That sounded like my bedroom door.
And there’s no breeze in here at all, no reason for a door to close by itself.
Shit, shit, shit.
My heart is crammed in my throat, blood pounding in my head, my limbs ice-cold, like the temperature in the room is dropping, dropping, dropping.
Am I freaking out for no reason? I heard that door close, and now I have the terrible feeling that I’m not alone in my apartment. I pick up my phone and contemplate texting my mom. She won’t be up though. They sleep with their ‘do not disturb’ on. And the keys to their place are in the kitchen.
“Fuck,” I mutter under my breath.
I hope I’m freaking out over nothing.
Though honestly the room does feel like an icebox, goosebumps erupting all over my skin, fear spreading through my veins like ink.
Okay, just get up and go into the kitchen, get the keys, and run out.
I mana
ge to get out of the chair. Shaking. With one foot in front of the other, moving like the carpet turned to quicksand, I somehow convince my legs to move until I’m crossing the living room and stepping out into the hallway. The light in the kitchen illuminates the keys hanging below it.
They’re right there.
Just get them and go.
Moving fast now, I head over to the keys, looking over at my bedroom door as I do so.
Only to see it wide open.
I stop, stare.
Okay, now I’m really confused. Did I imagine hearing it close? I try and think back. Maybe I was still half asleep and the sound came from my dream. That’s happened to me before.
That must have been it.
I’m being paranoid again.
I walk over to the bedroom and cautiously poke my head in.
It’s dark in here too.
Pitch black.
Unnaturally so.
And yet…I have the same feeling I had behind The Cloister. Like the room is no longer a room, but a long, cavernous void where nothing can escape, and standing between me and that eternal darkness is someone.
Or something.
I swear I hear it…breathing.
In. And out.
Coming…closer.
Closer.
Oh god.