Dream your death.
It happened during a cloudy night in September and I was doing my homework in my room. It was my habit to do them from doing my homework in my room. It was my to do them from 8:00 pm to 10:00 pm or sometimes to 12:00 midnight. It is tiresome to do a lot of homework after some heavy duties in school. It is very sad to think that teachers never get tired of giving assignments as much as we get when we do them.
Maybe I was thinking too much.
I was solving some math problems which were part of my mathematics assignment. It was already past 9:00 pm and everything, except the crickets’ and the frog’ sound, was quiet. As I was about to write the last digit for the last item’s answer, silence broke when the phone rang.
I rushed to the phone, picked it up and said, “Hello?”
No answer.
“Hello? How may I help you?”
Still no answer.
“Well, I’m busy now. Will you tell me right away what this call is for?”
I was losing patience. I let myself listen for a few seconds then I hears a soft, fast murmuring that I did not understand and then a teasing laugh from what seemed like a voice of a man.
“Huh? I don’t understand, mister,” I said. “Maybe you just got the wrong number. Bye!” I quickly dropped the phone down. That was weird. Maybe it was just one of my friends trying to freak me out. Nice try.
I headed for my desk but the phone rang again. I picked it and said, “Hello?”
It was that laugh again and it was creep and a bit louder than the first one. My friends really wanted to freak me out and they were doing very well.
So I said, “Steph, Jack, or whoever you are, stop fooling me around, okay? It’s not funny!”
But the laugh continued.
I dropped the phone then. I really hate it when Jack jokes on me. I was fooled by him once and I will never be again.
But it rang again just before I could turn my head back to work. I completely lost my patience. I picked it up again and yelled, “Stop it already! You’re getting on my nerves! Will you just shut up?”
“Hey, honey, what’s wrong?” Mom was on the phone.
“Nothing, mom. I thought you were somebody else,” I replied.
“Okay. Um, Kelly, will you bring my red bag in my office? It’s in our room.”
“But, mom, I…”
“Please? I’ll double your allowance this week. This really very important.”
“”Yeah! Sure, mom. Thanks!
“Just be careful, alright? It’s already dark outside. Bye.”
That was a pretty good trade.
My mother’s office was just a block away from here. She must be very busy not to get the bag herself.
I went out of my room and saw my brother watching TV downstairs. I rushed to my parents’ room just beside mine to get the bag. I went in, turned on the lights and closed the door. The room was not that big so it was not difficult to find the bag.
As I took a step toward the table where it was, the lights went out. There was a blackout.
I felt for the things around the room until I reached the bag. As I touched the bag’s handle, the door of the comfort room opened then banged shut and I felt a heavy tap on my shoulder.
Dad must’ve returned home early today.
“Dad, do you have a flashlight?”
I felt the tips of my hair rise when nobody answered. I ran toward the door, not minding the thing, probably the trash ca, I knocked down along the way. I ran down the stairs and as I reached the foot, the lights went back. I went to my brother sitting on the sofa, still watching his favorite TV show.
“Jason, Mom told me to bring something to her office. You take care of the house while I’m out, okay?”
He did not answer. I shook him by his shoulders and said, “Hey, are you listening?”
He turned. To my surprise, it was not Jason.
I quickly removed my hand, slowly backed away, staring wide-eyed at his pale face. I was shaking all over and I couldn’t scream. He stood and laughed like the one I heard on the phone. He was wearing a blood-stained black robe but his face was covered in a smudgy clown’s makeup, were it was all black and white. He was holding a bloody knife in his left hand and waved his right hand in the air as if gently taking something invisible.
His wicked smile widens as if he was feeding on my escalating terror as he slowly moved towards me.
Hardly able to move, I continued my backward strides towards the kitchen. Then I tripped over something. When I looked down to my right, I saw Jason, Bloody and helplessly lying on the floor. His head was almost truncated from his body with a huge cut in his neck. I covered my mouth in shock, and cried on the sight of him. I looked up. The clown was already standing beside me. He was looking down at me, and as it neared me, I closed my eyes screaming… crying…
Then I wake up. I’m sweaty all over around and panting.
I slept over some unfinished math problems, which were ever part of my mathematics assignment, on my desk. I pick my pen to continue with my work.
It’s already past 9:00 pm and everything, except the crickets’ and the frogs’ sound, is quiet. I’m about to write the last digit for the last item’s answer when I put my pen down. My head throbs and I’m sleepy, but I know I’m not thinking that much.
Then, the phone rings.
SHARRAMYCATS TRANSLATIONS 