It was almost shocking how easily I fell asleep.
The next thing I knew, I was drifting awake.
It had gotten much colder, and I was shivering slightly. That's probably what had woken me up.
I must've kicked the blanket off in my sleep.
My eyelids seemed stuck to my eyes. I didn't immediately try to force them open.
The exhaustion from my real self must've transferred over to this one. My sleep-dazed brain just wanted to warm up and return to dreamland, but the icy, biting cold was relentless.
Reluctantly, I just barely cracked open my eyes.
As expected, still nighttime.
It took a few seconds for my vision to adjust. It probably would've been faster if I'd just opened my eyes completely, but I wanted to expend as little energy as possible.
After a few more seconds, I spotted a small lump, darker than the rest of the night, to my left. Pushed up against the wall, what else would it be but my crumpled blanket?
How the fuck did I manage to ball it up like that in my sleep?
Ugh. Whatever…
I'd just been about to reach out a hand towards it, when my tired mind suddenly registered something else.
There was another dark shape to my right, on the open side of the bed.
…Another blanket? I thought sleepily.
No, I'm pretty sure I'd only had the one.
…
…
Oh.
The dark shape wasn't on my bed. It was…
Oh?
It was floating by my bed. No, wait. It wasn't floating.
Oh. Fuck.
It was a head.
A head that belonged to someone standing silently by the bunk bed in the dark.
And just like that, I was immediately, completely awake.
All my senses were instantly on edge. My heart thudded, and I could hear the blood rushing in my ears. Through it all, I barely managed to force my breathing to remain steady.
Calm down... Calm down… Fuck!
It was so cold now that my limbs felt like blocks of ice.
I was terrified my teeth would start chattering. Because if they did…
That person would hear me.
That person would know I was awake.
And somewhere, in the deepest, most primal part of my brain, I knew that I couldn't afford to let that happen.
Call it instinct. Call it delusion.
Either way, something in me knew that I wouldn't be able to deal with the consequences of being discovered.
I didn't dare open my eyes wider for a better look. I didn't dare shut them either. I was frozen in place.
The height of the upper bunk meant that the person must've been decently tall. Their head almost fully cleared the side. They were standing less than a foot away from where I lay.
Even so, it was too dark to tell anything more about their features.
Whoever it was, continued to just stand there in the dark, quiet as a mouse, with their head at the same height as my lying form. They refused to move away from the edge of my bed.
…
I had a horrible thought.
If that person didn't move away soon, there was no way I was going to be able to make it through the night without moving. The chill alone would never allow me to drift back to sleep.
Shit!
It was cold! It was freezing!
I had to do something about this!
I didn't know why I was so damn afraid.
Even if my hunch was correct, and this person meant me harm…
Even if this person suddenly attacked me upon realizing I was awake…
I was confident I could take on a single person. I had the high ground!
Moreover, I was certain the commotion would awaken my roommates too. Even if those other two didn't help, the guy in the lower bunk probably wouldn't take too kindly to some creep hovering at what was also his bedside.
I knew all this already.
So, then, why…?
Why was I so hesitant? Why was the small voice at the back of my mind urging me to remain still at all costs?
Just then, there was a low sound from the other side of the room.
One of those other guys must've shifted in his sleep.
The air seemed to still.
Very, very slowly, the shadowy head tilted to one side. The figure seemed to be listening intently.
Then, just as slowly, it moved. Its shape raised… higher… and higher…
…and higher, until it reached the ceiling.
The person… no…
The thing, hadn't been standing by my bedside.
It had been crouching.
In the dark, I watched as its long limbs unfurled on either side; each arm the length of a grown man.
It was too tall for the room.
Its bent form slowly, awkwardly shuffled away. The top of its head scraped softly against the ceiling as it moved, and with a sickening lurch, I remembered those faint, dragging stains I'd noticed earlier that night.
