Picture Message (Completed)

Picture Message

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It happened again. Police tape sealed off the student dorms, just as they did the month prior. A girl had been viciously stabbed and mutilated while she slept, is what the tabloids had said that morning.

The cops were looming around, looking frustrated and grief stricken as another young life was lost. Truthfully, I just wanted to get back to my room and finish my download’s before WiFi curfew set in. I had to admit that that was the stupidest rule I had ever heard of.

It took another thirty or so minuets before I could even get close with my student pass. A terribly depleted and withered looking officer quickly confirmed I was a student and let me into the building. They had already removed the body and done what needed to be done, which I was thankful for. I doubted my commitment-phobe boyfriend would have let me crash at his dorm again. It wasn’t like I was moving my shit in or anything.

However, after the second murder the campus was closing down for a month while police investigated. I think they were letting students grieve, or something of that nature. I didn’t know the girls personally, but I knew one lived three doors down from me. Both of the victim’s roommates had been conveniently out the nights the murders happened. My roommate, along with most of the other students living in my dorm, had packed their crap and hauled ass outta’ dodge after the first attack.

I wasn’t as lucky, however. I couldn’t get a lift home until tomorrow morning when my dad drove the six-hour drive to come and get me. My mother was so paranoid and anxious that she’s making the poor man wake up at an ungodly hour just to come get me. They would have come today, if not for my stupid brother who – again – was in lockup. Mom and Dad had to stick around to do paperwork and get his bail sorted… again.

Ugh, just thinking about this made my head hurt. The creep factor of these murders was just bizarre if you really looked into it. He would find a way into their rooms, which had police simply baffled because our door locks were electric. The roommates all checked out with their alibis and, strangely, the computer that monitored the locks only picked up on the doors being accessed the one time. Surveillance also showed the girls hadn’t brought anyone home or let anyone in.

Not only that, he would take a picture using the phones of his sleeping victims and send it to their loved ones right before he killed them. It was so creepy that one of the girls mother’s had a nervous breakdown and can’t even look at the picture. The hallways were always empty right up until the smell of blood wafted through the vents, leading someone to go and check out what was happening. 

Speaking of vents, that was another thing that irked me about this place. Our vents were situated right next to the floor and were so big and bulky that you could almost hear your neighbor pee. I’m telling you now, those girls probably didn’t get the chance to scream – he did it so quickly.

Cracking my neck, I yawned loudly and tossed off my jumper. I probably should take a nap considering those cops were going to hang around for a fair while, and their flashing lights kept me awake half the night last time they showed up. Throwing the covers back, I snuggled up into bed, and tried to forget what had happened earlier that morning.

I was in a daze – that groggy daze between sleep and being awake. I must have been having some sort of whacked out dream because when I looked up, I saw a shadow looming over me, holding up something. I probably should have jumped out of my bed given the situation, but having had hallucinations like this before, I simply rolled over and curled back up.

It must have been only thirty or so minuets later a loud thumping was resounding from my door. I groaned as I covered my head with my pillow. However, besides the loud knocking, I did notice one of two things. One, it was the morning after, as the sun was just starting to rise, and two… I heard the sounds of feet shuffling around in my room. Frightened, I turned around only to see… nothing.

The pounding on my door only intensified and, with a soft grunt, got out of my bed and threw open my door. My pissed-off looking RA was the last person I expected to see as she glared at me. I wasn’t exactly happy to be woken up either, but you know, I was a very fucking polite person.

          “Your mother’s been flipping out and calling me since five this morning! Call her back and tell her to lose my number!” she snapped before making a sharp turn and stalking off back to her room.

I was left standing there, staring in complete bewilderment. I would have chased her and dragged her back by that mop she calls hair if not for the sudden panic that filled my stomach. I raced to my phone, only to notice it had switched to silent at some point in the night. I never put my phone on silent – ever.

I also noticed it was five thirty in the morning. Shaking a little, I jumped to the conclusion something had happened to my dad on the way here. That was the only reason my mother would be calling me over fifty-six times. Or my brother got shanked in lockup… can’t say he didn’t deserve it.

Before I could call her, my phone started to buzz and I answered it. The first thing that filled my ears was my mother’s panicked screams. “You idiot! I was about to call the police! If this is a joke, I swear to god I will kill you… Oh, I can’t breath.” She was sobbing heavily over the phone.

          “What are you on about?” I asked, very confused.

She was still sobbing as she answered, “That picture you sent me this morning you stupid child!”

Picture? I temporarily ignored my mother’s sobs and screams as I quickly checked my messages and looked at the most recent texts to my mother.

I froze.

The latest text was a very dark picture, obviously of me, looking up half asleep into my own camera phone. I was wearing the same clothes I had fallen asleep in the day before.

I couldn’t stop my hands from shaking as I looked around, feeling violated and terrified all at the same time. That’s when I noticed it…

That large vent that had always annoyed me was off its hinges and lying next to the wall. It never occurred to me that it could have been big enough for someone to sneak into my room through, until now. 

My father came for me about an hour later. He had already been on the road for four hours before my mother received the message. The police also found that the murderer hadn’t been sneaking through windows or doors, but through the large vents in our rooms.

I was his next victim, but he didn’t consider that my mother had every cellphone number in this building. The police think that he was just about to do to me what he did to those other girls before the pounding of my RA at the door scared him off. It definitely scared him enough that he left the vent door off, which he had carefully always put back on after the murders.

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NOTE: So, I know this isn’t anything like ‘She Waits,’ but I needed something to cure my writer’s block. So enjoy! It was also very rushed as I just wrote what was in my head.