The Way Out By: Eli Carr

Ch. 1 I still remember vividly when it first happened. As a child I loved to dangle my feet off of the edge of my soft mattress. I just couldnt sleep without my feet freely hanging three feet from the ground for some reason. Then one night something had changed, something told me that I wasnt the only person or thing in my room. I cautiously slid my feet over the edge of the bed and waited, sitting straight up in my bed staring at my feet hanging in the cold and still air underneath them. After about five minutes or so, I assured myself that I was over-thinking and blowing the situation far out of proportion and concluded that it was just a weird night. I lay there in my bed dreaming about all the crazy and off-the-wall things that run through a typical ten-year-olds head. Sadly, this was the last night I could call myself typical or normal. Some might even see me as mentally insane now. Let me tell you my side of the story and then you can decide what you want to believe. I shot up in bed to a cold feeling in my chest, every hair raised on body, and my closet door open. I sat there thinking, thinking far too many things to even describe, but one thought, made horrifying things come to mind. I always close my closet door. I immediately pulled my feet back away from the edge of the bed and held my knees to my chest as hard as I could, barely able to breathe as the feeling of something sinister passed through my room. I could actually feel an energy breeze past my left shoulder. As soon as I got the courage I took my teddy bear and took off at a dead sprint feeling my right foot painfully connecting with the hardwood floor of my room and hallway. I reached my mothers door and open and closed it as fast as I could, giving no time for anyone or anything to follow me in. I ripped my hand away from the door knob and slowly stepped back clutching my teddy bear as close to my chest as I possibly could. I felt my mothers eyes tearing into the back of my head, wondering what I was doing staring at the door. I turned around and teas were streaming down my face and with no hesitation I dove into my mothers bed as she wrapped her arms around me and kissed me on the top of my head. She knows just what to do when Im worried, scared, and basically any other possible human emotion. She let her hands slide down my arm again and again saying Shh, baby, its okay. My tears still running down my cheeks and making the slight tingle as the splashed on my arms; I finally fell asleep. I woke up the next morning to find my mother gone from her bed and I was alone again, not sure what to think about the night before. Could it have all been a dream? Or better yet, a nightmare? Could I really scare myself that much? Questions that all became increasingly more obvious and deathly frightening as I grew older. Sadly, in the meantime I had no idea what to do. I frantically tried my best to explain to my mother

what had happened and she had a look on her face that said Okay honey, but it was just a bad dream. I made the very, very poor mistake of letting myself believe that until I had gotten in the shower. I remembered feeling a sting in my feet as I ran from my room in panic and I slowly focused my eyes onto my feet and at that very moment my brain went haywire. Right there, pressed into my skin, was the darkest purple you can imagine in four long bruises stretched across the top of my right foot. In a panic I shot up my foot as fast as I possibly could and grabbed it firm between my two small hands and turned it over to find the last missing bruise, the one that would not only complete a human hand, but also the disproving of any dream or nightmare. No, it was much worse now, it was real, right there on my right foot and in my hands; real. After my shower I had once again felt the familiar sting in my foot as I took off down the stairs to show my mother, who now had a different expression, one of complete and unmistakable terror. It didnt take long for her to call all the priests, psychics, ghost whispers, and paranormal specialists you could find in your everyday yellow pages. Nobody, not one single person, but one priest agreed to come out and bless our house. Father Williams he said his name was, unfortunately it was the last time I would hear his name, but I still believed every word he said, walking through my house, christening every inch of the brightly colored rooms on the first floor. It was only when he stepped into my room, which at the time resembled that of the night sky; dark blue walls, an even darker painted ceiling with black borders. I completed the look with those sticky stars you can buy at any Walmart or Target and carefully placed them on the ceiling above my bed so I could stare at them as I fell asleep every night. This room of course looked like this when I was ten, when I felt even the slightest shred of comfortability in the dark. As father Williams heeled dress shoes struck the hard floor of my bedroom I felt almost an instant shiver, not the kind from a cold breeze either, the kind from something that I had already felt the other night. He held up his right hand and began reading passages of the bible that I had already heard from the living room, kitchen, and dining room. It wasnt until I saw that my closet door was open that I had any fear. I let my eyes scan the room and stop dead on the door which, in broad day light, shut faster than anything youve ever seen in your life. The door sliced the air so fast, and so hard that I could feel the pressure from the air strike my body and as the loud bang filled the air. A crack formed coming downward from the upper left side of the door. Father Williams face went pale, but continued clearly annunciating every word with force and passion. To my surprise, by the time he was done I felt fine. I no longer had that feeling in my stomach. I knew I could be in this room now with no problem whatsoever, nothing could harm me now. Amazingly, over the next few years, nothing had happened. I went through middle school and picked up some sports, started to fit in and everything seemed fine. I had endured some of the worst pain in my life at this point which found its way in my parents divorce. Being so young I knew very little on how to control and contain my emotions, or for that matter even understand them. I had begun high school in the worst way: just getting out of what at the time seemed like a serious relationship and just beginning

