Rukopis+

It is so dark in the room. My neighbor on the adjacent bed has been asleep for a while, he went to bed while I was still in the bathroom. We share a room in the dormitory, so we’ve got used to each other’s schedules. Someone goes to bed earlier while the other sits with their homework. Someone is just waking up while the other is taking notes for the lecture. This evening wasn’t an exception, I just lingered in the bathroom, and when I returned to the dark room, I easily found my way to the bed. After all, our dormitory rooms weren’t that big. The entrance door was directly opposite the bathroom door, and they were separated by a small corridor with a closet and a mirror. If you turn left from the bathroom, you enter a room with two beds, a commode, and the same number of desks and chairs. And, of course, there was a refrigerator where we kept our blessed-by-god pasta with sausages and ketchup, and three cans of beer. This diet suited us just pretty fine.

I fell into a cold bed, my body sharing its warmth with the cold mattress. Scrolling through social media on my phone for a couple of minutes. Nothing interesting, and my eyes are already sticking together. I set several alarms and looked at my phone one last time, before I put it on the commode.

It didn’t take much to fall asleep. The study schedule was already exhausting, and add a part-time job on top of that, you’re completely drained. I fell asleep around 11:40 PM, there were hardly any cars passing by outside, and I could hear my neighbor snoring softly. The bed became warm and welcoming, and sleep finally embraced me in its warm and soft arms, like a baby.

As my mind drifted off to sleep, I felt some heaviness on my back. It seemed like my muscles had already relaxed, but it felt as if not one person was watching it, but tens of people, or a single person with huge, lamp-like eyes. Maybe it felt like that because I was overworked at my job? Or was it because I was lying facing the wall? Sometimes lying with my back to the open space was uncomfortable because I felt unprotected, and the cold, wallpaper-less wall didn’t give me confidence. Maybe it was some childhood trauma, or just a survival instinct. Maybe because my back is the most vulnerable part. Despite thinking too many of these thoughts, I already drifted into a half-sleep, but not for long.

Through that sleep, later on, I heard something fall in the hallway. If it had happened during the daytime, I would have woken up immediately and gone to see. But due to the late hour, half-asleep, I only half-opened my eyes with a sharp inhale and then closed them again, not changing my position in bed. Honestly, I couldn’t be bothered to go check. I was sure it was something unimportant, maybe an umbrella slipped off the wall or something fell off a hook. I wouldn’t have thought much of it, but then I heard it again. And again. And again. I realized that all our hoodies had fallen off the hooks in the corridor.

I was too lazy to get up, the bed was so warm and the pillow so soft, while the room was so cold and smelled musty I weighed the decision and… Wait, musty?!

Why did the room suddenly smell musty? It usually smells like that when you walk outside after rain. But only if, during the walk, the smell intensified, and you EXPECT something like that, now it’s as if it was brought right under my nose. Maybe the walls had started leaking again? We’d had a leak from the neighbors’ ceiling once, and then it smelled both musty and of the chemicals from the falling paint for a while. But for some reason, now, the fresh damp air seemed to have passed right near me, as if I decided to take a morning walk in the park. I tried to pretend I wasn’t surprised and tried to keep my breathing as measured and calm as it was before, hoping it would help distract myself from the smell, and I also tried not to be distracted by such an unexpected cold. I knew the window was closed. When I went into the bathroom, it was still closed. If it were open, I would have heard the creaking sound of the old wooden window and the faint nighttime sounds of the street, like the rustling of trees and the chirping of crickets.

I was overcome by a certain anxiety. I understand, logically, that it’s probably just a few coincidences all at once, and I need to calm down. I’m just freaking myself out. There’s nothing paranormal here. Just a regular room in a building full of students. There are no problems if one of them suddenly decides to take a walk at night in the dormitory territory. It’s just… Why am I trying to act as if I’m avoiding something? Why can’t I just get up and address this issue directly? I would get up. My body is filled with energy to get up… But then I hear it.

Something passed through the room. I definitely heard it. When I realized it, shivers ran through my body. It was slow, heavy footsteps on the parquet floor in the hallway. They were so distinct that they couldn’t possibly be the neighbors. They were so distinct that I’m sure if this sound would repeat four more times, something would end up behind me. If, to think rationally, (which I tried to do), it could have been my neighbor. Maybe he wanted to pee, or to finish our dinner, and I was just so distracted by the smell that I didn’t hear him get up.

„Max, darn it,” I thought, „go to sleep, tomorrow’s class is at 8 aM, you heavy eater.” Even in my thoughts, I was joking, without confidence.

My attempts to imagine all this in a sober state seemed uncertain too. I was ready to close my eyes at all these illogical moments, just to find out it was all my imagination.

Although I came up with one reasonable theory, I still couldn’t calm down.

“Please go away…”

My body was filled with tremors, the bones inside me couldn’t lie still. But I really should. My muscles were straining themselves. My head started hurting.

