Entry #12050104001305

Well Hello There

Panting and covered in sweat, Jay bolted upright in the bed. Taking in the familiar surroundings of his hotel room, he leaned his head back into the pillow and took deep breaths to slow his heart rate. "It was a dream. Just a dream." Rolling over to look at the glowing alarm clock, he found it was only three in the morning. Another restless night Jay thought to himself as he got out of bed and went to the bathroom. Turning on the sink, he splashed cold water on his face. If I'm going to be awake, I might as well do something he attempted to reason to himself. After drying his face and changing into clean clothes, Jay went down to the first floor, out the door, and got in his car. He was about to drive away when he realized he hadn't grabbed a camera. Mentally face palming, he climbed out of the car and headed back to his room.

Closing the door behind him, Jay grabbed his camera off the stand and pulled a blank tape from his duffel bag on the floor. Clicking the device closed, Jay was about to hit "Record" when the camera was knocked out of his hand. In shock, he looked up to the doorway and found the person from his dream. Not only his dream, his living nightmare. The masked man stood in the entrance to his room, the door behind him closed. No words were exchanged between the two men. They simply stood in silence and stared at each other, Jay intimidated by the intruder, though he wouldn't admit it if you asked him. Then, suddenly, the man moved.

The masked figure charged Jay, knocking him to the ground and sitting on his chest to pin him down. Jay wheezed and threw his arms up, trying to get a punch in and at least disorient the infiltrator. Not a single hit made contact. The man was too fast and quickly grabbed his fists, pushing his arms into the dirty hotel carpet. A thought suddenly came to Jay. Jessica! She might be here! Maybe she can help me! As unlikely as it seemed, it just might work. Working a deep breath into his lungs, Jay yelled for help.

"Jessica! Hey! Someone!" The trespasser seemed to lose his cool for a few seconds; his grip on Jay's arms slackened and he stared at his face, seemingly dumbfounded. He quickly snapped out of it though and clamped a hand over Jay's mouth, silencing him.

Jay's mind entered panic mode. To try and calm himself, he tried to break down the situation into a simpler equation. He's on my chest - I can't breathe well. He covered my mouth - I can't breathe. No breathing equals no oxygen. No oxygen means no organ function. No organ function means death. To avoid death, I need to keep breathing. To keep breathing, I need to push him off me. He doesn't have my hands, I can push him off. A fraction of a second passed as these thoughts raced through Jay's mind and, with a surge of adrenaline, he threw himself up at the man seated on him. The man fell back and hit the floor with an audible "Hmph".

Jay took this short window of opportunity to pin the man to the floor. Sitting on top of his stomach to hold him down, he reached for the mask that hid the intruder's face. His left cheek immediately stung from the impact of being punched and he fell back, almost hitting his head on the bedside table. The two men were panting from the effort of the fight but neither made a move. They remained silent and still, sizing each other up and trying to determine a productive next move. Finally, Jay slowly pushed himself up, trying not to startle the man or engage in another battle of the fists.

"Good to see you too," Jay finally said, adding a nervous chuckle to the end of his statement. The man remained perfectly still. The only way Jay could now tell he was an actually living person and not a statue was by the steady rise and fall of his chest as he breathed.

The man was gone as quickly as he had appeared, turning and fleeing from the room. "Hey! Wait!" Jay called, sprinting after him. He wasn't about to let himself be harrassed and then let the perpetrator flee. Dashing into the hall, he looked both ways and barely caught the sight of the masked man's shoe as he rounded the corner, entering the stairwell. "Wait!" Jay yelled again as he sprinted down the hall and into the stairwell, leaning over the rail in time to see the man reach the bottom. Panting lightly, he took off down the stairs, slipping on the last few and landing on his butt. With his backside now aching, he pushed himself up and pushed through the double doors, finally entering the parking lot. Surveying the lot, Jay reached a frustrating conclusion. He was gone, yet again.