my parents divorce process. This would go on and take up all of my freshman and sophomore year as I began to develop my passion for the one sport I truly loved: track and field. I figured the more I was on the track, the less time I was at home and the less time I would have to deal with the generally austere atmosphere at home. Eventually the divorce had settled and I would be living with my mother, the obviously better choice of the two. I continued my high school career running track and staying up to date with my classwork. At the time those were the most important things in my life: track and school. I hadnt even thought of what happened when I was younger, because I was safe with my mom at home and I could sleep in my own bed just fine...as long as I kept my feet firm against the bed and never, not once, hang them off the edge. In my mind the incident that happened when I was ten was a vague memory, something I knew had happened but refused to touch that dark part of my mind, too afraid of what I might find in it. Theres never really a good time for something unpleasant to happen, and frankly, I thought the worst had been over. I had been so scared, so absolutely terrified from whoever or whatever had bruised me when I was younger that I had almost literally erased it from my memory. Almost.

Ch. 2 It was April of my senior year and I had just slowly sauntered in the front door of my house, my mother right behind me carrying my black track bag. I had sat down on the couch just about ready to pass out from exhaustion as my mother grabbed my head and kissed me on the forehead and congratulated me on the fifth record I had broken this year. I couldnt have been happier, it was the perfect meet, breaking my own personal bests every step of every race. But, the thing that made this night perfect was the girl that I had met.I was feeling way over my head ambitious that night and it all kind of happened like the movies. I had just finished the 400m and getting my warmups back on I looked up to see a short, blonde haired girl warming up on the turf. I noticed every detail about her immediately from her crazy colored eyes that you just couldn't name with one color, to the way her smile popped because of her cheeks. Then all of the sudden her spikes stabbed into the turf and came to a dead stop, and my eyes quickly scaled from the ground to her face and our eyes locked. This wasnt like anything Ive ever felt, complete stun, I literally could not move. After what seemed like an eternity I walked over to her and as I opened my mouth to speak she did it for me. Youre Taylor Alexander right? she said softly with her eyes still bearing into mine. I shouldnt have been surprised I mean, in any sport once you start doing well people start hearing your name and well...I guess I just wasnt expecting it this time.

