I have this ability where I can recognize even the faintest of smells that exist. Whether it be muffins ten blocks down the road or even cars. Everything has a distinct smell of its own, even people. Some smell minty, or like popcorn or sweat. But everyone has their natural smell, everyone, except my mother… My life seems almost perfect except, for one thing, every night something really strange happens when almost everyone is asleep inside my tiny bedroom a strange smell creeps its way in. It stays all night and leaves when I wake up the next day. It’s a suffocating smell, its ominous presence terrifying. It’s a smell of a human. This has been going on for a few months and for the first week when I tried hunting it down, to figure out where it was coming from, running from the pitch dark hall rooms to the vast open backyard packed with the sounds of air whistling. Every time I got closer and closer but I was never able to catch it, whatever “it” was, possibly a spirit, a ghost? An obsessed stalker? I kept trying to convince my mother about it, who shared the bedroom with me, but she claims that she has never seen or heard anyone at night and it might just be my paranoia.
But only one person believes me, my best friend Samantha, I think the reason we became so close is her attractive and awfully divine fragrance, it’s not even close to anything I’ve ever smelled in my entire life. It’s like the perfect mixture of all the heavenly fragrances like coconut and vanilla but something about it made it so different from them. As I told her about it, her eyes gleamed with terror, “You think someone is following you? Watching you sleep at night” she asked hiding behind her shaky hands and almost shut eyes. “It could be something supernatural” I replied after some consideration. I decided that this night I am going to stay up and get ready with a baseball bat, I locked all doors tightly shut and even spread some holy water across the floor. Whatever this was, it was real and extremely powerful considering its smell I know it’s not my hallucination, I just know.
I had gotten ready to fight whatever this was and put an end to my sleepless nights, I could feel something entering my tiny bedroom. There was no way a human could have sneaked in as the place was perfectly enclosed, right? My mother was fast asleep and the clock struck 3. I felt shivers running down my spine. It continued to make its way, the toxic odor choking me almost to death, I could barely breathe. The sounds of the wind were evermore present, like a high-pitched creepy trumpet. Oh no, there they were, the sound of footsteps, slow and steady. As I looked at my mirror I was something trying to reach my sleeping mother. It was all so fast. I screamed as long as I could. The smell getting more and more unbearable. It engulfed me, and I oblivious, fell into a trance-like state followed by a deep sleep.
The weird part was I woke up on my bed but I didn’t remember being there. My mom called me for breakfast. The fact that she had no smell unlike anyone I knew still bothered me. “Honey I made you pancakes,” she said in a monotonous voice. “Thanks,” I said with goosebumps present from last night. “What were you doing up last night? You almost scared me with your loud footsteps” she said casually. My eyes opened wide “soo you heard that too? Mom that wasn’t me, I am telling you there is something wrong with this house.” “I think you might be right, those footsteps, but no one was here, maybe a ghost is haunting us”
This wasn’t the worst part of my day, turns out my best friend Samantha got into a coma and landed in the hospital the very same day. I felt terrible for her but soon after that the smell completely disappeared and I could finally sleep in peace. This tranquility carried on for several months until one night I was met with this heavenly smell I almost couldn’t recognize at first. “A hint of coconut,” I thought extremely pleased as I stared at my ceiling with utter horror. Samantha was covered in blood, her face with a creepy long grin. Her long messy hair all spread out. She looked satisfied. I couldn’t believe what I just saw until I turned back to see my mother on the bed lying unconscious, covered in blood as well. On the floor, a broken bottle of perfume with glass shattered everywhere had led the room to be filled with this same heavenly smell.