Where Am I?

Shreeekkkk!!!

Craasshhhh!!!

The loud sound of glass shattering, and shrill screams, abruptly awoke the young man from his slumber. His brows knitted up by the sudden disturbance and a small frown emerged on his forehead indicating his displeasure.

Cassius slowly opened his eyes.

Silence.

He turned his head around to see what's going on, but the darkness surrounding him hindered him from seeing anything.

Cassius gulped, feeling nervous. He was afraid of the dark.

He was used to sleeping with lights on at his home. But now that he was living with another person, he couldn't just do what he wanted.

He had once had a conflict with one of his roommates due to this problem.

One look couldn't tell, but the person who loved watching horror movies and addicted to reading supernatural books, was actually a scaredy-cat.

But despite this, Cassius was unable to get rid of his bad habit of reading novels before going to bed.

So now, even small noises and some ghostly shadows on the wall were enough to make his hair stand on end and make his imagination run wild.

Fortunately, his roommates were kind and considerate towards him.

After one night of accidentally exposing himself as a scaredy-cat, they came up with the plan of letting Cassius sleep earlier than them. In this way, he would be already deep asleep, the moment they're about to turn off the lights. And since his roommates were all night owls, they didn't have a problem with this agreement and instead persuaded Cassius to sleep before 9, treating him like a child.

Cassius also thought that this was maybe the case right now. Yet, he still couldn't help but feel anxious.

Even Cassius himself didn't know why he was feeling this way, and he couldn't figure out where his anxiety came from. The more anxious he was, the faster his chest went up and down.

Gasp!

Cassius put his hand on his chest and felt the loud beating of his heart against his palm. It was pounding hard and fast, as if his heart forcefully wanted to jump out of his rib cage.

Cassius felt alarmed. He immediately reached out to his left side and searched for his phone beside him.

Suddenly, a drop of water fell on Cassius' forehead, making his movements abruptly stop.

Cassius slowly touched the wet liquid on his forehead. It was warm and sticky.

"…. What's this?" Cassius asked himself, silence answered him.

Cassius raised his eyes and looked at the ceiling.

Right at the moment, the cold evening breeze blew by, violently knocking against the broken window. As if on purpose, a silver thread of moonlight peeped between the cracks, illuminating the place where Cassius was currently at.

Thanks to this small light, Cassius finally had the chance to see the appearance of the room. While squinting, the first thing that caught his attention was the dark and moldy ceiling in front of him. It was full of dust, it smelled rotten and a few strange words ugly written on the wall.

Strange. Cassius tilted his head to the side. Since when did their dorm look like this?

Cassius was still in a half daze state, so his thinking process was a bit slow.

Cassius furrowed his eyebrows, he got up from the bed and confusedly looked around the room. At the corner of his eyes, Cassius caught a sight of a spider crawling beside him.

"Ahhhhh!!"

Cassius woken up instantly, and he hastily jumped down from the upper bunk without hesitation.

Blaaagggg!!

"Argh, Fu—!"

Cassius quickly swallowed all the curses in his throat, bit his hand and howled silently, afraid of disturbing their neighbors.

It was the middle of the night. Although he couldn't guarantee that the other boarders were still awake and secretly doing things in their dormitory, it wouldn't be good if the dorm guard found out that room 206 was doing something mischievous again. His friends loved pranking Cassius, and every time they did, it would turn very chaotic. They even almost burned their dormitory last month.

Two of his roommates came from a powerful and influential family. If only they're not close friends with Cassius, they wouldn't even spare a glance of this small dormitory. The dorm guard had no choice but to only warn them that if something bad happens again, their points would be deducted to a negative number, and they would be kicked out of the dormitory instantly.

Thinking of this, Cassius couldn't help getting a headache. He pinched his nose bridge and silently cursed his friends in his heart.

Because he jumped down without preparation, Cassius fell in the wrong position and his ankle got twisted as soon as his foot touched the ground. Good thing he managed to grab the ladder just now, otherwise, it's not his ankle that would be broken but his head instead.

Cassius took a deep breath and slowly propped himself up by using the ladder as a support. After finally sitting on the bed, he carefully lifted his injured foot and gently put it on his other thigh.

Hisss.…

Cassius inhaled a deep breath. He actually wanted to massage his foot, but later on, he changed his mind. Even the slightest movement would cause him pain, what more if he twisted it around? Cassius was really the best definition of a big man with small courage.

It seems like he can't do anything for now. Let's just hope that his injury wasn't that serious, he still had class tomorrow.

Damn.

Cassius clicked his tongue in irritation and raised his head, glaring at the second bunk of the bed. He was ready to throw a bunch of curses like a madman when his mouth suddenly got tongue-tied.

"What the…." Cassius opened his eyes in horror.

The original double-deck bed was now a bed with three decks. The other pillar on the right side was broken, and it was made of some cheap wood.

Even Cassius was wondering how on earth the bed managed to lift a grown ass man like him when it looked so fragile that it could get broken just by a single push.

Cassius looked around. Each one has the same height of half of his body. No wonder, the fall was bad, and his foot got twisted when he jumped just now.

It's because the bed that he was sleeping in earlier, was no longer the same bed that he used to sleep in before. And their room that was originally painted with white and full of anime posters and AV stars was....

