The room was black, a solid black that coated the air and pressed down on Alex’s chest, making his breath come in labored drags. He rolled his head on the sweat-soaked pillow, straining to see.
Nothingness. Silence. Cold, heavy, blank emptiness. And yet he knew they were there, crouching, waiting. Ready to scuffle across the concrete floor on tiny claws the second he dropped his guard. Ducking into pockets of shadow neglected by the sickly moonlight. Moving in jumps, creeps, slides, like the wet breeze though the broken window and the choking gasps that caught in his throat. There, behind a bulging Adam’s apple, fighting to move. Fingernails dug into the palms of tight fists, gooseflesh rose on a bare chest raked by another gust of river mist. And the sour smell of Alex’s fear, feeding them.
He could hear them now, laughing softly. Raspy little sighs in the dark, digging at his brain like a corkscrew. He forced his eyes shut and clenched his jaws, grinding molars. Bare chest arched until the air could come in and tickle his back; then it fell with a force that shook the bed and was still. He strained to hear over the settling bedsprings, but the blood pounding in his ears was audible about all else.
Oh I gotta calm down… Oh shit! What was that?!
His eyes burst opened and scanned the floor, crazily.
Where’d it go? By the door? Oh God, oh god…
Chest began to heave, lifting Alex’s back off the bed again and sending him into another heaving fight for air. Wheezing, gulping. He saw stars, tasted the burning sunburst in his lungs.
Gotta breathe man, gotta breathe. It’s all in your mind…
Slowly, the fit subsided and Alex was able to squeeze back the tears of rage and humiliation as he forced his arms to relax and slowly flexed his fingers. They hurt. Now his ankles; they cracked as he rolled them. It was a strange and somehow reassuring sound that echoed off the floor and bounced around the dark room. His body unwound as he laughed at himself.
Oh man I’m such a dumbass. I gotta stop doing this to myself… There’s nothing here, there never was, oh man…
And then they struck.
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