I had been chosen by my boss to go to a conference out of town. I felt excited at first that I would get out of town for a few nights. I lived in a city that was rather small so the idea of going to a more metropolitan area was refreshing. I was looking forward to trying new restaurants and doing a little exploring of the shopping scene.
I was hoping that my hotel would be closer to downtown but unfortunately I had found it to be a little out of the way. It was listed as a hotel online and had some pretty nice pictures but when I got there, it had more of a run-down motel vibe.
The first day of the conference was long. It was a lot of socializing with people from other companies, mostly small talk. Once I got to my hotel room I set my bag down on a dresser. Then I went to strip off the comforter because only God knows that amount of times it has actually been washed.
I looked down at the comforter that was now in a heap on the floor and saw that the bottom part of the comforter had a dark stain on it. It was faded so I knew the comforter had been washed at least once. I further inspected the sheets on the bed and didn’t see any other stains. I kicked off my shoes and laid down on the bed. I began to scroll on my phone and when I realized one hour started to creep up to two, I hit the lock button on my phone and set it down on the bed next to me.
I stared up at the ceiling. I didn’t really focus in on the popcorn affect of the paint until I saw one of the bumps start to move. Something was crawling along the paint. I squinted and realized it was an orange bump, more commonly known as a ladybug. I thought it was a little strange that it was on my ceiling. But it was the middle of October so it probably wasn’t that strange after all. I went to the bathroom and grabbed a wad of toilet paper, preparing to take a life.
I wasn’t a big fan of killing things, no matter how small. I hated bugs being in my space but I also didn’t believe it was necessary to kill them. Apparently I haven’t always been this way. According to my mother, when I was a child and there was a bug in the house I would volunteer as tribute. She also said half the time I would run up to the bug and vice grip it between my thumb and pointer finger before she even had time to hand me a tissue. She told me that lady bugs had been my favorite insect to kill because I had liked the way the shell crunched between my fingers. I have no memory of this.
I returned to the bed and jumped up on it to try and reach the ladybug. Of course I was too short. I felt stupid thinking that I could have reached him. I pathetically attempted to jump up and grab him. He began to crawl away from me. I tried to jump higher, reaching desperately up to the ceiling, barely even touching it. I had gotten too close to the edge of the bed and jumped up to reach for it one last time. I landed one foot on the bed but the other foot missed and violently threw my body off balance. I fell awkwardly onto the crunchy carpet just barely missing the dresser. When I hit the floor and I heard something. It sounded like a little boy had let a giggle escape…
I felt a sudden intense fear of being watched. I looked around the room but obviously didn’t see anyone. I ran to the window. It had been slightly cracked open and there was a group of high school aged boys in the parking lot. I assumed they had been staying there for a sports tournament or something because I could see multiple of them wearing blue and white letterman jackets. They were laughing and chasing each other around the lot. I went to close the window and saw that there had been a slight tear in the screen. I assumed that was how the ladybug had gotten in. On the one hand I was relieved that there were explanations for the things that caused my fear. On the other hand I felt uneasy about the idea of the window being open for how long and all of the insects that could have crawled into the room.
I thought about calling the front desk to possibly switch rooms but I didn’t. I didn’t know if that kind of information would be relayed to the company I worked for and this was the first time I had been chosen to go out of town. I didn’t want to be seen as picky or difficult by my managers if by chance they got that information. I wanted them to see me as a team player. I decided to have some food delivered to my room while I took a shower. I ordered a pizza with pepperoni, green pepper, and pineapple. I was excited to know that the entirety of it would be for me and I could choose to eat it all in one sitting or ration it out. It might have sounded silly but the idea of having that slight moment of control was exciting to me.
After I showered, I watched tv until my pizza was delivered. I ate half the pie, and then folded the box in half to squeeze into my room’s mini fridge. I was exhausted from eating so much and laid down. I woke up the next morning to my alarm going off at exactly 6:30am. I did my usual morning routine of showering, blow drying my hair, applying my makeup, and then getting dressed in my business casual attire. I headed to the location of the conference. I was unsure why at the time but walking out of the hotel released a very heavy feeling on my shoulders and I felt like I could breathe better.
When I returned to the hotel, my routine had been very similar from the day before. I threw myself down on the bed and began scrolling. I didn’t get to spend as much time on my phone though because I had used it much more often during the day. The constant forced conversations with strangers was beginning to drain me. I had escaped twice to sit in the women’s restroom and once to sit in my car. I sat on my phone all three times and spent way more time away from it all than I should have.