Uh...Yeah! Hah thats me I stuttered, trying so hard not to sound stupid. Good race you just ran there, Mr. Record Breaker! she said ending with a smile Now, If I was anything like I make myself out to be I wouldve said something really smooth and laughed as I said Well, what can I say?, but the way her eyes shone in the stadium lights made me forget every damn thing I knew, and consequently said Oh, yeah, you watched it? Of course she watched it, idiot I thought to myself Well, yeah hah, Im Megan Brown...by the way She said with a slight smile Our conversation continued on as we got more comfortable with each other and I couldnt think of anything else the entire night. I ran the 4x400m thinking about her at the finish line. She was simply stunning and the nicest girl I had and will ever met. After our anchor leg had crossed the finish line I scanned the field as fast as I could to find her and there she was at the other end of the track wearing her gray hoody, and her bag strung over her shoulder looking right at me with that sweet smile on her face. I moved as fast as my body would let me, throwing my warmups on and propelling myself across the turf quicker than I thought Id be able to after running a race. I finally got to her and after about ten minutes of sitting there talking and giggling we exchanged phone numbers and had been texting and calling each other nonstop for about the next three weeks. I had finally worked up the courage to ask her to be my girlfriend and, thank god, she said yes. Like I said, that period in time was perfect; just about to go to college, I have the girl of my dreams, and I had no worries, none that I cared to accept anyway.

Ch. 3 It was one of the hottest summer nights Id seen in a long time so I resorted to sleeping in the guest room which was the only room in my house that was air conditioned. I had all the lights off in the room and just got off the phone with Megan to head to sleep. As I slowly lay my head on the pillow my eyelids became instantly heavy and I drifted off to sleep. I remember having these weird dreams. They were all short, but were all equally disturbing. I kept seeing myself as if I was outside of my own body. When I looked down at my body I was nearly transparent, kind of fading away into the next dream. But when I looked up to see the other person, I just couldnt accept it was me. I looked so...angry. My eyes were pitch black with no sign of a pupil, color, nothing. He started walking around screaming in a language that sounded like latin, maybe? As I tried hard to focus on what it was saying I realized how much control I had in this dream. It almost felt real, which is what scared me the most. I finally made out what I was

saying. I couldnt translate it, but all I could understand from Latin I in sophomore year was this:
Sit fere hic! No matter how hard I concentrated I could only identify two words: He and Here. I kept drifting into other dreams. I was watching myself kill my mother and girlfriend, but I looked happy about it. He actually looked like he was enjoying himself. I sat in the dream with no way to interfere at all. I could only observe and continue to drift into other dreams. Some of them were of just me scratching away at my skin screaming for Him to help. The last one I had was of a dark room, one that I handt seen before, but I could hear something. Something far in the corner of the room. It sounded like someone was counting slowly, but I could hardly understand in what language or what numbers it was. By the end of this dream I drifted again into blackness.

I woke up to a chill in the air that was seemingly far past the low setting on the air conditioner which was built into the wall above the bed. I let my elbows slide down as I perched myself on them to sit up and ran my eyes around the room. I looked everywhere for my cell phone and I finally found its dim light shining against the table next to the bed, I studied the screen and saw it was 3:00am exactly. It was at this moment that I heard them; three, maybe four voices, just talking. This was no ordinary conversation these people were having, it was radically sped up and each voice was overlaying another. My eyes widened as the voices grew louder and I was frozen in the position I was in. I shouldve know what this was, but I refused to believe it. I felt the familiar cold feeling move around me as the voices grew louder and seemed to be gravitating closer and closer to my head. Then just as suddenly as they started they had stopped, instantly... but I couldnt hear anything; no air conditioner, no buzz from the computer on the other side of the room; nothing. I snapped my fingers next to my ears desperately trying to convince myself this wasnt real. As my breath began to quicken, every muscle in my body came to a halt when I saw my breath appear in front of my face. I didnt feel THAT cold, how is that possible? With my muscles locked I began to panic, I felt like something was holding me in place. Then my eyes snapped to focus on the foot of the bed where I not only felt a pressure, but saw the bed flex next to my out stretched legs. I felt sequential pressures dent the mattress next to my legs, then my hips, and stop at either side my stomach. I could still see the indents in the sheets as I tried desperately to move, but my muscles wouldnt allow it. Then I heard the voices again, but this time it was just one voice counting. I didnt want to pay attention to it, but it grew to such a volume I knew someone had to of heard it. At that moment I realized what it was saying, and Ill remember it for the rest of my life. It was definitely counting, but never going past one number: six. It was getting faster and faster each series it repeated.