Cassius stiffly turned his head around the place. W-what's going on here?

"Casey? Brian?" Cassius called the names of his roommates one by one nervously. "… Marcus?"

No one answered.

Tikkk…

Another drop fell and landed on his cheek. Cassius raised his hand and wiped the liquid from his face. As soon as he saw what was on his fingers, his eyes instantly widened in shock, his eyes full of horror.

He hadn't had a good look earlier, but now that he was fully awake, Cassius finally realized what it was.

It was a bright, red liquid, and it smelled like rust. It was blood, and it's dripping right from the ceiling!!

"Ahhhhhh!!" Cassius screamed in fright and forcibly wiped away the blood stains on his cheek that were still warm.

"You guys, come out!" Cassius yelled angrily around the room.

The level of the prank his bastard friends pulled off this time was too much. It's not funny! He almost got a heart attack!

Receiving no response, Cassius quickly stood up from the bed.

Fine. You would rather not come out on your own? Fine then, I'll do it for you! Don't let me catch you, a bunch of retards!

Cassius searched the beds one by one while limping. Under the bed, the closet, the bathroom. The more places that he looked, the uglier his face became.

Cassius searched every corner of the room, but he found no one inside, except for himself. It seemed like all the people living here suddenly disappeared. He was all alone.

Cassius finally realized the seriousness of the situation.

With trembling hands, Cassius held the window's handle and cried out. "Come on, stop it. This is not funny!"

The loud beating in his chest intensified and fear quickly engulfed his body.

"Brian! Marcus!"

"...."

"Where are you? Where is everyone? Come out, please...…. I don't wanna play anymore…"

Silence.

Cassius felt like he's losing his mind. He put his hands on his head as he tried hard to analyze the situation.

Something's not right. Something's definitely not right!

He wanted to think that this was only a prank made by his friends, but his guts were telling him that it wasn't that simple.

He knew that they wouldn't scare him to this extent. From the moment he fell on the bed, they should've already shown up and then teased him, just like they used to.

He thought at first that maybe he was just dreaming. But the realistic pain that he felt and the detailed information from the surroundings was all telling him that everything was real!

"What exactly is going on?" Cassius asked himself. Didn't even notice his voice reveals the helplessness, fear, and anxiety of the owner.

Suddenly, a sharp pitch scream of a woman sounded from the corridor, startling Cassius.

"Ahhhhhhhhhh!!!!!—"

The scream sounds horrible, enough to make someone imagine all of the terrifying things in this world. It was long at first, and then it suddenly stopped. As if the owner of the voice saw something terrifying, making her scream like that. And then the next moment, the source of the sound was brutally cut down by something unknown.

The point is… The sound this time was much clearer and louder than previously.

Which means...

The sound of flesh being cut by a sharp object was heard, accompanied by a person's groans and whimpers.

Realizing what was happening outside, Cassius froze while his eyes turned wide as big as owls.

Tak. Tak. Tak.

The sound of footsteps was heard. From his perspective, the sound of footsteps was moving forward… and it was coming towards his direction!

Fuck!

Cassius quickly stood up from the ground and looked around for an object that he could use for self-defense.

His nerves were tense, his muscles were stiff, and his foot was still aching, but Cassius couldn't care less.

What is important right now is how is going to save his precious little life.

Suddenly,

The sound outside the door stopped and was replaced by an eerie silence.

Cassius held his breath and nervously stared at the door that was only a few steps away from him. In his hands was a thin branch that he found under the bed. He was holding it very tightly and closed to his chest, as if he was holding the most powerful weapon on earth.

Cassius didn't dare to blink, not even moving a single muscle in his body. His gaze was fixed on the door, looking intently, as if something terrifying would crawl in, the second he closed his eyes.

A few moments passed and there were still no extra movements outside the door. As if the noise that he heard just now was only a part of his imagination.

Cassius glanced at his foot and lightly pressed it on the floor. Cassius frowned, the pain brought by a broken bone helps to clear his mind.

Cassius tightened his grip on the branch. There's no noise outside, but it doesn't mean that that person was already gone. Perhaps the person was just hiding in the dark, silently waiting for Cassius to enter his trap.

Cassius' body shudders thinking of this. His eyes cautiously wandered around the room, afraid that someone might sneak in to enter.

Out of the corner of his eyes, Cassius found a small crack at the bottom part of the door. The door was made of wood, and it is already old to the point of decaying.

Through the hole, he saw a person.

It was a young man. The person seemed like he was the same age as him. The body was covered with blood and his arm was shockingly twisted in a strange angle, and his hand was still twitching. His eyes were wide open and his sight was set on Cassius, who was staring at him between the gaps. He's still breathing!

His mouth weakly opened and closed as he mouthed a few broken words that he couldn't understand.

Cassius shook his head in fear and covered his mouth to prevent the scream that was threatening to come out.

Cassius walked backwards and didn't notice the small bump on the floor, and accidentally tripped over, with his butt falling on the ground.

Cassius quickly bites his tongue. A taste of sweet and metallic, something similar to rust, instantly spreads in his mouth.

While frowning, Cassius caught a glimpse of a pair of eyes peeing at him through the window.

It was a scarlet red, like the color of blood. And the corners of the eye were bent downwards, seemingly smiling at him.

The owner of the eye was staring at him for who knows how long.

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