I bit the inner parts of my cheeks hard. So hard that I could taste blood on my tongue.
I had to, else I might've whimpered from the sheer fear of it all.
I thanked every god I could remember that I hadn't ignored my instincts.
That I hadn't been foolhardy and tried to confront that thing.
I could still see it from the corner of my eye. The creature had made it to the other side of the room, where the other beds were.
Still hunched over, it paused for a moment.
Then, it let out a low, sharp groaning noise. It sounded like a dozen knives scraping simultaneously against a board.
The shadowy figure slowly lowered itself to crouch down again. It was now sitting, observing the other guys' sleeping forms, in just the same way it has been observing my own.
I continued biting the insides of my cheeks and screwed my eyes shut.
Forget the cold.
Forget the fucking blanket.
There was no way I was gonna risk drawing that thing's attention to myself again.
I still had things I had to live for. Things I had left to do in this world.
Things that had seemed impossible.
Things… that suddenly seemed possible… simply because of the impossible situation I was currently in. Because if something like this could happen…
…
The human mind is strange.
Here I was, rightfully terrified for my life.
I was only human, after all.
But at the same time, I couldn't deny the small spark of excitement that had appeared somewhere in the very depths of my being.
…
…
When I woke up again, the hazy light filtering through the window behind my head told me it was morning already.
I didn't get up immediately.
I still didn't understand how I'd managed to fall asleep again, but I was grateful for it. I had a feeling I'd need to be well-rested for the day ahead of me.
As my senses slowly tuned in again, I caught snippets of a hushed conversation. I recognized the voices.
It was my bunkmate, and the guy who slept on the upper bunk across from me; the one who had asked me if I'd given up last night.
'…are lucky you weren't there for it…' the latter was saying in a dull voice. 'Though I wouldn't have dared remain at the dorms during the day.' He laughed weakly. 'Strength in numbers…'
My bunkmate laughed too. 'What, were you worried you'd come back to two corpses in your room?' he asked.
'I was worried I wouldn't come back at all. That I'd be a corpse before the end of the day.'
'I wonder what the rules are…'
There was silence. Then,
'Hm. Mmh. Ha… Ha ha ha ha. Mmha-ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!'
Disturbing, maniacal laughter, going from soft to loud, abruptly rang out in the room.
Still lying down, I realized our fourth roommate, the guy I hadn't heard speak up yet, had joined the conversation.
'Rules?' he asked in a soft, raspy voice. 'Rules!? Ha! There was only one fucking rule! One! We should've dragged those fucking bastards out to middle of the grounds and killed them there! All we had to do was kill those fuckers!'
'Shaun…' his bunkmate said.
'We should have killed them! Retribution! But we didn't! We were complicit! This whole fuckling school was complicit! We deserve the grudges! We deserve the deaths! Ha! Ha! It got those fuckers first, but none of us will be spared! None of – Mmp!'
There was the sound of something being hit.
I frowned, then rolled to my side to get a better look.
The other boy had leaped onto the crazy one's bed, and was covering his mouth with both hands, blocking his words.
'If you've given up, go do it yourself!' He growled. This was the most animated I'd heard him sound. 'Don't fucking yell out that shit! Don't you dare speak for the rest of us!'
After a moment, my bunkmate walked over too. He stood by the bed silently, then rested a hand on the guy's shoulder. 'Let him go…' he said lightly. 'If he spouts nonsense again, I'll just knock him out.'
The other guy panted lightly a couple of times. Then, just as suddenly as it had appeared, all the fight left his body. His shoulders slumped, and he drew his hands back and stood up again, nodding mutely.
The crazy dude remained lying in bed, glaring up at the other two boys with a manic smile still on his face.
Then, his eyes slowly slid over to lock with my own.
Before either of us could react, my bunkmate noticed the slight movement. He turned his head and caught me silently spying from the upper bunk.
I blinked.
Then, I sat up and stretched.
'Good morning,' I greeted.