1,2,3,4,5,6 1,2,3,4,5,6 1,2,3,4,5,6! When I had finally registered the last series my muscles shot to life and I threw myself out of the bed and slammed my feet on the floor. I ran to my room as I felt the temperature increase the farther I got away from that room and got dressed. I could barely put my own clothes on I was shaking so much. I kept running until I was outside and didnt stop for a mile or so. My right foot tingled and pulsated with every pump of blood. Thats when I realized, there was no coincidence to the counting. I remember sitting in Sunday school as a little kid and the priest reeling off facts about Satan and Hell. He would say that six is a number to fear, one that we should all be aware of its power as it is directly associated with the devil himself. My mind couldnt help entertaining the idea of the incident when I was younger compared to what had just happened. Could it have been the same thing? Am I really feeling all of these things, and hearing the loud blares of voices that seemingly no one else had heard? I spent the next two hours outside by myself, and eventually returned to my porch. I sat on the old wood stairs blankly staring into the pitch black night that lay just ahead of my face, which now seemed like the thing I should be most afraid of.

Ch. 4 I woke up the next morning hesitantly as the sun shone in my eyes and I had to squint to get a good view of the room. I ran my eyes over every inch of space in that room and I didnt feel or see anything that was wrong. I swung my legs over the side of the bed and let my feet lightly touch the floor as I stretched my back up and back and then set my arms back down on the bed. As soon as my hand made contact with the sheets I realized it wasnt flat, and it wasnt whole, I mean there was no sheet there. I held the sheet up to my face and saw the singed hole that was about a foot long and four inches wide that had been burned completely through it and onto the mattress itself. I couldnt believe what I was seeing. I tore the rest of the sheet off the bed and saw every burned hole in the mattress exactly where I had felt the pressure the night before. I sat there on the bed, my feet meeting the floor and my hands against my face. I shook my head and dismissed what had happened, threw the sheets in the trash, and went on with my day a little more cautiously than usual. I watched into the kitchen to find my Mom making breakfast. As soon as she saw my face she knew something was bothering me and asked what it was. You didnt..uh..hear any voices last night did you? No? Why are you asking, Taylor? She said as she furrowed her eyebrows Its nothin I jus You didnt have Meg here last night did you?! Now she was totally off track.

I laughed and said No mom, just curious. Thought I was talkin in my sleep or something is all Okay honey She said as she slowly looked away. I could tell she was re-thinking what I had just told her, but she didnt seem to worried about it. In the next two weeks Id be heading to college to run track and major in criminal justice. Meg and I had talked about this so much, about how I was going to be closer to her and everything. All I know is that if I needed her, shell be right there instead of miles away and if she needs me Ill be right there holding her hand the whole way. Unfortunately, Meg had two years of high school left and I planned on following her wherever she went for college. Eventually, I did get a chance to talk to her about all the shit that had happened last night; she sat and listened, then proceeded to tell me everything was going to be okay and that I had nothing to worry about. Do you ever have that feeling that when something happens you know you should forget about it? You know that you should just drop it and not let it get to you? Well, thats exactly what I was feeling and I couldn't stop thinking about it. I mean every time the lights went out I rushed to turn them back on and no one seemed to notice. Maybe they really did think I was going nuts, or maybe I was just trying to be funny to them; neither of which I was aiming for. Apparently a lot of people can make up these things and make them seem so real that it feels like it is, but in my case it was real and I wasnt about to tell Meg about the sheets or the mattress; she wouldve flipped. Ive heard over and over again from my Mom that these spirits or demons can attach themselves to you and manipulate you or anything around you as they please. I mean, Ive been through this and I just cant imagine that it would follow me, or anything. It had to be my house, so when I thought about college I thought about being safe with Meg. Nothing couldve sounded better at that point. She was the only person I could really talk to about...well anything really. She always somehow manages to put a smile on my face, and she gives me that kind of feeling where I constantly think about how good her first name would look with my last name. You could say Im getting ahead of myself or Im just smitten, but Im one of two parts in this relationship and each and every feeling I have for her, she has for me. I didnt want to believe it now, nor did I even think about it, but in the next couple of months I would need her more than ever. Ch. 5 Time flew by in the next two weeks, cramming in as much time as I could with my family and my closest friends before I went to college. Move-in day had finally come. Mom and Meg helped me move in even though it was over ninety degrees outside. It was kind of sad carrying 18 years of my life in a concentrated form up those loud, echoing stair cases. For some reason, carrying the boxes up the stairs hit home for me, and pretty hard too. I finally reached my room and of course, being a freshman, I was on the top floor in the oldest dorm hall, room number 424. When we had first reached the

