“Awaken”
Startled, I practically jump off the small couch I laid on. I hit the floor hard. I groaned and looked at the glowing object on my end table. The clock read “2:13” in its hazy blue light.
I looked around my tiny apartment. It wasn’t much, but it was mine. See, I’d gotten into many fights with my parents and finally decided to move out. So far it s***s. I’m stuck in this tiny a*s apartment on between an interstate and a railroad. The trains were almost as bad as the neighbors.
I’m in room 702. So naturally my neighbors are 701 and 703. 701 housed an elderly man, maybe in his 80’s. He keeps to himself and generally doesn’t cause trouble.
703 is a completely different story though. Since day one who ever resides in that pitifully small apartment has woken me up at around the same time. Every time it’s with this chanting. It’s not loud enough to distinguish specific words, but the walls are thin enough that it resonates through. occasionally I catch random words like “Red” or “Night”. I never can hear enough to form any idea of what’s going on.
That night I’d had enough. I had a job interview that morning and I needed my sleep. I pushed myself off the floor and slipped on some slippers.
I didn’t know why all the other residents feared this room so much. They rushed past it, and that was only if they HAD to pass it.
I slipped out of my daze and went through the front door. I immediately wanted to turn and scream.
From the door of 703 emanated a red light. It framed the door, not bright enough to enlighten the hall, but enough to see immediately around the door. Against all my instincts I approached.
My morbid curiosity was stronger than my fear. I tip-toed warily forward. As I finally reached the door an earth-shaking BOOM shook me to the core. It sounded as if every car in the block had exploded simultaneously. Then silence.
It took me a moment to realize what felt off about the silence, but it was the lack of ominous chanting.
After gaining my composer, I knocked. I didn’t knock hard, but the door still creaked open under the weight of my hand.
The room was covered, roof to floor, in strange unearthly symbols I’d never seen before. All of them being Brownish-Red and flaky. The only furniture in the room was a table, but it was forced into the corner of the room. On the floor in the center of the room was a circle of candles. The candles barely lit the corners of the small space, but I could see piles of organs and bones. All of this surrounded a pentagram with small red candles on its points.
My sense kicked into high gear. The combination of the smell, the sight, and the silence was filling me with adrenaline.
I heard a thud and felt a warm ooze on the back of my neck, then everything went black.
I woke tied to a chair, or so I presumed, as I was blind folded. The stench of decay hung in the air, so I had to have been in the same apartment.
A low, gravelly voice resonated from what seemed like directly behind me.
“Your curiosity will be the end of you, young one.” It spoke.
Mustering up the courage I asked what any reasonable person would ask. “Who are you?”
He merely chuckled at my frightened tone.
“If you truly wish to know, you may remove your blindfold, but beware, it will be your undoing mortal.”
Suddenly my hands were free. I don’t recall him sounding closer, how did he do that? Why did he call me mortal?
I reached my hands up to my face, then hesitated. What if he had a gun to my head and when I saw him he pulled the trigger? I couldn’t risk it.
“Why am I here?” I questioned
“Ah, a question your kind asks all too often. You are here to do my bidding, otherwise you’d be dead.” He responded simply.
“What would you have me do?” I asked, fear creeping higher and higher.
“Your task is simple, I want you to find yourself a place to remain hidden. For I have been asleep many millenia and wish to be entertained.” He stated.
I had no idea what was going on, but I knew if he found me, no.I couldn’t think of the possibilities.
He pointed me towards the door and told me “Once you exit this room, you may remove your blindfold safely.”
He pushed me out and so it began. I ripped of the blindfold and saw plain, endless halls. They were painfully boring. Nevertheless, I ran. I ran around corners and down straits for what seemed like hours.
Finally I heard the same voice, his voice, but in my mind. Like a thought “I’ve begun my search mortal, I hope you provide a better chase than the others.”
Immediately after the air shimmered in front of me. “Poor poor mortals. So weak. So simple.”
A being materialized in front of me. Its skin was dark as night, the eyes glittered like rubies. There were ram’s horns protruding from either side of its skull. It had scaly legs and terrifying talons.
A tail I hadn’t seen whipped at me and wrapped my neck. I was lifted off the ground and brought closer to this entity. It seemed to stare into my soul.
“Jonathan” It finally spoke in that familiar voice.
“I warned you if you gazed upon me it would be the last thing you do.” He said with a tinge of disappointment.
He opened his mouth and the last thing I saw were those pearly white fangs.