Ghosts

Stranger

4 AM. Another sleepless night for Julie, who tumbles around her bed, shaking and waking at the slightest of sound. The night never seems to leave her alone. The plain darkness surrounding her terrifies her as it slowly floods her.

A heavy bass breaks the silence of the night. Julie rises, heart beating like the music. She scratches her face, quickly getting out of the bed. From behind a picture frame, she slides a box cutter on the wood and makes her way to the door.

"There's a stranger in my house." loops, slowly distorting.

Julie opens the door, covering her ears as she makes her way into the kitchen, blade in hand. She looks around and notices her Bluetooth speakers are blaring music. She sprints over to the speakers and unplugs them from the wall, dropping the wire on the floor.

"Who's there?" she moans. Her bottom lip begins to quiver, as well as her whole body.

The haunting ringtone reaches her ears as it creeps through the hallway. Julie turns around and faces the dark hallway, tears building in her eyes. A heavy thud emerges from the still apartment. Her fingers push down on the box cutter, as she trembles. The phone in her bedroom stops ringing. Julie paces through the dark hallway and enters her room, where her phone lie on the bed with the screen lit up. She leans forward, reading the notification.

"Missed call from: Blocked Number"

The music begins to blare again, repeating the same line. "There's a stranger in my house."

Julie runs to the living room again, this time with the phone in her hand. She rips the wires from the wall and drops the speakers on the ground. Holding her face, she puts her phone on the counter and looks at the time. 4:10 AM. She sighs and leans on the counter. A scraping sound echoes in the house, spooking Julie. She turns around in the direction of where the sound came from, and finally notices a terrifyingly nostalgic scene: her front door is wide open. Her heart sinks as she walks towards the front door, reaching for the handle. The door slams in her face, knocking her back as the masked killer floats over towards her, knife in hand. Fear strikes her as she begins to crawl back, her bodily status in awe. She squeezes the box cutter in hand, pointing it at the killer, who approaches her.

"Get back!" she screams as the killer leans over her and snatches the box cutter from her grasp and throws it across the living room.

The slasher strikes at Julie, but she rolls on her side, causing the knife to pin itself on the wooden floor. Baffled, she grabs the nearby lamp on her counter and smashes it onto the killer's head, knocking him down. Julie steps back as the killer rolls on his side, dropping his knife as he holds his head. She reaches for the knife, but he knocks his arm into her leg, causing her to fall on top of him. Panting uncontrollably, she dashes like a spider over the killer's body towards the front door. Screaming for help, she stumbles down the carpeted hallways. She drops on the ground, looking back at her attacker, who is walking down the hallway sliding the knife on the wall, making a high pitched squeaking sound.

"Somebody help me!" she howls. No response. She continues to crawl backwards as the Ghost Face killer continues to taunt her, slowly approaching her. Julie pushes herself up and gives out another powerful scream, this time alerting a neighbor. A tan muscular young man bops his head from the doorway, looking at Julie on the ground. As he looks up, only a glimpse of black dashes down the hallway. The muscle shirt wearing man grabs Julie from off the ground. She trembles in his arms, letting out waterfalls of fear from her eyes.

"Are you okay?" he asks, sitting her down on her couch. She shakes her head, trembling. "What was happening out there this late?"

"You don't need to know.." she says shaking her head.

"Who was that?" he asks sitting next to her. Julie slides over to the right, away from the older man. "I'm not going to hurt you, Julie."

Julie looks up at him, squinting at him. "How do you know my name?"

"I'm Lorenzo, from your school. I'm a supervisor in the psych class you're in.." Julie looks back down at the ground. "I also know you're one of the survivors in the Clear Creek Murders. You were on the news a while back."

"Thanks for your concern Lorenzo, but listen to me. I recommend you stay away from me, because everyone who gets too close, dies. And I don't need another weight on me, knowing a kind stranger died because of me." she says getting up from the couch. She wipes the tears from her eyes and clears her throat as she approaches the door. "Thank you for saving my life."

Lorenzo stares at her, looking down at the ground. His shaded face peers at the clock on the wall. 4:30 AM.

"Wait!" he yells. Julie turns around and stops. "Here's my number. If you really need anything, I'm just down the hall too." he says giving her one of his business cards. She walks over to him and snatches it from his hands and closes the door, shaking as she makes her way down the hallway again. Meanwhile, Lorenzo yawns, now laying in his sofa. He stares at the ceiling, dazing into his sleep.

Julie shuts the door to her apartment and immediately locks it. She pulls the lock extremely tight and drops the floor on her knees, weeping. More people's lives are at risk because of her, because of her past, because of her presence. She peers over and looks at the box cutter on the ground, and crawls towards it. In an instant, she jams the small blade into her arm, without letting a single sound escape from her mouth.

"You shouldn't have done that." whispers a voice from behind her. She turns around, seeing nothing but the indigo colors in her kitchen. Sighing, she turns and faces towards her, where a man stands over her. Julie crawls back, panting and looking at the person who is standing before her: John.

"Hurting yourself won't make it go away. You're only hurting the ones around you." he says. His lips don't move, but his voice channels clearly in her ears. "I love you."

She looks him in his soulless eyes, with a gaze strong enough to carry a thousand suns. And in the blink of an eye, he vanishes. Julie sits on her wooden floor, blood slowly running from her arm.

"I love you too."