my floor I saw that it was a divided hallway, my room and others to the right and the same mirror image to the left. The two hallways were separated by the stairwell. As I peered down the other half of the hallway I noticed how empty it was, and how every door had the faint light from the windows creeping past them to dimly light the hallway. If it made things any better about that hallway, it was that the lights didnt work and since no one lived in that half, the college wasnt going to spend the time or money fix them. After we had unpacked everything and put it all in its proper place, which at the time happened to be exactly where my mother wanted it, I knew I would quickly lose track of everything and where it was, but at the time all I cared about was that gorgeous girl next to me holding my hand. I flopped myself on my immensely uncomfortable bed and Meg laid right next to me and let her head rest on my chest. My Mom, who by the way, is the only Mom I know that is okay with this kinda stuff, got the hint and went to the bathroom for a while. As I lay there with Meg I ran my fingers through her hair, feeling every strand flow between my fingertips. She lifted her head up and let her eyes run from my lips to my eyes and a smile creeped across her face as she moved up and pressed her soft lips to mine. Every time she kisses me I get a feeling that I wouldnt be able to describe no matter how often I studied the dictionary or attended my writing 110 class. She is all Ive every wanted and she far exceeds any and everything Id ever need. She pulled her lips away from mine and said the three words that make me melt every time she says them. I love you And I looked right back into those crazy colored eyes that I couldn't pull mine away from the first time I saw them and said: I love you too, Mrs. Alexander I said with probably the stupidest looking smile I love you too Mr. Alexander! She said giggling as she kissed me again. I couldnt tell you the way I love that girl, I cant tell you how I love her, its just that I know I do. With every fiber of my being I know that I love her and theres far too many reasons why to list them all. We had both thought that it was the cutest thing in the world that my room number was our anniversary: April 24th. We had both laughed about it as soon as I got the email in June about my housing form. Right now, I wish I could say that I let my heart follow hers wherever it went and we lived together after college and everything was perfectly fine for as long as we both lived. I wish I could say that and never have to believe or experience anything had happened to me. I wish I could start all over, with everything, but what happened in the following months. I wish more than anything in the world that I could say that I took Ms. Megan Brown to where we had first kissed and dropped to one knee and asked that question that, if I couldve asked the first day I met her I wouldve. But at this very

