What Now? : Problem Solved!

"It was the same routine every single night. Or at least for the last 78 nights. Drink warm milk with a teaspoon of sugar. Brush my teeth. Make sure the curtains are closed all the way to the very end (no gaps, thank you!). Moisturise. My pillow fluffed just the right amount. Set a redundant alarm for 6 am. Close my eyes. Go to sleep.

All for what? I open my eyes to see it is 3:13 am, every single night!

Every night at that moment, all I hear is silence. The silence is so loud, I barely hear my pounding heart. An eerie feeling creeps over me as I see through the (now open) curtains, the ice glazes over the windows from the sudden cold. A smell wafts through. One that is so familiar. I know what it is, I have definitely smelt it before, yet I cannot name it. All these days, I have never been able to remember it. I have tried day after day, night after night, still zilch.

All I do is close my eyes, hide under the blanket, force myself to sleep but in vain. Do I suffer from any sleeping disease? I feel like someone is watching over me. The silence was so scary. But I hear breathing sound so loud in the silence. Definitely, it's not mine. Thoughts waver. Body shivers. Eyelids fall and when it's open the sun was right before me. I don’t find any tentative reports of people roaming in dark. Maybe I am seeing things. Probably the neighbourhood might think I’ve gone mad if I blabber something about my night vision.

Everything was fine in the morning but what about my nights? Maybe I should change my bedroom spot. Should I really do it? I should but, I feel a bit lazy. This had happened for some times and now it's time to figure it out.

I had just arrived in this neighbourhood five months ago. But I know everyone in this neighbourhood….mostly maybe. The night has risen. I just open my eyes and it's 3:13 am, again. I feel the same atmosphere. But today I am not going to hide.

I opened my eyes wide open to see what is going to happen next. I feel someone was watching over me. I placed my foot down on the floor like a superstar getting down from his car. I just want to move slow but I feel like the time is running out so I just speed up myself. I reached the window in seconds and swung open the curtains to the far end.

I saw a small boy standing at the corner of the window. He looked white and pale. His lips were chapped and his clavicles are protruding out. As soon as he saw me he ran the other way trying to get out my hand. I jumped out from my window without a thought. Thankfully the window is just 1 or 2 cm from the floor.

I ran as fast as I could but I lost him. He disappeared within the wind. I looked at the possible ways but found none. I had to return home because the weather was too cold.

For the next few days, the picture was running through my mind. I asked aunt Lisa nearby but she claimed that there was no one resembling such terms nearby. But I can’t jump to a conclusion without looking thorough into it.

I was waiting to meet that boy. I was not afraid anymore. The day came. I met the boy again. I was fully prepared and ran right behind him. But I lost him again. What? He was right in front of me but, where did he go. I have never even blinked.

I now feel the blood rushing all over my body. Terror was filled in every single drop of my blood. My skin started freezing in cold.

The next day I investigated about him to random peoples in the street. But what aunt May said was really scarring. She told master Michel who died long back was visiting this city for two years. She also added that he visits the houses in search of food.

My eyes popped out at the moment I heard it. I made a quick research about little Mike and found he belongs to one of those families who died in poverty when the city was captured by the neighbouring country. There was chaos in those days. War and stuff took away the properties of people leaving them just with their lives.

I really felt sad for them but now I can’t do anything. Are you expecting me to provide food for baby Mike? In no way I can do it. I also found no harm from him and I decide to shut the window to avoid our meeting, probably.

The next night I woke up and it 3:13 again. But today was not as usual. No eerie feelings, no curtains flying and mainly no Michel. I woke up just to check whether the scene was going fine. Maybe waking up mid-night became my habit. I can change myself in a period of time.

I just felt right that everything was going back to its place…..