fact that I'm on the mentally unstable side of TikTok makes me chuckle, it's freaky how an app can target something so specific to you.

As I mindlessly scrolled I started noticing a pattern. One I've never seen before. My for you page started getting darker. Like people showing security footage from the night with something moving or those trying to prove there's a ghost in their house. I know sometimes I see videos about new horror movies and books coming out, but I never see stuff like this.

Then a person with a mask popped up. The eyes were narrow and black and the mouth was molded together. The skin was rough and old-looking. The person was surrounded by a red light. It must have been one of those LED lights. It just stared at the camera for a while. I got very confused as to what was going on but when I looked at the caption and my heart stopped.

You're going to die...

The next thing I saw was my home screen. I tried clicking on the app but it would keep kicking me out. Once I finally got it to stay I searched for 'scary mask person' and found nothing. I'm not sure what that was but obviously, it had to be nothing. Just a coincidence. Oh well I guess. Hopefully, I won't see that thing again.

That's how I spent the rest of my day. Under the comfort of my nice warm blanket in my bed. I didn't even bother to turn on the lights when the sun went down. I didn't even realize I had to go to the bathroom until I heard a slight rattle from the kitchen that awoke me from my trance.

I peeled back the blanket and stepped out into the pitch-black hallway. There was a slim light coming from the balcony window from where the street light is. What really struck me was the tiny white pill sitting on the floor. I reached the light switch and flipped it on only to be met by a trail of little lies that tell me I'm okay. All the way into the room. As if they decided to fly but discovered they couldn't.

Looking around at the pills all over the floor it seemed like too much of a hassle to pick them up. Perhaps I'll do it tomorrow.