My best friend is quite literally perfect. He has the perfect face, the perfect personality, and Straight A’s in every subject. Girls flock to him left and right. Sometimes I found myself staring at him, wondering how somebody could have no flaws. But I won’t be able to see him the same anymore.
A few days ago he invited me to hang out at his house after school. I was quite excited since we normally hang out at the library or my house, so of course I said yes. His house was within walking distance from our school, so it didn’t take long for us to get there. When we arrived at his house, I was astonished. It was a beautiful modern house which was massive. I was always used to seeing small, run-down houses in our town so seeing this was quite a shock for me.
“Well, this is my house,” He said, smiling at me as I looked at his house in awe. “It’s nothing special.”
“I’ve never seen anything like this before. I’m quite scared to go inside. I don’t want to damage anything,” I said, waiting behind him as he unlocked the door. The inside was as beautiful as the outside. It was spotless. Everything was perfect. At that point, I honestly wished I was him. He gave me a tour of the house, and after we sat down on the couch and watched some random Netflix series of people cooking. At some point, he paused the show.
“Hey uh, I need to do something. I’ll be right back okay?” He said with a sense of urgency. He was smiling at me, but I could tell something was wrong. Before I could reply, he dashed up the stairs and after that, I didn’t hear anything. I was expecting to hear the slam of a door or something, but I didn’t. I was left sitting on his couch, confused with a bunch of different questions whizzing around in my head.
I sat there, waiting for him to come back. I waited, waited and waited. I checked the time. It had been around an hour. I was getting concerned now, so I decided to go and look for him. I wish I didn’t.
When I finished walking up the lengthy staircase, my head began to hurt. There were so many different doors, so how would I know which one he was in? I didn’t remember seeing this many rooms from the time he gave me a tour of the house. I decided to open each one. The majority of them were bedrooms, but one was just an empty, white room. When I entered the room, the door behind me shut by itself. My heart skipped a beat. Maybe it was the wind? I decided to ignore it and I realized there was another door in front of me. I opened it. The door behind me shut by itself. At this point I didn’t think it was a coincidence…once again there was a door. I opened it and this time…I was met with a dimly lit room with no windows. The door behind me didn’t shut this time. This room was extremely cold; It felt like I was in a freezer. There was a door in front of me but this time, it was slightly open. I decided to peek into the room.
I saw a grotesque thing with rotting flesh. It looked like a human being but with no skin, just muscle. But it was shaped weirdly. Very weirdly. It was washing the skin of a human. There were no bones, no muscles, just skin and hair. It was the same colour as my best friend’s hair. It was making gnarly noises while violently scrubbing the skin with a weird type of cloth. I saw different products set aside on the sink. Glue, an unusual purple substance, which is what I’m guessing was used to wash the skin and a weird glowy thing in a spray bottle.
At that moment I was completely frozen. My heart was hammering out of my chest, my head was spinning and my hands were trembling as I looked at the sight, my eyes wide open in fear. When I finally regained some type of movement, I ran. I ran as fast as I could possibly run. When I got out of all those rooms, I almost tripped running down the stairs. I sat down on the couch, breathing hard and my hands still trembling.
I think he heard me. Because a few minutes later he came downstairs. I don’t even know how he looked so..normal. I couldn’t even look him in the eyes.
“Hey, are you okay?” He said, looking concerned. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
“Yeah uh, my dad’s having an emergency,” I lied. “I really need to go now, sorry.”
I don’t know what he said because I quickly left his house and started walking to my house. My house was far away, so I didn’t even know why I was walking. I guess I just wanted to clear my head.
When I got home, I went straight to the bathroom. I sat there, bawling my eyes out and throwing up in the toilet occasionally.
I haven’t been to school since. I don’t think I can face him again. I knew there was something off about him. I just don’t get it. Was the room cold to preserve the skin? Wouldn’t the skin be rotting by now? What actually is he? I don’t think he’s even from Earth. I just want answers.