It’s probably almost 3 o’clock now. I could grab my phone to distract myself somehow. But I don’t want to move. Don’t want to open my eyes. I don’t want to turn back. Just want to survive this night

I need to stop thinking. Stop winding myself up. But if I relax, maybe I’ll miss something?

I felt a similar feeling of anxiety in childhood when my brother locked me in the bathroom without light. It was also scary and cold. Even with my eyes open, it was dark, and there was no point in keeping them open. And now. If I open my eyes now. What would I see? Various shapes of monsters from movies and horrors popped into my head. With deep eyes and sharp teeth. Or pale skin and a scary smile. Seems like my head started hurting. I feel nauseous.

Very much so.

I realized how much I’m sweating now. I think the temperature has risen.

Overexertion?

I don’t care anymore. I feel nausea creeping up my throat. Why is this happening right now? Why today? I struggled to hold back the urge to vomit. I want to distract myself. I remembered moments from the day and tried to focus on them.

Nothing else bothers me anymore.

Not the sounds. Not the smell. Not the warm breath right above my neck. I just ignore it. It’s not there. It’s not true. It’s just my imagination. Everything will be fine once I fall asleep and morning comes. I’ll call my mom in the morning. I’ll go to class. I’ll come home and have a delicious meal. I’ll breathe fresh air. I’ll breathe, I’ll breathe calmly.

Breathe.

Breathe.

I breathed.

And woke up, utterly confused. My nose was clogged, apparently the snot had dried up during the night. My eyes opened with difficulty, and my body ached. I lifted my head as if it were something heavy, and sunlight immediately fell into my eyes.

Did I, black out?

I immediately grabbed the phone. 7 aM.

I was overwhelmed with happiness and fell back onto the bed. What a wonderful relief.

– God, finally… – I moved from a lying position to a sitting position. – Max, I have to tell you something, I dreamed about this…

I rubbed my eyes and pulled my hands. In response to my words there was silence. He’s probably still sleeping. I was so happy and playful that I decided to wake him up. As soon as I stood up and turned in his direction, I saw a terrible picture. In the light of the sun, my neighbor Maxim lay with his stomach cut. No, not just the stomach. I looked from the bloody and cut blanket to his face and realized that his neck was also sliced. In front of my eyes there was frozen horror mixed with blood and tears. The longer I looked at it, the more I realized how mercilessly and randomly the blows were dealt to him.

But what’s worse, I slept with a corpse all that time?

When the full horror finally dawned on me, I screamed. I had never screamed like that in my life, so loudly that I could be heard on the street. I didn’t know if there was anything else I could do to help him. Fear and anxiety attacked me again. The scene in front me was so morally repulsive that without even grabbing my stuff, I immediately ran out into the hallway in just my underwear and T-shirt. Right away, I noticed all our hoodies on the floor, mixed with dried mud. As soon as I touched the door handle, it easily swung towards me. I was in such a panic that I stumbled into a couple of shoes and fell to the floor. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed neighbors who had just woken up. I huddled against the wall opposite our door.

– Fuck! Fuck, fuck, fuck… – I began to stutter. A neighbor approached me and tried to ask something. I couldn’t answer calmly. No, my lips couldn’t articulate anything coherent, or I didn’t hear what he was saying.

I sat with my legs pulled up. Some neighbors came inside and immediately ran out with nausea. Someone called the police. Similar situations were heard from the upper floors.

Once my shock subsided, I noticed one thing. There were several shallow scratch marks on our wooden door, forming a cross. On our floor, only our door had such marks.

Later, I was covered with a blanket and they (a policeman) began to question me. As it turned out, Max was not the only one who died that night, three more people were found killed with the same signs of death. As expected, I began to be a suspect. But soon the suspicions were lifted from me when signs of forced entry were found in the room. Additionally, there were similar signs in other rooms. Mud in the corridor, a broken window on the floor, and a couple of broken door handles in the rooms, and crosses, all the crosses.

The whole next day, medical doctors took bodies out of the building. Police took pictures from inside the rooms and checked surveillance cameras. Unfortunately, we only had the one and it was situatedonly at the entrance. Apparently it came in through the window on the 3rd floor, judging by the broken glass. Dried mud and footprints were scattered throughout the dormitory. “It was a man’s size,” police said.

Frightened students tried to testify. Everyone had a different testimony, since it happened at night, but they found a common feature. The smell of dampness and a musty raincoat.

Anyone could fit this description with the rain over the last few weeks.

When I was sitting in the hall with other witnesses, I heard the police talking out of my ear. About the fact that the undertaker recently escaped from the cemetery. He should have been arrested for something, but I didn’t hear why. But I realized one thing. I’m fucking getting out of here.

I immediately moved from that place, like many others. I found another one a little further from university, and it seemed to have good security.

I don’t sleep well at night.

And from that day on, I keep a small knife in a case under my mattress.

Here’s some advice for you. Never go to a dormitory on Prokopova Street, because on the street they still find pieces of earth that, as many believe, came from the cemetery.