The Tales of Unearthly Encounters

In The Dark

I woke up in darkness, and as I did, I realized I was not lying in my own room. The bed was very small, the fabric of the sheet was rough, and the pillow was bigger and harder. Then I noticed two small metal bars on both sides of the small narrow bed, which reminded me that I was at the hospital.

I sighed, three days ago I had fallen from the stairs and ended up here. I had mostly slept since then, due to the heavy sedatives they had administered to me

The room was dark; only a faint streak of light was coming out from the washroom.

What's the time? I thought.

My gaze surfed through the wall in search of a clock, but I couldn‟t find anything.

I assumed it was the darkest hours of the night by looking through the small window which was a little far from my bed. I could see the whole city was sleeping. Only the murky street lamps were wide awake, looming over the lonely roads. The silence of the night made me uncomfortable.

My head was still aching badly despite the painkillers. I rubbed my fingers on my temple. My other hand, pierced by a needle, was already in a bad shape.

You know the feeling when you wake up after a long slumber and often your mind feels congested with words and phrases which you might have heard earlier. So, after properly waking up from two days of deep hibernation, I could only hear echoes ringing in both ears.

The Siren of an ambulance... A doctor talking...

The nurses chatting...

They were all crumbling and colliding with each other inside my mind, buzzing in my ears. I was really feeling dizzy, but my brain denied to fall asleep anymore.

Then I heard a whisper.

Was I imagining things? Or did somebody really speak? Was it because my head was full of chaos? It kind of crept me out. There was nobody else in the room besides me.

I tried to listen more closely, and then relaxed as I could no longer hear anything unusual.

And then somebody let out a deep sigh, just beside me. It felt so close that a cold shiver went through my entire body. What was happening?! Was it because of the sedatives? Or was I not fully awake? I wasn‟t feeling drowsy anymore, rather I became much alert, even though the headache was getting worse.

For how many minutes I was like that I didn‟t know. It was hard to assume the time in the dark. But eventually, I started feeling dizzy. The sedative hadn‟t worn off completely. I dozed off a few times.

Suddenly the streak of light which was seeping out from the washroom blinked, like something or somebody passed in front of it.

My eyes instantly looked towards that direction, but nothing was there. A bead of sweat fell from my forehead.

Suddenly it felt like something or somebody had appeared beside my bed. The object or person just popped out of nowhere. I couldn‟t see it in the solid darkness, but I could definitely feel its presence.

I held in my breath, wishing I could turn on the lights, but the switch was too far from my bed, and I was too frightened to even move. It felt like that thing would hunt me down if I moved even a little.

All of a sudden something grabbed my foot. I pulled my leg faster than a thunderbolt. I could feel my heart bumping on my ribcage. An unexplainable panic took hold of me. I kept pressing the button assigned to call the nurse.

The nurse walked in within seconds, turning on the lights. It almost blinded me as the bright light burst throughout the room. But to my utter relief, there was nothing or nobody in the room, except me and the nurse.

"Hey, you‟re awake. Need something?" She asked with a smile on her face.

I hung my head down, I couldn‟t say that I had called her just because I was scared, it would be quite embarrassing. Still, I had to be sure.

"Um, can you look inside the washroom? I think I heard something. There might be a mouse or something." I asked.

She smiled and went to check the washroom. And, as she did, I took a glance under the bed. There was nothing there.

"I couldn‟t find anything there. There can‟t be any mouse.

We keep everything very clean." The nurse said as she stepped out of the washroom.

"Ah, I must be imagining things."

"Don‟t worry, take rest. Call me if you need anything." She turned off the light and walked out of the room, closing the door behind.

I lay down, took some deep breaths.

How stupid!

My throat felt dry and itchy. I tried to get the glass of water from the bedside table.

Midway it touched a hand....