Room 131

Snugged tight in my robe under the covers, I browsed through Netflix trying to find something half-decent to watch. It was Taylor’s and I last night in San Clemente after spending the last three days here attending a wedding and I wanted to enjoy myself at least a little bit before we left.

I found that after the first few weddings I attended, the awe and glamor of the ceremony fade away and things start to become monotonous. As a solution, my girlfriend and I found ways to make things more interesting.

On occasion, we like to put up side bets; which groomsman and bridesmaid will hook up first, who’s the next to get married, how long will the newlyweds actually last for.

After scrolling for a few more minutes I finally found a title to settle on — I’m so grateful we don’t live in the age of blockbuster anymore. Choosing a movie then was a life or death decision. If you were to make the fateful mistake of picking a bad movie you would be stuck with your failure the whole night. Right when I was about to press play my girlfriend jumped in front of the T.V.

“Helloooo, earth to Cian. I’ve been calling your name!” my girlfriend yelled half-heartedly. I’m going to the convenience store, do you want any snacks?

“Don’t you think it’s a little too late to being going out?”

“Relax, I’ll be fine. There’s not murderers and gunman running around everywhere, stop watching so much CNN.”

“Okay okay okay, could you get me bottled water, a hotdog, those sweet chili Doritos and that baggie of candy I like. The sweet ones, not the sour ones.” I said. “Oh! And make sure to put extra ketchup on the hotdog as well, please and thank you.”

I made sure to stress the importance of extra ketchup to my girlfriend as hotdogs aren’t the same when they are not fully dressed.

“And, since I’m so nice I’ll walk you to the door.”

I fetched her jacket and ushered her towards the door. She walked out first and took a few strides forward before she realized I wasn’t following her.

“Ohhhhh, you thought I meant the lobby door. I’m nice, but not that nice.” I said grinning from ear to ear.

Before I could hear her response I blew her a kiss and closed the door. I scoped through the peephole to try and catch her reaction. I couldn’t see much since it was all scratched and blurry but it was unmistaken that my girlfriend was flipping me off.

Growing up, my parents were always slightly paranoid. In our house, we had a state of the art security system equipped with, cameras, motion detectors and a vault to store all our valuables. This would have been reasonable if we lived in a dangerous neighborhood or in the White House but in my 19 years living at home there was never as much as a break-in in our house let alone our neighborhood. But, for some reason, they always had the notion that someone was watching us or something bad would happen. Some of that must of rubbed off on me because till this day whenever I close a door it’s become muscle memory for me always lock it.

I shut the top latch and turned the bottom bolt and for extra precaution, I jiggled the handle again to make sure everything was engaged.

I walked back into the room and was about to plop onto my bed, curl up under the blankets and continue my movie until I saw the blinds waving at me.

I cautiously approached the blinds until I was close enough to jab at it, only then to realize that I forgot to close the balcony door. The only thing keeping the outside out was a thin insect screen.

The worst part of this trip was how we were put on the first floor of the hotel. I absolutely hate sleeping on the first floor, it feels too accessible to the outer world.

As I peered through the screen I could see nothing in the dead of night, the only thing that could be sensed was the night's hum, filled with crickets cries, the flickering of lights and the whistling of the wind.

A few minutes into my movie I instantly regretted my decisions to pick it. I have never been a huge fan of horror movies but they just added Halloween into Netflix and all my friends were urging me to watch it. I wanted to pause it and wait for my girlfriend to come back so I could have a human shield, but I was too comfortable in my current position to move. The remote was beside the T.V. and if I got up I was sure I wouldn’t find the position again.

The worst part of Halloween and horror movies, in general, is the build-up. While I was watching I could almost feel the tension building. Almost every horror movie has the same arc but for some reason, it gets everyone all the time. They slowly build up the plot and at the same time increase the music levels. You brace yourself for the scary part to come but you inevitably get let down. So you ease up and when you least expect it, BOOM, something pops-up and scares you.

After hiding under the covers for most of the movie and being put through a whirlwind of emotions I realized that I lost track of time and my girlfriend had been gone for a while.

I wasn’t sure what convenience store she went to but it shouldn’t have taken her more than 30 minutes. It had been triple that time. I found my phone and started calling her a buncha times.

No response.

Not sure what to do and not knowing her whereabouts I frantically got changed and was about to look for her. Until BANG, a loud crashing sound came from the balcony.

Freaked out I scrambled to find the heaviest item in the room. Not finding anything suitable I panicked and grabbed a pillow.

I crept to the balcony, my heart was pounding, my knees weak, arms were heavy.

The tension was palpable, I could hardly breathe.

First, I took a deep breath. In my head, I knew that whatever was behind that curtain I needed to be in a relaxed enough state to make a good decision. After a couple more deep breathes I reached for the blinds and threw them open.

To my relief staring back at me was just some tipped over chairs on the balcony. I assumed it must have been the wind.

Before I had enough time to pick up the chairs I heard a sharp rattle on the door. I instantly hit the ground. I slowly got back on my feet and shuffled over in a crouched position with the pillow firmly grasped in my hands.

I stayed out of view of the peephole in case whoever was beyond the door was peeping. I held my breath, I wasn’t about to take any chances.

I softly pressed my ear against the door to see if I could hear anything but it was silent. I cautiously lifted my head and peered through the peephole. I took a deep sigh of relief, it was Taylor, my body un-tensed and I dropped the pillow.

Even though I was relieved to see her, I was slightly vexed because it looked like she started to eat my hotdog before I had a bite. I always knew her as a messy eater but this was just bad, all the ketchup was smeared on her face.

I removed the locks, swung the door open and was about to snatch my hotdog from her until I looked up and couldn’t believe what I was seeing.

Standing about two feet taller than me was a domineering man. He had long stringy blond hair and wore a white old school hockey goalie mask. Although his face was covered with a mask I could still see his deep blue, yet lifeless eyes peering through the slits. He was two feet taller than me and also twice my size in weight.

What, at first I assumed was smeared ketchup on Taylor’s face, was actually really residual blood that shot up from her neck after being decapitated. And to my horror, in his left hand, he held the now rose-colored hair of my girlfriend. He swung her head side to side, like clockwork, as if it was a pendulum.