moment laying with her, with the girl of my dreams, I was thinking about now and how absolutely beautiful she looked in just a t-shirt and jeans. That girl would never have to wear a speck of make-up and shed still be just as gorgeous as she always is to me. My Mom returned back to the door with a knock, probably because she didnt want to come in and see something that wouldve scarred her for life, but this time, there was nothing. Its open Mom! I yelled from the bed I brought this just in case She said as she leaned down to pick up something out of the gym bag that we had used for extra stuff. As she stood straight again my eyes fixed on her hand which held the crucifix that I was supposed to put in my room, but never did. Mom...Seriously? I asked with my one eyebrow raised Taylor She said as she gave me that look that says You shut your mouth right now and, well I did. She hung it just above my door as she almost stumbled trying to reach that high. I reached out onto my desk to grab my phone and saw that it was 2:48pm and the school has this stupid thing where the new freshman go on a mandatory orientation starting at 3:00pm on move-in day. I tilted the screen to show Meg and I could see the tears start to well up already. I placed my hand on her cheek and shifted my eyes from her left eye to the right and slid my thumb gently under her eye just as a tear fell to meet it. I wiped it away and told her that she wasnt allowed to cry because shed see me again soon. She let herself believe that and smiled as she wiped her other eye and got off the bed. We said our goodbyes after I had walked the two most important women in my life back to my moms car. Being the boy, I had to hold back my tears and I was definitely pushing the time limit as I stood there and watched them drive away. Meg glanced out the window and blew me a kiss, I caught it and set it on my heart, and blew her one right back to watch her do the same. I turned around and rushed off to orientation, which would consume my life for the next four days and begin the next four years. I finally caught up with my orientation group who all had a look on their face similar to mine, that God, I dont want to fucking be here right now look. We had gone through some of the most boring things any group of people could ever accomplish in a single day. We had the overly-nice college staff welcome us to their campus, which was great because I thought we got that same greeting when we got our acceptance letters, you know, the ones that say Congratulations and Welcome to South Hill College. Either way we still had to go through all these fun activities, but thats certainly not what I thought of them by the end of the day, which couldnt have came any slower.

Finally at about 11:00pm we got to go back to our dorms. I very quickly discovered that my roommate was never going to be around, I didnt even see him at orientation. All I knew about the kid was that his name was Ryan Baxter and he was from some small town south of the college, I cant remember exactly where. Anyway, I walked into my room and closed the door behind me making it my goal to reach the bed before I passed out. I took of my clothes and covered myself with the one sheet I had and tried to fall asleep for the first time at SHC. My first night was one of those nights that you cant really remember if your dream was real or if it just was so convincing that all five of your senses were completely involved in it. Except my dream didnt feel like a fantasy at all, in fact it felt like something I had dealt with before, almost as if I had already had this dream, almost as if it had manifested itself from the darkest part of my mind, the part I never want to believe. I shot up in my bed with a cold feeling hovering over my chest. Dazed and confused about where I was for the first couple of minutes, I frantically searched for my phone and saw the time was 3:13am. As I finally registered the time in my head I had remembered what I woke up from in the first place, a loud bang that nearly took my door off its hinges. I mean this knock shook the door in such a way that I couldnt stand the thought that a kid could of possibly hit it that hard. I rolled out of my bed that was unusually high from the ground and slid some sweatpants on. The very first step I took the door knob rattled, like someone was trying to open my door. I winced as my right foot started to sting, I took a deep breath and looked forward. I continued to take the next few steps carefully to make sure I made hardly any noise at all to get to the door and tried to focus my eyes through the peep whole. As fast as I could I shoved my body away from the door and fell to the floor as soon as I saw what was out there. A black shadowy figure, just standing right in front of my door and its head was completed with empty holes where the eyes shouldve been, staring right at me. But what made me jump back so quickly was that its head quickly snapped to the right and almost flew into the door, like it was going through it. As I sat there on the cold tile floor of my room my chest expanded over and over again trying desperately to catch my breath. I jerked my head to the right to see Ryan sleeping like a rock in his bed, his covers almost completely covering his face. There was no way in Hell he had actually slept over that. I slowly stood up and as carefully as I could opened my door. I was stunned; nothing, nothing was there. I put my feet on the carpeted hallway floor and stood just outside of the door frame and checked both ends of the hallway only to find nothing but darkness. Hastily, I stepped backward into my room, closed the door and shoved my shoulder into it as I locked it and shook the handle to make sure it wouldnt open. No matter what had been running through my head at the moment I knew that I was standing at a familiar distance from the door, just letting my eyes tear into its poorly stained woodwork. I stood there for ten, maybe fifteen minutes before I slowly returned to my bed, clutching my sheets to my chest. Needless to say, I got very little sleep that night and had my eyes fixed on the door like nazis were about to storm in and take me away. I lay in that position ready to get up and fight, run, or do whatever first came to mind. The one thing I kept switching my focus to was the crucifix my Mom had hung above the door frame,

asking myself if it really made a difference. I would find the answer to that question soon, far too soon that I wouldve liked too.