I pulled my phone charger out of my purse on the bed and reached over to plug it in to the lamp right next to me. I saw another ladybug crawling across the side table, towards the light from the lamp. I shuddered and wondered if there had been any bugs next to me while I slept the night before. I went to the dresser and picked up the wad of toilet paper I had set down from the previous day. It was part of a failed attempt before but it wouldn’t be this time.
I still had difficulty getting the courage to pick it up but I did ever so gently. I didn’t want to crush it, I just wanted it gone. I walked into the bathroom and threw it into the toilet. I stood over it and watched as the toilet paper slowly opened up while the water soaked into it. I could see the lady bug try to crawl out from under it. Its silhouette was getting closer and closer to the edge of the paper, almost escaping. Right before it reached the very edge, about to be free, I grabbed the lever and flushed it down. I put the cover over the seat and washed my hands.
I grabbed the pizza from the mini fridge and turned on the tv. I began watching Ridiculousness on MTV. I saw a drunk man jump onto a beer pong table, collapsing it. I laughed at the stupidity and then suddenly stopped when I saw two ladybugs begin to fly around in the light from the screen. I looked at the tv in disbelief. I didn’t understand how two more lady bugs could be in my room.
I got up and grabbed my shoe. I smashed it into the tv, colliding with both ladybugs. I killed two bugs with one shoe and I was proud of myself. Suspicious, I walked over to the window. After throwing open the curtains, I found the window cracked open again. I closed the window and made sure it was locked. I told myself that it must have been housekeeping.
I looked around the room for any sign that housekeeping could have been in the room while I was out. I saw the reflection of the open bathroom in the mirror across from it that was hanging on the wall. The mirror, across from the bathroom and next to the front door, was visible from almost every angle of the room. In the reflection I noticed two perfectly folded towels on the sink. I looked up above the toilet and noticed a vent. I wondered if that could also be where the lady bugs have been coming from. I hadn’t seen any lady bugs in the bathroom so I shrugged off the thought and decided to blame it on the window again.
I went to lay in bed. I left my shoe where I had dropped it on the floor below the tv. I also left the smudge of insect guts on the tv screen. I went back on my phone and scrolled until I felt tired enough to go to sleep.
The next morning I got up and was ready to head to the conference. I looked over my clothes carefully before I put them on to make sure nothing had crawled into them. I felt on edge and paranoid but also ready to kill anything small that I saw moving.
When I got out to the parking lot I looked up towards the window to my room. The curtains and window were still visibly closed from the previous night. I thought, they better stay that way.
When I returned from the conference, I looked down and inspected the bed before laying down on it. I was exhausted from the day of socializing but I wasn’t careless. I closed my eyes, afraid that I was going to see a ladybug crawling on the ceiling. It took me a couple of minutes before I felt the urge to open them. I got a familiar feeling, like I was being watched. I opened my eyes and saw no lady bugs on the ceiling. I looked over at the night stand and saw nothing crawling on top of it. I looked at the tv and saw nothing swarming around the screen.
I nervously peered over at the mirror that gave me a full view of the bathroom in its reflection. Nothing. I felt silly. Not ready to give up, I walked over to the window and pulled open the curtains. I looked down and saw that the window was fully closed. I even tugged on it to see if it had been unlocked but it didn’t budge.
I walked over to the bed and laid down again. A little defeated. I became quickly bored. I started scrolling on my phone again.
I had gotten to Twitter and began reading a tweet from Chrissy Teigen. I scoffed after realizing her hiatus from the app was very short lived and everyone knew it would be. It seemed all too common for celebrities to make big declarations on how they will remove themselves from toxic situations. Chrissy Teigen felt targeted and bullied so she left Twitter. Sometimes I get annoyed by all of the back and forth. Someone famous does something wrong, thousands, sometimes millions of people swarm their social media accounts, telling them they are horrible people, that they should be ashamed of themselves, sometimes people even tell them that they should die. It is a horrible cycle. The celebrity will then take a step back from social media but then come back to it. But the people who were swarming their social meeting are just waiting… all for the cycle to just happen again. They may leave but they always come back. They always come back. They always come back to the hate and the…
I was lost in my own train of thought when I almost let out a scream. A ladybug started to dive bomb my phone screen, attracted to its light. I threw my phone across to the other end of the bed but it bounced off and hit the floor with a thud. I looked all over myself to see if the lady bug had landed somewhere on me but it disappeared as soon as it had appeared in the light of my phone.
