Things weren’t always this way. I can still remember the time when I used to get eight hours of sleep. It wasn’t like it was that long ago, it had only been days. You might be wondering; why haven’t you slept. Him. The man with the hat that I saw every night at the foot of my bed. It all started when me and some friends from college decided to go to an abandoned asylum on a drunken dare.
The door creaked open as we stepped inside; a musty odor hitting us in the face. It was quiet inside the rundown building as we looked around. We only had our phones and some cheap flashlights that didn’t light up the dark hallways. I walked down the hallway, but as I was about to pass room 103 I paused. I looked at one of my friends walking ahead of me and decided to take a quick peek into the room.
It was surprisingly well-kept. The bed was still intact, as well as some of the last patient’s items still lying around the room in various places. I noticed a dusty picture frame and decided to walk over to it. I picked it up and wiped off some of the dust to reveal the photo underneath. In the photo, a man was wearing a tuxedo and an old bowler hat. I felt a hand suddenly grab my shoulder and dropped the photo with a scream. The glass in the frame shattered as I heard a laugh.
“Got you! You should’ve seen your face!” One of my friends said.
“Not cool! You made me break the picture frame!” I said, tearing up slightly. “Can we just go?” I added.
“It’s just an old picture frame. Don’t worry, nothing bad’s going to happen.” My friend said to try and calm my nerves. “Yeah… let’s go find Daniel and get out of here. This place gives me the creeps” He added.
We walked through the hallways, looking for Daniel. Eventually reaching the morgue.
“Daniel?” I called out, staying close to my friend as I looked around using the flashlight.
I saw a figure pass in the doorway of the autopsy theater. Me and my friend made our way over to the doorway, glancing around with our flashlights. Though we didn’t see our friend. I got my phone out to call him, but there was no service.
“Let’s just get out of here… maybe he’s already outside.” I said.
My friend didn’t disagree, and we made our way back down the halls to the main entrance. As we stepped outside we saw our friend waiting for us. We left the asylum, and because it was late we just went back to the campus dorms. My roommate was already fast asleep, so I decided to take a quick shower before getting into bed myself.
I closed my eyes and lay there for about half an hour. Just as I was about to fall asleep, I heard shuffling at the end of my bed. I opened my eyes and looked toward the sound, thinking maybe it was my roommate checking on me. Instead, I saw the man from the photo. Suddenly, I couldn’t move. It was like I was strapped down. He emitted a low growl before seeming to rush at me. I screamed and sat up in a panic, waking up my roommate who looked around to try and see why I was screaming.
“What happened? Are you okay?” My roommate asked worriedly.
I couldn’t help but tear up out of fear. “I couldn’t move… I saw a guy in an old bowler hat. Like from the photo I saw at the asylum.” I said.
My roommate sighed softly. “It’s probably just your mind playing tricks on you… everything is okay. You’re drunk… and you were in a spooky place.” My roommate explained, trying to rationalize what happened.
I relaxed and got back under my covers. “Yeah… You’re probably right.” I said, now calmed down a bit.
Eventually, we both fell asleep. Though the events happened night after night, to the point my roommate had to move rooms. The night she left, it happened again. However, it was different this time. He spoke to me.
“Don’t fall asleep…” The man’s deep rumbly voice spoke before he rushed at me again.
I didn’t sleep the rest of that night and stayed awake. It happened every night after that for the past few days. We’d stare at each other until 6 in the morning when he’d disappear and I’d get ready for class. I was so tired that I drank as much coffee as I could to stay awake. Though I don’t know how much longer I can hold out. I’m scared of what will happen when I inevitably fall asleep.