—Ahh!!!
I woke from a horrible nightmare, my heart pounding and sweat running down my forehead.
It gnawed at me even while awake.
—What the hell did I just dream?
Still drowsy, I placed my feet on the floor, only to notice a disturbing sensation.
I could feel warmth coming from some kind of fluid.
My body began to tremble.
My feet froze, submerged in the thick liquid.
The sensation spread through my entire body, and immediately I looked down, only to find a small stain of fresh blood on the floor exactly where my feet had been.
—Was it... real?
I must be hallucinating.
Surely this blood is just in my head...
Right?
I cannot keep living like this.
Sooner or later, this will catch up to me.
Time to start the day with the same routine as always...
...
—The same taste as always...
The food was always the same.
Never a different dish.
I am not complaining, but still, I wish I could try something different. Something full of feeling, like they always show in romantic novels, television series, or movies.
Roman...
tic...
What was I saying?
Damn it...
For some reason I am talking and sudd...
...
I wish I could go back in time and change my decisions, make the choices I would never have regretted. I would probably have my own house now, a partner, maybe be thinking about having a child...
And above all, I would be happy...
Why can't I be happy...?
...
—"Little star... where are you...?"
!
—What was that?
For a moment I heard a... lullaby?
It was strange. I should not have heard that kind of song in my apartment.
—"Little star... are you...?"
Something weird is happening.
The same song again.
Why?
—"Little star... are you... DEAD?"
Damn it...
It is scaring me.
Sweat keeps running down my forehead.
My eyes dart all around the room, around the apartment, searching for the source of the song.
My ears sharpened when I suddenly heard overwhelming laughter...
—Hehehe...
The laughter came from my room.
It sounded like a baby.
My whole body tensed.
Whatever was in there was not a normal baby...
My slow, heavy footsteps echoed through the now noticeable silence of the apartment.
But when I entered my room, I did not find a baby.
Instead, lying on the floor was a rope tied into a noose, marked with small stains of dried blood.
—This is not normal.
A rope should not be in my apartment.
I got rid of all of...
All of...
...
My head spun. The bathroom seemed to move through my vision.
Along with the nausea, a word entered my mind...
A nam...
"53r3n@"
Every time I pronounced it...
Something seemed to resonate from the deepest part of my heart...
—Se... r... e...
...
!
—I am sure I heard something...
I stood up and searched for the source of the noise.
I found it.
A book had fallen from my shelf.
"Silent Peeks: Twin Hills."
I bought it a few years ago.
I remember it caught my attention because it was written by Deyvis Lynch...
I still remember that beautiful work fondly...
...
Suddenly I felt a...
Breeze?
It was as if it were asking me to leave...
Leave the apartment.
I had not asked myself that question in a long time.
I do not know whether the pandemic has ended or whether the quarantine is over.
Honestly, I would like to know, although I have no internet to verify it, but...
—I do not have a phone...
Ha, ha, ha.
I am still surprised I survived this long without a phone or internet.
Anyway, I do have a landline.
It is strange to own one these days, but I do.
So I decided to use it to call xxxxxx.
The phone began to ring.
Miraculously.
I thought it would no longer work because of its age.
The apartment owner said the phone was older than the building itself.
When someone answered, nobody spoke.
I could only hear faint breathing.
It was subtle, but I could tell the person on the other end of the line was having trouble breathing.
—53r3n@?
Nobody...
Only the same breathing followed by silence.
The sound of air being expelled during each breath was perfectly audible.
My skin could almost feel it...
Tightening in the process.
And then the call ended.
—But what the hell is happening here?
I was sure I had called xxxxxx.
But that certainty shattered immediately when I noticed something...
The phone cable...
Had been cut.
It could not possibly work.
—Damn it.
—Then how... was I able to call?
Something is happening in this place, and I do not want to become its victim...
As soon as I had my "revelation," I immediately headed toward my apartment door.
But before I could even take a step, something stopped me.
My senses flared.
My head filled with a single thought.
The bathroom.
I have to go to the bathroom no matter what.
When I did, there was nothing strange.
Just a normal bathroom.
I spent some time examining the room.
The toilet, the sink, the shower...
Everything looked normal at first glance.
