"Argh, my head... it hurts so badly!"
Painful. Why is it so painful?!
Half asleep, Ethan felt an abnormal throbbing pain in his head. As though someone had ruthlessly hit him on the head with a bat multiple times.
Or his head was pierced through with a sharp object, followed by a twist.
While stuck in a state between sleep and consciousness, he tried to will himself awake, but whatever kind of will he managed to summon dissolved like mist.
He found his thoughts difficult to manage. He couldn't completely focus as random and intrusive thoughts kept surfacing in his mind.
Gasp!
Finally awake, Ethan jerked - too fast, throwing himself off his bed, landing on the floor with a thud.
He lay there for a while, sweat-soaked, breathing heavily, confused, and unaware of his surroundings. Like he was recovering from waking up from a very long nightmare, one he couldn't fully remember.
When he finally took a look around, he froze. He was in his dorm. "How did I get here?! I thought..."
His eyes flung wide as his memory began to come back to him. The murder...
The eerie breeze, the whisper, most of all, the last thing he remembered before he passed out - the unnatural feeling of being invaded.
By something unknown, unkind, and sinister. Ethan shivered.
He stumbled to his feet and ran into the bathroom, turned on the shower, letting the cold water crash over him in an attempt to cool his head. Washing off the sweat and grime on his body in the process.
After the shower, he stood dripping in front of the mirror, staring at his reflection, searching for anything that could confirm his fears. He prayed he wouldn't find anything, but... what if?
But all he saw were his eyes; bloodshot, unfocused, exhausted. He looked dead tired.
No marks, no wounds, no handprint on his chest. He looked the same, save for the throbbing pain in his head.
"Maybe it was all just a dream." He chuckled and muttered to himself.
"That would explain why I woke up in my bed today."
He tried to calm himself, think differently and positively. But he couldn't shake the feeling of how weird everything felt. It didn't sit right.
Nothing about it felt like a dream. He vividly remembered the sensations: the unnatural force that pulled at him, the wind, the weight on his chest.
It felt too... real.
He couldn't brush all of those off as a mere dream. But then what else could it be?
'Why am I back in my dorm? I don't have any recollection of how I got here. It has to be a dream... Right?'
He couldn't put his mind and finger on it. Everything would make sense if it were all a dream, and it would also make sense if it weren't.
His thoughts continued to spiral needlessly until the throbbing of his head brought him back to reality.
He pressed his fingers against his temples; all this thinking only served to make the pain worse.
He let out a shaky breath, "thinking isn't helping."
As he stepped out of the bathroom, his phone on the dresser beeped. A message had just come in.
It was lit up with notifications - dozens of them.
Messages, missed calls. Some from his roommate, some from his friends.
His anxiety swelled. He picked up the phone, and the most recent messages were all frantic.
Where the hell are you?
Ethan, answer your phone.
Dude, you've been gone all day.
Are you okay??
If you don't pick up, I'm calling campus security.
Ethan please… I'm worried.
He blinked... 'All day?'
He looked at the date. He'd been gone for over 24 hours; he was missing an entire day of memories.
Ethan stumbled backwards, his fingers holding his phone tighter, growing numb, his breath hitched in his throat.
"What... what happened to me?"
Dread washed over him as his head continued to throb.
'I didn't just wake up in the wrong place; I'm missing an entire day!' With the realisation came disjointed foreign images.
He crouched and held his head firmly in his hands; it felt like it was splitting.
He knew... All he went through that night was no dream. It actually happened. He witnessed a murder, and he was invaded by something.
And whatever filled the space in his memories was still with him.
Like a trigger, he felt it. Something deep within his mind, a click, weirdly like the sound of something or someone stretching awake.
He froze... He wasn't alone in his body...
He stayed in his position, hunched forward, perfectly still, unmoving - like an ostrich burying its head in the ground, hoping no one else could see it as long as it couldn't see them..
"Uh... what are you doing?"
Ethan sprang like a cat at the sudden voice that sounded behind him.
With a layer of fear on his face, he turned around. Standing at the doorway with his eyebrows arched and his head tilted was his roommate, Ren.
He was staring at him in concern and a bit of amusement.
"Don't do that, man. You scared me half to death!" He exhaled as relief washed over him.
"You were the one crouching there in your briefs, with your hands on your head. It's definitely not a sight anyone would want to casually walk into."
As Ren stepped fully into the room, the throbbing in his head stopped. Completely. Not gradually, it was just gone.
The air felt lighter too, like the oppressive weight in the atmosphere some moments ago had receded, slunk back into the shadows.
Ren dropped what he had in his hands on the desk. "I noticed how dead tired you were when I came in last night, as you didn't react when I pushed the door open."
"Plus, you were still in bed after I woke up this morning, which was weird. So I got us breakfast." He said while gesturing at the takeout on the desk.
While that was pretty nice of him, what he said caught Ethan's attention.
"Did you say I was already in bed by the time you came in last night? What time was it??"
Ethan hurriedly asked.
"It was roughly around 10 or 11, I can't really remember." Ren looked at Ethan as he responded.
"That reminds me, you bailed on me on Monday; you were a no-show. I got worried waiting for you, you know. What happened?"
Ethan opened his mouth. Closed it and tried again.
"I got lost." He forced a smile and scratched his head.
Ren was dumbfounded. "Lost? You got lost? Why didn't you just call, or ask for directions??"
"Oh, wait, never mind, don't answer the last one. You would probably fall over face-first if you tried to ask someone for directions."
"Okay, ouch. First, my phone died. Second, I sure as hell can definitely ask for directions if I try to. Maybe." Ethan took offence at the jab, but even he was unsure of himself.
Ren let out a sigh and dropped it, as it seemed like Ethan didn't really want to talk about it.
'What do I even say? How do I tell anyone about what's happening to me??'
'Hey, man. Funny story - yesterday, I saw a dude get murdered, and his ghost might be living in my body now.'
'Yeah, that would go great.'
[heh.. heh... yeah, that sounds like it would in fact go great.]
He felt it again, the click, this time not the same subtle feeling at the back of his thoughts. But straight up in his head.
It spoke to him.