A DEADLY ROOM

I wondered why I was the only one being sent to clean that room. It seemed foolishness for me because everything was old, cracked and smelling, but every Saturday evening my grandfather would command me to go and clean it. Out of my five siblings, I was always the one chosen to do something, more especially something unexplainable. I was always obedient to him, even though deep down my conscious was against what I was doing.

The room was weird, as silent as the grave. Every time I stepped my foot in it, I would have goose bumps, the hair at the back of my neck would even rise up, marking the presence of someone in that lonely room.

‘Mggm’, someone cleared his voice behind me. Yes, it was the voice of an old man. I was there busying wiping away the dust from the old typewriter which has been there for decades. My heart pumped very fast, and my eye balls were about to fall down, but still I stayed there glued to one position without moving. I certainly knew that I was alone in that room, hidden in the middle of the bush, but what I just heard frightened me so much that I even felt like going to the toilet. There were two bottles in front of me, half full of something that looked like a betadine solution, and I thought, ‘I will take these bottles and pour out this solution in the face of whoever is in this room’. I turned around with boldness and fearless to what might happen. ‘Oh my God’! I found nothing, no one and quickly sat on that old chair to take a deep breath. My knees were trembling with fear.

It was already dark outside and I couldn’t go anywhere because my grandfather usually picks me up after I finish cleaning. Six o’clock, seven o’clock, and half past seven, the time was now running very fast and he didn’t show up yet. My whole body began to shiver. It was like I was in the grave yard- silence and loneliness was all I could hear. As I was sitting on that high old chair in the room, I felt asleep. I leaned back and took a nap. Suddenly I heard ‘tap, tap tah’ on the dead typewriter, it was like someone was typing there. Quickly I opened my eyes, and still the sound was there but surprisingly, there was no one.

The smell in the room totally changed. I felt the presence of someone with me. Tears started rolling down my cheeks, I felt like screaming to the top of my voice but I was scared.

Suddenly the lights went off. I saw a human figure flashing just in front of me. Then a hairy hand started touching me. I could feel the fingers moving up my face, very long, cold and rubbery. It pushed me under the table, and I remembered the bottle with a solution I saw earlier on….