Jin felt a little dumb and laughed at himself. "What am I saying?" he asked himself. He stretched a bit, feeling well-rested from his sleep. Jin sat upright, shifted near the edge of the bed, swung his legs down, and stepped into his sandals.
He reached for the door, but it didn't open when he turned the knob. Jin's brows furrowed in confusion. He twisted the knob harder, thinking it was stuck, but after several twists, nothing worked. "Did he lock me inside?" he wondered.
Jin banged on the door, hoping Alex could hear him. "Alex! Alex... Alex,are you there?" he asked in doubt. "It's no time for playing games... open the door!" he shouted out several times while banging on the door.
After what felt like an hour to Jin, he finally decided to break the door down. But before he could, he heard the sound of a key turning in the keyhole, clicking the lock open. Jin raised his brows in suspicion. The door remained closed, but it was now unlocked.
"I didn't even hear any footsteps," he said to himself.
Jin slowly backed away, tiptoed to his bed and tucked himself under his blanket. "Calm down Jin, it's just weird scenarios," he whispered to himself. He repeated those words several more times until he heard the keys turning again. This time faster and more desperate but the door wasn't budging open. His heart raced from the anxiety. The disturbing noise went on for a moment, then stopped, leaving a heavy silence for five minutes.
Jin felt tense, his body stiff and his eyes tightly shut, as if closing them would make the problem go away.
The door slowly creaked open. Jin could feel a presence near him, but he didn't dare peek out from under the blanket. The bed dipped heavily, as if the person sitting there weighed as much as an elephant. Then he felt it,a small hand, about the size of a baby's. It gently pulled at his blanket. Jin held on tightly, not wanting to deal with whatever that presence was.
The grip became persistent, then turned into patting on his head, giving Jin every frustrating sign to get out of his hideout. Still, he kept his iron grip on the blanket.
Then the pestering stopped. Jin didn't come out right away, but he started feeling suffocated from the heat building up under the cover. The silence that enveloped the room felt dangerous, but he needed air. H
So he slowly peered out, his eyes still shut tight.
"WAAAAA! WAAAAAH!" Loud, screeching cries of a baby cracked through the silence of the room.Jin opened his eyes from the loud, screeching cry, feeling more shocked than afraid. The room was still dark and quiet, and Alex slept peacefully next to him.
Jin was still lying flat on his back, neatly tucked in bed. Sweat covered his skin and he trembled slightly from the nightmare, his heart beating rapidly in his chest. He couldn't believe what he had just experienced, and he began to doubt whether he was awake or trapped in another dream.
"Alex... Alex!" Jin called out, gently shaking him.
Alex stirred awake. "What's wrong?" he asked sleepily.
"Have you heard any strange noises?" Jin asked softly, trying to remain calm. His body shook as he imagined whatever presence had been in the room.
Instead of getting up, Alex just laid back down better to the center of the bed and pulled the cover over himself.
"Al... Alex?" Jin called out, his confusion quickly overpowering his fear.
"What's wrong, Jin?... Nightmares or stress?" Alex asked, his voice muffled from under the blanket."Is that how you show concern for another person?" Jin asked, shocked by Alex's casual response.
"Well, I asked you three times actually infact,more than five times,and you told me it was nothing. So I decided to go back to sleep," Alex said sleepily.
"When did I... wait!"
Jin stopped talking the moment he sensed it,that exact same looming presence from his dream. Panic spiked through him. Without another word, Jin immediately buried himself under the blanket, snuggling tight against Alex's body to force the fear away.Alex noticed Jin trembling next to him and wrapped an arm over his shoulder, pulling him into an embrace. Jin felt the gesture and relaxed a little, but his body stayed tense.
He uncovered his head from the blanket and saw Alex with his eyes closed. Alex slowly opened them, staring at Jin for several seconds before smiling and pulling him even closer. Alex was drifting back off, but he couldn't shake off the strange feeling from Jin's expression. When Jin had peeked out from the blanket, his eyes looked completely devoid of emotion like two dark, hollow souls staring back at him.
"I'm probably just seeing things," Alex thought to himself. "Being this tired is definitely making me hallucinate."he internally said.
Soon after, the atmosphere in the room softened enough for Alex to fall fast asleep. But Jin kept fighting to stay awake, terrified of running right back into the nightmare that brought that strange presence every time he started dozing off.
After hours of fighting it, the darkness slowly faded into the soft glow of morning, bringing a bright, crisp new day. Exhausted from sleep deprivation, Jin finally succumbed to slumber the moment the first glimpse of light filled the room.