Hello everyone! After a while, I have a new short story for you to read! It is number 18 of the 100 Themes Writing Challenge, which is based around the theme "Eyes". I know I am quite slow posting new things for this challenge but don't worry, I have been working on some more I should post soon, a new short story and the next part of "Whatever Happened To Ruby", so stay tuned; hopefully I'll be able to publish them soon :) Until then, please enjoy this one and let me know what you think ;)
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- EYES -
Insomnia
My boyfriend Karl and I have been together for a while now. I used to live quite far from him but we both decided it was time we moved together. He has a nice little house in the middle of the suburban area, a perfect spot to live in, also considering it is very close from where I work. I would lie if I said I was not excited to go live there. Karl told me he lives with a housemate, one of his friends, to cover for the costs of the house, so I was kind of eager to meet him. His name was Alex I think. Turns out when I first got at the house, he was not there; same goes for the rest of the week. Karl told me he does not see him often because he has a busy work schedule and often goes out to see some friends.
For the first week, everything went perfectly well. Karl and I are made to live together I know it. I love this house and I know for a fact I will love living here; it felt like home already. There was only one thing that had been bothering me, I had not seen this Alex yet. I had heard him come home in the middle of the night and go straight to his room; he was probably very busy like Karl told me, but still, he could have at least made the effort to come and say hi, considering we would be living together from now on.
The days went by and Karl and I would go on with our daily routines, nothing extraordinary to tell. Still no sign of his friend. I caught a glimpse of him one morning when I was getting out of the bedroom and he was leaving for work, but nothing more. When I asked Karl about him, he did not have much to say except that he likes to have him around as a housemate because he is no trouble at all and he pays the rent on time. I could not disagree with that, but what a weird attitude still. He lives with us but it is pretty much a ghost. Anyway, whatever that is not the reason I decided to move there and I did not really care actually. I was just wondering what he is like.
One day, after an especially strenuous work shift, I went to bed really early and Karl joined me. Something woke me up in the middle of the night. A loud banging noise from the basement, where Alex's bedroom is located. It did not seem to wake Karl up. I thought I might have dreamt this and I decided to get back to sleep... That was until another round of this noise decided to keep me awake. I jumped and woke my boyfriend up by doing so. He looked at me with a bewildered expression and asked me what was going on. I told him about the noise I heard and he told me not to worry about it. He said his friend is a night owl and sometimes stays up really late. He usually tries not to make noise but who knows, he might have dropped something accidentally. I decided not to give more thought to it and to go back to sleep, even though I could not shake that feeling of uneasiness.
It had been three weeks now and I still had not seen anything more of that mysterious cohabitant than the glimpse I caught of his back the other day. It was starting to drive me a bit insane and I asked Karl about him. I asked him when was the last time he actually saw him or had a chat with him and he could not even remember. On that night, when we were both asleep, I was awaken once again by a loud commotion coming from downstairs. It was louder than last time, and it repeated thrice. It was followed by a faint scream. I could feel chills go down my spine. What the hell was going on here? Karl did not even seem to wake up. How could he still sleep with such a loud ruckus? I woke him up and told him what I heard and once again he told me not to worry about it. He said his friend often has nightmares and it happens that he screams like that in the middle of the night. I thought that could make sense so I deided not to give it a second thought, but I could not help it. I wanted to go back to sleep, but I was seized by that feeling of unease. Karl was sleeping like a log and even snoring and I could not even close my eyes. I heard a shriek once again, except this time it was deafening. I then heard steps going up the stairs and down the hallway. That Alex guy was coming towards our bedroom, I could hear him. I could see a shadow under the door. Not a sound. He was just standing there, on the other side of the door. I thought he might have been sleepwalking. Minutes went by and he was still there and Karl was still sleeping. I decided to wake him up. He was obviously annoyed that I awoke him again. I pointed to him the shadow under our bedroom door and he said not to worry about it and let him sleep. How could he not be scared by all this? The guy started banging loudly on the door. I screamed and woke Karl. He repeated once again not to worry about it and just go back to sleep. The banging was getting louder and louder and I could see the door shaking... and he was just telling me not to worry about it?! Karl was back asleep and his friend was knocking louder and louder on the door and he started screaming. I was terrorised. Then he stopped. Nothing for a couple of seconds, not a sound. Then, the door handle started turning... and the door opened. There he was, a shadow standing in the door frame, staring right at me in the darkness. I could see his eyes and I felt them gazing right through me. He was not saying a thing, not moving, completely quiet. I was so afraid I could not say anything either. I pushed Karl so he would wake up. He did, looked at his friend at the door and then told me to get some shuteye, that it was normal and that he would go away, and not to wake him up again for something so silly. It was surreal what was going on. The guy was still standing there looking at me and my boyfriend was sleeping as if nothing was happening. I was paralysed by fear and felt like I was bound to the bed. I could feel his eyes on me, inside me and it gave me such an eerie sensation. We both stayed like this for what seemed to be hours. And then there was nothing.
I do not know what happened. I do not recall falling asleep, but next thing I remember is the sun rising by the bedroom window. I must have fallen asleep somehow. The door was still open and Karl had just waken up. I asked him if he remembered what hapened last night. He told me he had no idea what I was talking about. I told him about Alex coming here and banging in our door, staring at us during the whole night. He had an extremely confused look on his face and asked me : «What are you talking about? What housemate? Who is Alex? We don't have a housemate and I certainly don't know any Alex!» I thought he was making fun of me and did not reply to that but gave him a sarcastic look instead. He still seemed to be confused and did not smile as he usually does when he is making fun of me.
I got out the bedroom and decided to go see downstairs in Alex's bedroom. When I got there, what I saw shocked me. There was no bedroom, only a storage room. No one could live in there. I got back upstairs and asked my boyfriend what happened with his friend's bedroom. He told me he had no idea what I was talking about and asked me to stop playing with him; he said the joke was not funny anymore. He told me there was no housemate, that he never had one and he does not want anyone else to live with us, and that he does not have a friend named Alex.
I looked around the house. There was no trace of anyone else living here. Everything that I had seen belonging to that guy disappeared. His bedroom was gone. All of his belongings. It is as if he never had been here, which my boyfriend confirmed. He looked at me with an annoyed face and said:
«I don't know what's up with you this morning but I never had a friend living with me here. You're making things up. Now stop playing it's not funny. I have to go to work. I'll see you tonight.»
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(C) Copyright 2015 David Giroux aka Hope Alexander for the text
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