Jon opened the door and walked into the dark room, careful to shut the door behind him. There were a few beads of sweat forming just above his brow and his breathing was shallow, ragged. Jon wasn’t sure what he was doing here and felt unprepared for what might happen next, but there, in the dark void just feet away from him, Jon noticed a small object…
Walking up to the box, Jon picked it up, and immediately put it back down. The box was small, and light enough that Jon could lift it easily, but he could sense there was something horribly wrong with it. It was pitch black in color, a rectangular shape; just like the room he was in. It wasn’t slimy. It didn’t pulsate with light or throb like a living thing. It was just a box. A black box. And what room was he in? What room did he come from? What did he need from here? Jon’s mind was completely clear, sane, but like a patient waking up from a years-long coma, he had absolutely no idea what he was doing here, or why.
It was Tess. It was definitely her, Jon thought. Jon’s sister was always pulling pranks that often went a little too far and had a cut-throat’s taste for revenge; but so did Jon. If only he could just remember where he was…
She put this whole thing together, because of what I did. And really? A box? What, I’m going to find a play finger in there? A toy snake? Jon wiped his forehead and sweat soaked into the sleeve of his white knit sweater.
“Okay! Ha ha, very funny, Tess! You got me! You can turn on the lights now, I know you’re here. Can’t you just get over it already? I just gave your friend a little scare! No one got hurt! I know you probably, actually like him and, honestly, he seems like a great guy! A little dense, and a face only a mother could love, but hey! You’re happy! Right? So can we move on? Turn on the–”
Jon turned suddenly to the sound of the box falling to the ground. His muscles tightened and his pupils exploded open, trying to take in more light. But there was none available; just a lightless space. Dropping into a lower stance, he strained his eyes to make out the scene in front of him:
A dark room.
And a black box. Now on the floor, somewhere…
“Jon? I– I’m scared. Are you here?”
Jon jumped at hearing Tess’s voice behind him. When he landed back on the floor there was no sound, no echo.
“Fuck,” he swore, half-relieved the mastermind had finally revealed herself.
“Jon, it’s Tess. Come closer–”
Jon slowly turned around in the darkness, a half smirk on his face. He knew it had been a prank all along. And by Tess, how stupid could he have been. It’s just a box. It’s just Tess. Still, Jon had a feeling there was more to the room, more to the box, than just a prank. He was intent on finding out just that.
“You almost got me there, sis,” Jon chortled as he confidently started towards her voice. “You really–”
“JONATHAN!!!!”
The corpse of what looked like his late mother appeared out of the darkness in front of him. She had snapped into view so fast it was as if Jon had blinked, or someone had edited the wrong frame into a movie. One second there was nothing — absolute darkness — and now, this vile, putrid, rotting thing was screaming, writhing, directly in front of Jon. She was bleeding from her eyes and her teeth were sharp as razors. Jon just about shit himself.
“JONATHAN! You come here RIGHT NOW!” She swatted in the air at Jon, now only a few strides away. Jon was close enough now to see that this woman, more creature than human, was clearly not his mother. Her skin hung loosely from her deformed and spurred skeleton, like blood-stained rags on an unholy clothesline. Jon could count the handful of unnaturally long, white hairs sprouting from her warted head. The rest of her scalp appeared to have been recently removed and parts of skull shone through, matching the white of the hair. She had numerous eyes on her head and more were slowly opening, all over her decaying body. Jon was so horrified by the sight of this monster he didn’t realize the small amount of light now available to him, throwing a dim red hue onto the figure in front of him.
“What the FUCK! No!” Jon was losing it. This was no prank, this was a dream, a nightmare. And Jon was ready to wake up.
Before Jon could move his hand to pinch himself, the corpse flung itself at him, screeching like a banshee: “EEEEEEEE!!!” She made contact with Jon in a matter of seconds, blood spilling off her face onto Jonathan’s otherwise white sweater.
“FUCK!” Jon was ready and had reached up in time to defend himself; he was now holding on to the decaying head on either side, activating every muscle fiber in his arms as she gnashed her bloodied teeth, hungry for living flesh.
“GIVE ME A GOODNIGHT KISS JONNY!” She flailed her arms, scratching at Jon’s body, causing little tears in his shirt and pants. He couldn’t tell if the warm, wet sensation he was now feeling was his blood, or hers.
But he had had enough. This nightmare was fucking over. He squeezed his eyes shut as hard as he could while simultaneously wrenching the skull he had in between his hands back and forth. Back and forth.
“WAKE UP!!!! NO!!!!!”
Squeezing–
“WAKE UP JONNY”
Squeezing harder–
“FUCK THIS!!!!”
SQUEEZING!!!
Until–
Poof.
No more ghosts, no more voices, just quiet. Jonny could see the time projected by red LEDs, onto his ceiling, reading 7:36 AM and casting a familiar dim light onto the walls of his bedroom.
Shit, late for work. He rubbed his eyes deeply and threw the covers off, rushing to the bathroom. It was a cold winter this season and the sun had not yet triumphed over the night; Jon had been cold, sleeping in his white knit sweater. Jon pushed open the bathroom door. The room was dark. Jon carefully shut the door behind him before turning on the lights, leaving him in complete darkness. God, what a shit dream, he thought. He was still sweating and his heart rate had not yet returned to a restful state. Jon took a deep breath. He reached for the light switch but instead of finding the lights, knocked an object over onto the floor. There was no light switch there on the wall, but on the floor now, while even in complete darkness, Jon could tell, lay a sinister, black box.