TWISTED

I was sitting at the edge of my bed, catching my breath as I wake up with sweat in every inch of my body. Although I’m soaked from my perspiration, it was weird how the night was chilly, given the fact that it was the middle of April. I didn’t have a nightmare. I just didn’t sleep long because I can tell that something is off. I can feel it. I can get my eyes to shut but my mind would not. I stood up, grabbed a chair and booted up my laptop on the table. Then, I drank the bottle of water that has been sitting next to it. I sat in front of the laptop, with my bed behind me. It was a bunk bed and I occupy the bottom part.

At the background of my view from my laptop, I shot a glance at my roommate who is already asleep in the bottom of another bunk bed. How could he sleep in such peace? I looked at him for a great deal of time before I went back to my laptop. I wanted to search for anything that would distract me from my creepy thoughts. I still had this odd sinking feeling that I am somehow in trouble. I let my focus slide on my laptop which was now completely launched. I began my conquest to banish my boredom, but mostly my wild and strange imagination.

Everything else around me began to grow dim from the laptop which was the only light source from the dark room. I gave another glimpse to the bed of my roommate, and there was something peculiar about his position. He was lying down on his chest. I tried not to mind it. Then, I came across a video in my laptop. I don’t remember putting this our saving it here. Maybe it’s my roommate’s, since he has used this frequently. I was right, it was his file.

In it was my roommate, sleeping soundly. I am about to close the video, but due to boredom, I forced myself to watch the whole thing. Wait a minute. If the video features my roommate sleeping, and I didn’t record it, then who did? Maybe one of our other roommates did it.

I was on about five-minute mark when I saw a shadow standing in the foot of my roommate’s bed. He was tall and slim. I peeked at my roommate and all of a sudden, I noticed something.

“That’s odd,” I said to myself.My roommate is wearing exactly the same clothes right now, and he is in the exact same position just like in the video.I checked the properties of the video and I found out that it has just been recorded recently. The time of the recording was 3:15 AM. I was in bed at that time! Then, I remembered that we were the only two left in this room since the others have gone on their vacation. If there was someone else in our room, I would have noticed it since I was awake the whole time.

 “Okay, who was that other person in the video?” I thought.  I was curious about the identity of this man. I fast forwarded the video clip and he was just standing there and staring at my roommate. And after the ten-minute mark, he moved away from the bed.

“Where did he go?”  I asked to myself. Then suddenly, his face popped right in front of the camera, blocking the whole view. I was so shocked that I almost jumped out from my seat. I looked into his face intently. I have never seen this man before in my entire life. By some means, he was staring back at me, like he can see past through me, and he was grinning. “That can’t be possible. He was just looking at the camera!” I whispered, trying to calm myself, “And what’s up with his teeth?”

His smirk gave a sinister aura. His grin was somehow all the way to his ears and the teeth – the teeth were somewhat pointy, like from those of wild animals. I can’t help but to look away from the screen and into the direction of my roommate. He is still unmoving. “Maybe he’s dead.”My mind told me and it gave me the creeps. “No, that couldn’t be true.”

I went back to watching the video. The mysterious man got off the camera, as if satisfied from staring at me. He then moved towards my roommate.I focused on the video and I saw the man reached and grabbed my roommate’s head. He twisted it and it produced a crunching sound, the one which sounded like stepping on a twig or a stick. I was so shocked!

I am frozen in my place. I could not believe it! I directed my attention to my roommate. I squinted really hard and focused on him. I didn’t have the guts to stand up and confirm the situation. I didn’t want to stand up and turn on the light so I just faced my laptop toward him. Just enough light was produced from my laptop to see that is head was twisted to the back of his body. He was dead. I felt chills running down my body. What should I do? I wanted to scream. I wanted to run! But I just can’t.

From that time, I was holding my breath for a long time. But still, I could hear someone breathing. Could it be my roommate? Could it be that he is still alive? No, it was not his and neither mine. I looked up and saw the man in the top of my bunk bed… grinning…and watching me.