I got up and started looking around the room again. That’s when I saw another ladybug… crawling on the mirror. I chose my shoe as a weapon for the second time and brought it down on the ladybug, hearing the crunch, as it was fed to the glass. I lifted the shoe and there was the tiniest smear from where it had been in its final moments. I felt disgusted. I walked into the bathroom and began to wash my hands vigorously.
I then started to strip off my clothes, deciding a shower was the only way I would feel clean. I took extra care in scrubbing my skin. It started to turn red as it became irritated by the rough, hotel bar soap.
When I felt I had scrubbed as much as I could, I got out of the shower and grabbed my used towel that was hanging from the door handle. I shook it hard three times to make sure nothing had been on it. I then tightly wrapped it around myself. I walked over to the sink and began to brush my teeth. That is when I felt it…
I looked down and knew what it was before I even saw it. It was another ladybug… crawling up my leg. I swiped it away with my hand and saw it fall to the ground. I noticed that it fell among two more that had been crawling on the floor, right under the sink. I gasped. I ran out of the bathroom to grab one of my shoes. When I bent down to grab my shoe, I heard it again. It was a faint giggle. I froze.
Goosebumps covered my arms and legs. I felt nauseous from being overwhelmed. I didn’t know what to do. Then the light in my room turned off.
I ran to my bed and grabbed my phone to turn the flashlight on. I began waving my phone around the room. I didn’t know what I was looking for but the fear I felt was was starting to take over. I was shaking.
Think logically, think logically, think logically, I began to think over and over to calm myself. I was panicking in my locked hotel room. There was probably just a power outage. I was freaking out for no reason. I started to walk back towards to bathroom with my phone light leading the way.
That’s when I noticed it. I was about five feet away from the hotel room door and the light switch was right next to it. Pointed down. I had flicked it up when I had returned from the conference.
I slowly panned my phone flashlight to the right so it was shown in the mirror that provided me a view of the bathroom. I gasped. It felt like all of the air left the room. In the mirror, I could see a hunched over figure on the floor.
A thin, pale, naked man was crouched on the floor of the bathroom. He was staring into the mirror at my reflection with wide, crazed eyes. An uneven smile started spread across his face.
I felt sick to my stomach and an intense feeling that I was going to die.
I stared into the mirror at the man, frozen in place. He stared into the mirror at me. Then he started to crawl out of the bathroom…
I knew he was going to come after me. No longer frozen in fear, my survival instincts kicked in. I ran straight for my hotel room door because I knew very quickly that the man’s full body would be in the way of it soon.
I could feel the man’s bald, cold head as I kicked it with my knee. I screamed. I tried to quickly unlock the door but I felt the man grab my leg and then my arm with his cold hands. He yanked himself up quickly using my limbs to raise himself. I tried to push against him. He fell back slightly into the bathroom.
I undid the chain lock on the door and pushed on the handle. I felt a slight breeze of air as the door cracked open slightly. Then I felt a strong push. I fell hard down to my right and into the mirror on the wall. I heard the glass break as I hit it and fell onto the floor. Parts of my body were burning. I knew I had been cut by the glass.
The man began to climb on top of me and I let out another scream. I began crying out for help. Someone had to have heard me and someone has to be coming to help me.
I looked into the man’s eyes. They were empty, black dots. I quickly looked away disgusted. I saw my phone laying on the ground, the light of the flashlight making this horrific experience all the more visible.
Then all of a sudden this surge of anger began to flow through me. I reached my hand down where I felt a stabbing in my side. There was a large piece of glass poking me. I wrapped my hand around it and brought my hand up fast, stabbing into the man’s neck.
My face became flooded with a warm liquid and I closed my eyes and mouth and continued to bring the piece of glass in and out of what I knew was the man’s body.
I didn’t stop until I heard the hotel room door open. I heard somebody else scream. I didn’t know if it was the man or the person who came to rescue me. I threw the piece of glass down and struggled to move myself out from under the man. Once I was free, I crawled backwards and laid down on the ground, exhausted and crying. I looked up at the ceiling above me and saw something crawling along the ceiling…