Ch. 6 During the next three days of orientation I made a lot of friends. Mostly guys in my hall. Just about all of us on the 4th floor were at SHC for sports, some wrestling, others football or soccer. I was the only track kid other than our very own Sweedish hallmate. As much fun as I had during the day with these guys it would still never cover up how fightened I was. At night I stayed awake in bed, pretending to sleep whenever my roommate would leave or come in. I kept my eyes fixed on the door as I watched the shadows of people passing by play against the pale white ceiling of my dorm room every night until classes started. My classes were pretty straight forward, I was majoring in criminal justice and everything seemed to be almost too easy, so I had virtually nothing to do when I got back from practice except to shower. The time I spent just sitting in my dorm I tried to write down and describe what I had been seeing, maybe hoping to tell someone, but the only person who would listen is Meg. Shes the only person in the world besides my mother who knew I wasnt making this up or dreaming any of it, yet something in the far and darkest corner of my mind made me choose not to tell her, or any one for that matter. On top of all the things that had been happening I knew that whatever was following me, or trying to hurt me wasnt from my house. I cant tell you how I knew this, its just that the energy didnt feel the same at all. This one felt far more violent than the one at my house. Or maybe could it be that I was just alone now, that Im more vulnerable and out of the care of the blessed walls of my house? These thoughts would plague my mind every night as I lay there staring at the ceiling praying that I would get some good sleep. As usual eventually I did and continued day in and day out like that. One day after practice, maybe a week or so after I had seen the figure at the door, I finally got an idea. I took what money I had left in my wallet and drove down to the nearest Radio Shack and picked up one of the nicest digital video cameras they had, more importantly, one that had night vision. I paid and thanked the cashier as I sped back to the dorm. I took one glance toward the sky which was almost dark blue as the sun was setting behind me. I ran up the echoing stairwell to my dorm room and shut and locked the door. It was Friday and Ryan had just left;I could tell by the lingering scent of cheap cologne slowly start to dissipate. I sat down on my bed and ripped open the box for the video camera, threw the directions on my sheets and popped the batteries into the back of it. After holding my thumb on the power button with my hand carefully slid under the strap on the right of the camera I started going through all the settings until I found what I wanted: night vision. As it got darker and darker in my room from the setting sun I set the alarm on my phone for 2:50am knowing that I wasnt going to sleep either way. I set the camera on my desk, laid my head on my pillow, threw the sheet over me and just stared the clock on my desk.

