“Hey Daniel, please call me when you are free. I just needed some help on something (pause) important.” This was the message left on my phone when I came back home from school. Jonathan, my ex-best friend, has been acting up recently. So I’m trying to avoid him as frequent as possible. He has been leaving me a bunch of missed calls and voicemails every day at the same exact time I come back from school. This time, his voice sounded a bit low and raspy like he was telling me a secret and had a sore throat at the same time. Jonathan has been leaving these calls and voicemails for about one and a half years now. As usual, I ignore the messages and go on with my regular schedule.

As I walk to the bathroom, I start to hear whispers followed by a loud ringing noise. I fall to the floor and see quick flashes of a bloody face. I start to shriek and the whispers stop. My ears started to throb and burn. I touched them and see blood on my fingertips, then blood starts to drip down the sides of my face.  I can still see blurred images of the horrendous face. I get a napkin and dab the blood off my face and decide to lay down.  I check my emails on my phone and see a text message from Jonathan. It read, “Hi Daniel, it’s me, Jonathan, I was wondering if you would like to meet up at my house this Saturday” I should tell my mom first before I reply.

Me: “Hey mom, I got an invite to go to Jonathan’s house this Saturday.”
Mom: “Now honey, I don't like you going to their house, they will be a bad influence on you.”
Me: “What do you mean?”
Mom: “I’ve heard that his parents are going through a really bad divorce because his dad has anger issues. As a result, he has gone to jail many times. Jonathan’s older brother, Ethan, is using drugs and is abusing alcohol.
Me: “Oh..okay. Then what do I say?”
Mom: “Just say that you are going out of town this weekend.”
Me: “Okay.

I reply back to Jonathan’s text message as my mom said so. As soon as I turn off my phone, Jonathan immediately replies in a split second. “How about Friday?” I text back saying that I have a soccer tournament on Friday. Then, I make the worst mistake and reply that I could come next Friday. In a blink of an eye, I get a reply, “Good.”

Throughout the week, peculiar things have been happening after the incident that happened last Friday.  At random moments, I would hear the same raspy voices in my head and see someone being stabbed to death. While taking a test, I heard the whispers and the ringing in my ears again. I fell to the floor and covered my ears and acted like I was possessed. I thrashed around violently, knocked things down, and shattered glass everywhere . I grabbed my throat and rolled around, gasping for air. The security guards charged into the room and tried to carry me outside until I started to hiss, “DON’T TOUCH ME! LEAVE ME ALONE!” I thrashed and rolled around, grabbing at my throat as if I was choking myself. The school nurse, principal, guidance counselor, and staff rush into the room to help. My eyes turn blood red, my body becomes cold, and I pass out.

I wake up to find myself in the nurse’s office, laying on the bed. The nurse was on her computer and noticed that I was awake. She got up, locked the door, and turned her head sharply. She stared right into my eyes and whispered, “You think you’re so sly.” (Chuckles) “Kids these days think they can get away with anything.” She unsheathes a knife and rubs the blade it between her fingertips. “You heard too much kid, and I don’t want my little secret to get out, so you’re going to pay.” She charges toward me with the knife. I scream and attempt to get up and run away, but I couldn’t, something was holding me down.  I kick around and try to shift my body into awkward positions to try to break free, but I couldn’t. I shut my eyes and accepted my fate. “This is it,” I thought, “I’m going to die.”

Just then, I heard a comforting voice say, “It’s okay honey, you were just imagining it, calm down, you’re safe now.” I open my eyes and find a nurse with kind, blue eyes, who is actually concerned about my wellbeing. “We’re going to send you home to rest. Oh, I almost forgot, here. Take one capsule each night before you go to bed okay?” She handed me what looked like to be sleeping tablets. “Okay,” I mumbled. After a few minutes, my mom came into the room. Her eyes were as red as a bleeding carcass from crying. “Are you okay sweetie?” “I’m fine mom, I just want to go home.” The nurse helps me down from the bed and tells my mom about the tablets. My mom holds my hand as we walk to the car and drive home.

That night, I swallow the tablet and went to bed. I toss and turn on the bed, once again hearing the whispers. I can make out part of what they were saying, “You will be...conquered by...death soon” I open my eyes and find a dark shadowy figure at the foot of my bed. I then feel somebody push me deeper into the bed. I touch my neck and feel nothing, but I still feel a force trying to choke me. I try to open my mouth to say something, but nothing came out. I shut my eyes to see if this all was going to be disappear, but nothing happened. I then see my mom barge into the room and the dark figure lets go of me and vanishes.

Me: “Mom! There was a dark figure at the foot of my bed trying to choke me.”
Mom: “Honey, are you sure? I heard you sobbing, so I thought you had a nightmare.”
Me: “No mom, it really happened, you..”
Mom: “Now, now, honey, go to bed it is two in the morning. You have to go to school tomorrow. If you want I will sleep next to you just for tonight, okay?”
Me: “Fine”

Friday finally arrived. The day I have to go to Jonathan’s house. I call my mom and tell her I’m going to stay back a few hours after school, doing homework with friends. I check my phone to find that Jonathan has texted me his address. I start to walk to the address; it is going to take me fifteen minutes to get to his house. Those fifteen minutes were the longest fifteen minutes I’ve ever experienced in my life. When I get closer to his house, the whispering starts to get louder and louder as if the voices were arguing with each other. I finally reached his house, which I have second thoughts about because it looked like it was going to collapse any second.  I see dangling vines draped along the roof, ready to strangle anybody who comes near it. I slowly walk up the porch steps making the floorboards sound like sharp cries of pain. I get the courage to knock on the door. One knock, no response, I knock again, no response. I carefully twist the doorknob and the door quickly swung open. I slowly walk inside and the door slams shut behind me.

“Hello? Anyone home? Jonathan?” The house looks like no one has occupied it for decades; cobwebs spread everywhere, piles of dust on the furniture, walls that have holes, and a pungent odor of rotten meat. I go up the creaking stairs and look for Jonathan’s room. I notice that all the windows were smashed and shattered glass was scattered everywhere. I put my hand on the doorknob of what looked like Jonathan’s room. I suddenly get a nervous feeling in my stomach, just like the one you get before going on a big drop of a roller coaster.

I slowly twist the door handle and walk inside, then close the door behind me. I turn around…. My heart jumped out of my chest. Chills ran down my back and I got a sick feeling in my stomach. I saw Jonathan there hung by a rope, around his neck, with stab marks near his heart. He hung there lifeless and motionless. The bed was covered in blood marks that spelled out, “YOU’RE TOO LATE.” I quickly turned around to leave, but in my way stood the dark figure, with a bloody knife, staring deep into my soul ready to kill me.