But as I was about to leave the bathroom, a sound from the shower stopped me.
It sounded like stones falling, collapsing...
!
My body turned quickly toward the noise...
—That scared me...
Surely this lousy apartment is falling apart.
That must be it.
There is no other explanation.
When I stepped into the shower, I could not help freezing at what I saw...
—This is not normal.
A circular hole had appeared in one of the bathroom walls.
It was unnaturally perfect.
Bloody handprints surrounded it.
I approached to see what was inside, but there was nothing except darkness and gloom deep within the passage.
It did not even connect to the neighboring apartment
My hands were sweating profusely.
And only one thought occupied my mind.
The hole stretched for an enormous distance.
Maybe meters...
I was not sure, but I could not see the end of the tunnel.
A tunnel whose dimensions were macabrely perfect for a human being to crawl into...
It was terrifying...
...
!!!
—A baby?
I had heard a baby crying...
And unfortunately for me, it was not coming from the tunnel in the wall.
Instead, the crying seemed to come from the sink in my bathroom.
The very room I was standing in.
—I do not like this...
Slowly, I left the shower and approached the sink.
I was not sure whether I had really heard a baby or if it was another hallucination, but whatever the reason, my body was responding to the danger.
My hands clenched into fists in a desperate attempt to reassure myself.
Sweat appeared once more.
The beating of my heart echoed in my head.
—Da... ddy...?
!
I backed away quickly and fell to the floor.
—Damn it, what was that?
Whatever I had seen in my sink was definitely not a baby.
It could have been anything except a newborn...
I got up and approached again...
I felt nauseous. Just looking at it was revolting and terrifying...
I had not been mistaken. That thing cried like a baby. It was grotesque.
It had no skin.
Only a body made of pulsating red flesh. Viscous fluids covered it entirely. Some kind of transparent liquid surrounded it in the sink. Its limbs were tiny. They resembled arms and legs, but they had not developed properly. They barely had enough shape to be called limbs. Its head was horrible.
Its eyes had only developed enough to allow vision. Its mouth could only be described as disgusting. A slit seemed to serve as a nose. And two holes on the sides...
Those were its ears. Or at least where ears should have been.
That was not a newborn. It was an unborn child.
A malformed fetus.
—It is... moving...
It tried to raise its arms and malformed hands.
Opening and closing them.
Imitating the movements of a baby.
My body was ready to run.
The panic and the pounding of my heart only amplified the terror I felt toward the thing moving in my sink.
A chill ran through my entire body when the monstrous creature began moving its mouth...
—Da... ddy...?
!!!
Damn it!
I am not staying in this room with whatever that thing is.
...
—Damn it...
The door would not open. It was locked or blocked by something...
—Somebody help me!
The panic, the rushed actions, the trembling hands...
They prevented me from thinking clearly.
—Are... you... leaving...?
Is that thing talking to me?
—Mommy... does not want...
!
I heard breathing...
A drop of water fell directly onto my head.
Wait...
Water?
With my trembling hand, I touched the drop. The texture felt different.
—It is not water.
I did not dare look up.
My head refused to turn anywhere except toward the exit.
I only knew that something was up there waiting patiently for me.
And it was not that fetus.
—Open, you damned door!
!
The door opened, and I rushed out of the room.
—Rot in there, bastards!
As soon as I vented my panic-fueled rage, I slammed the bathroom door shut and locked every latch possible.
Tears fell the moment I felt safe.
—I am alive...
I could only think one thing.
"I am alive."
It was the only thought in my mind during that moment.
—I am not spending another day in this hell.
I headed toward my apartment door with dreams of escaping this nightmare, but...
—The door... is sealed with padlocks...
Several padlocks blocked the door.
I tried to break them, but achieved nothing.
Exhausted, I collapsed against the door and noticed some marks on the wall.
—I remember...
I remember everything now...
Beside the door, several marks had been carved into the wall.
To be exact, there were 31 marks.
Each one had been made on a previous day.
And today was day 32.
The 32nd mark.
I had spent several months in isolation because of the pandemic.
But for the last 31 days...
I have been trapped here.
No way out.
No escape...
—A month... a month has passed since I became trapped in here...