Miraculously I had fallen asleep from pure exhaustion, but woke up early, not to any thud on the door, or blaring alarm from my cell phone. This time I had opened my eyes and got the usual feeling of disorientation and haziness. What was weird was that as soon as I had opened my eyes my head twitched quickly to the right. I just took a deep breath, closed my eyes and opened them again. As my vision focused on the wall in front of my face I sighed and pulled the covers back up to my chest. That very next second I had finally realized what had woken me up in the first place; my right foot was tingling, like I had just gotten hit there. My eyes shot open and I just lay there staring at the wall, my heart racing, and my lungs filling and collapsing with every breath I took. I kept trying to turn around, but I just couldnt let myself. Every shred of common sense I had was infectiously taken over by the fear that had, once again, made its home in my mind. I could feel the blood coursing through my veins, feeling every heart beat in my fingertips and toes. Unfortunately, thats not the only thing I felt; I had that feeling that I get when Im waking to class or down the hall and I know someone is looking at me, just staring right at the back of my head. The temperature in my room began to slowly drop as I could see my breath in front of my face more and more clearly. I knew exactly what was going to happen if I just sat there, I knew all too well what was going to happen. I placed my left hand on the cautiously against the wall and with all my strength flipped my body to face the rest of the dorm. What I saw I can not possibly describe, for the English language has no word for what I felt, no word to describe how quickly my heart had stopped. What I had seen was the very shadowy figure that, just a week before seemed restricted by my doorway, as if it couldnt move past it. This figure was the reason I had silently thanked my mother for hanging the crucifix above my door, and now I had very little hope that it had helped to any extent. The tall, dark figure that I could feel staring at my back was now seemingly crouching maybe four or five inches from my bed side staring right at me. It seemed angry, but not just in general, I had the feeling that every ounce of anger and hatred that this thing had was for me. I laid there for nearly a minute before the figure stood up, with its dark head still angled down at mine and I couldnt pull my eyes away from it, but I at the far end of the room I saw the door slowly start to open to the dark hallway outside. As soon as the door had opened just enough for someone to slide in, the figure immediately rushed backward, still facing me, as the door slammed behind it with a force that no man could of. I swung my legs over the edge of the bed, slid some shorts on as fast as I could and snatched the camera from my desk and ran for the door. It wasnt until I to the end of my room when my heart sank. I looked up and saw something dangling just above the top of the door frame, I let my hand scale the wall to find the light. When the room was lit up I saw what was supposed to be protecting me, upside down hanging over the door frame. I stood there for what felt like forever as a deep sense of fear settled in my stomach. I snapped out of it and shut the door behind me and switched the camera on. With the lights off, I could see a faint flicker at the opposite end of the hallway; the side that no one lived in, and the side that had no electricity. My heart still racing and now every hair on my arms and neck raised, I took slow steps down the hallway only able to see through the display

screen on my camera. On the screen I could see the time that had been set up for display at Radio Shack; it was already 3:03am. How could? I set my alarm for 2:50am I could barely think straight being this scared, let alone try to figure out how my alarm didnt go off. So many things were racing through my mind that I could barely keep up with the theories and assumptions that had manifested themselves by the terror that had now become a reality. As I passed every room on my end of the hallway, I saw that everyone had been in bed already; no lights on, no TV noise, no talking...nothing. I had made it the stairwell which split the two sides of the fourth floor. I had stopped right before I crossed the threshold of the other half with the lights now flickering in my face, and my vision limited not only to the camera, but the darkness that lay just in front of my face. I took the next step as my foot separated my half and the other half of the hallway. Im not sure what scared me more, just being in that half of the hallway in the complete darkness, or the fact that as soon as my body had crossed the threshold the lights had stopped flickering. I snapped my camera all around me as I backed up into the corner making it impossible for me to get snuck up on. I felt so helpless, without the ability to see whatever was in that hallway with my own eyes. I was reduced to the small privilege of the display screen sticking out of the camera that was shaking in my right hand. I placed my left forearm to the wall as I shifted my weight to being walking forward again. I reached the halfway point in the hallway as I scanned the camera from left to the right slowly trying to see as much as I could. I had passed room number 459 panning the camera left and then slowly back to the right as my eyes caught something on the screen, I jerked the camera back to face the emptiness that lay down the middle of the hallway. I couldve worn I had seen a black shape standing at the very end of the hall flash across my screen. As I stood there frozen in place and my breaths becoming shorter, I started to feel the temperature drop and I made the best decision of my life: Run. I kept the camera firmly in my hand as I drove each knee forward in a full sprint to my room, never looking over my shoulder once, too afraid as to what I might see following me. I got to room 424 and almost overran it as my hand caught the door knob to pull my weight back towards the door. I quickly got in and shut the door and locked it and once again found myself backing slowly away from the door, camera in hand, and nearly hyperventilating as my feet met the cold tile floor and felt the all too familiar sting in my right foot. I turned the camera off, set it on my table, and carefully lay in bed as I watched my crucifix swing helpless over the door; I prayed. I prayed that I would never be harmed again, that I nothing would cross the border of room ever again and that I would be safe. I soon learned that I shouldve prayed for much more protection, because, soon, I was going to need it.