Zone: Apocalypse

Cold. I was ice cold. The duvet did not help at all. Not even Billy's warm body cuddled up against mine helped. I heard steps approaching and looked at the clock. It was dark, but not too dark to see the clock hands pointing at the number 3 and the number 5. The steps got louder and closer, so I pressed my face against Billy's warm, bare chest. I could feel his warmth, however, it was almost as if an invisible force declined his warmth to cover me. As the steps stopped up right in front of the door, I could hear a high-pitched ringing. The kind of ringing that the condition tinnitus explained. I heard someone grab the door handle and open the door, at the same time as the ringing got more intense. As the door creaked open and the person stepped inside, the ringing stopped. However, an unintelligible whispering took it's place. The person came closer and the whispering got louder but not clearer. As I felt him grab the duvet, ready to rip it off and reveal my shaking, half-naked body pressed against Billy's, everything went quiet. In a second it was there, in the next it was not. Like nothing had ever happened. In the same second I felt the warmth covering my body, stopping my shivering. I turned around, facing the door, and peeked up at the now closed door. Slightly panicking, wondering how all of this was possible, I looked over at the clock, only to see it's hands had not moved an inch. What felt like an eternity of horror had not lasted for a single minute.

I decided to confront a minion about this problem right after breakfast. I knew some of them went around the halls at night, but they had never opened the doors for no apparent reason. Tyrian, Cyrus and Alessa were the ones lurking around the hospital in the midnight hours, and knowing Cyrus was the only one of them who did not dislike me, I asked him.
''When did that happen?'' he asked.
''Either 3:20 or 5:15. I'm not quite sure, cause I couldn't see the different lengths on the clock hands,'' I replied. Cyrus got a puzzled look on his face. He thought for a moment, while chewing on his left snake bite piercing, before he said, ''that's very weird. We're not out by then. At least not this night. Tyrian was out hunting with Alessa, Rayna and Jinx were out shopping and Zephyr and I were... talking.. in his office.''

Cyrus told me he needed to talk to Zephyr, that maybe he could help, so I decided to take a shower in the meanwhile. I locked the door to the bathroom and put my clothes in the sink. ''Maybe I'm just crazy. It could've been a nightmare,'' I told myself and adjusted the temperature. A cold shower was just what I needed. I stepped in and felt the cold water drops colliding with my body. I layed my head back and closed my eyes so I could wash my hair.

I wiped away some water from my eyes and opened them, causing everything to look blurry for a few seconds. I saw a shadow to the right of me, and quickly turned my head towards it. Once my vision cleared, I noticed the shadow was in the mirror. I walked to the mirror to take a closer look, wiped the fog off and looked at the shadow. ''But.. Why can't I see myself?'' I asked and looked around. I understood that the shadow was coming from inside the mirror. The shadow started moving, and a sound was heard. I shrugged it off and walked back to the shower, noticing a weird, discolored floor tile. While the others were pearl white, that specific tile had a color reminding of dried blood. And in the middle of that floor tile, there was something that looked like a handprint with a lighter color. The color of newly dried blood. Out of curiousity, I sat down on my knees in front of the tile and put my hand on the blood-colored handprint. It fit perfectly.

''Edwin,'' I heard a dark, raw voice mutter. I jumped up and looked around, but no one was anywhere to be seen. I shook my head and walked back in the shower, washing my body. When I was done, I grabbed my towel and dried myself before wrapping it around my waist and walking to the sink. The shadow was still there, covering most of the mirror. I shrugged it off and put on my clothes. I could see a slight movement to my right and turned to it, only to see that the discolored tile had cracked up and was now spewing out thick, red liquid. Blood. Just a few seconds later the blood covered the whole floor, and an evil laughter could be heard from the shadow.

The door was locked, and the key was gone. My guess was that the key had fallen down in the blood, which did now reach me to my ankles. I let out a scream as the shadow from the mirror grabbed my shoulder. It's hand was just dark, thick fog, just as the rest of it. ''Are you scared?'' the same dark, raw voice I heard earlier asked. ''Of course I'm fucking scared,'' I yelled. The shadow laughed and disappeared in a blink. So did the blood and the discolored tile.

Billy opened the door and hugged me tightly. ''What's wrong, dear?'' he asked. ''I... Shadow.. There was a shadow here, trying to drown me in blood..'' I muttered and nuzzled into his neck. Billy lifted me up and carried me back to our room, where he lied me in the bed. ''You don't have any bruises or blood on you. That's good. When you feel better, you should talk to Zephyr about it. But if it's okay for you, I'll go to the library and read some books,'' said Billy and kissed my forehead. I nodded in reply and dragged the duvet over myself.
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June 19th, 2012
Strange things are happening. Someone visited me in the middle of the night before disappearing, and a silhouette appeared in the shower, along with a floor tile spewing out blood. I know Billy doesn't believe me. I'll still talk to Zephyr tomorrow to see if he knows what's up. -Edwin