Ed has graduated from high school, what he has always dreamed of about the world of college is right in front of his eyes now. He was accepted at one of the best colleges and will study Psychology soon. Now all Ed has to take care of is boarding house.
Previously he was offered to rent a student dormitory and it's not far from the faculty where he will be placed, but the costs were too high. This didn't suit with Ed's wishes, one of his goal is want to save money for his own needs.
Lucas, Ed's friend gives him advice. "I have acquaintance who live in cheap boarding house near the lake, but the location is a bit closed and far from the crowds!"
Ed felt captivated and didn't care about the state of it, he rushed to the boarding house owner named Mrs. Hanis and began negotiating the price. Long story short, Ed started to fill one of the empty rooms and cleared up all his stuff to live in that place.
Physically and it’s appearance, that house does look old. According to Mrs. Hanis, this boarding house was founded 120 years ago. Previously this place was used as a shoe factory, but 40 years ago this house suffered a fire, so it was abandoned for several years and was finally bought by the family who owns the boarding house.
This boarding house has 2 floors, 14 rooms and has a large parking area, but the number of occupants of the boarding house is only 3 people. Access to this house is via a long wooden bridge and slightly into the forest area where the forestry students study. It's a bit far from campus. But Ed prefers cheap boarding house to expensive dormitories.
The first day went normally, Ed started getting ready to go to campus, when he was about to leave he was surprised to find that the surrounding environment was so foggy that it covered his vision.
"Maybe it's still early, so it's normal if it's filled with fog outside, especially since this boarding house is located in a forest and lake area!"
Ed still thinks positively and thinks everything is normal. But when night came, his positive thoughts began to waver little by little. At that time Ed was starving, he rushed to the boarding kitchen to make sandwiches. He passed one of the room near the kitchen which was tightly closed, tightly padlocked with a chain. This made him wondering. He peeked into the keyhole and looked into the room which looked clean, but oddly enough there were some flower petals, a dishes and jewelry on the bed. Ed immediately asked Mrs. Hanis about it.
"That room is a warehouse, you don't need to be curious!" Mrs. Hanis explained with a serious expression.
Ed still didn’t satisfied with Mrs. Hanis's answer "But why should it be padlocked and chained? It's as if that room should be completely locked and no one else is allowed to enter it!”
But she didn't give any more answers, as if having other activities, Mrs. Hanis just left Ed with many questions about the room and the things on it’s bed.
After the problem about the room, Mrs. Hanis never came back to the boarding house, one week, two weeks or even months. Since then, Ed has started to feel strange irregularities, such as the voice of girl screaming in the kitchen, soft knocking sounds in the middle of the night and bathroom faucets flowing by itself.
One afternoon, all the occupants of the boarding house gathered in the kitchen to tell about the strange incident that they had been experiencing recently. Sammy, one of the first occupants to enter the boarding house said that yesterday he had a strange and frightening dream.
“I woke up in the middle of the night due to a loud knocking sound in my room. That thing pounded on my door trying to get inside, at that time I was scared and couldn't do anything. I was out of breath and my voice wouldn't obey my head for help. I don't know how long it banged on and broke down my door. Finally that thing entered. That creature! I can’t describe it. It was covered in fur, had red eyes and was approaching me on all fours. He held my chest and tried to take its contents. I suddenly woke up drenched in sweat.
A few days after telling his dream, Sammy fell ill and had to be taken to the campus hospital. It made us wonder if there was a correlation between Sammy's nightmare and his illness. Not just Sammy. Dinno and Marshall also said they had similar dreams. Shortly after telling theirs, they were suddenly attacked by smallpox. This forced Dinno and Marshall to return to their hometown to provide a medical care and supervision from their parents.
The thing that became a mystery is that after the occupants of the boarding house became ill due to their dreams, the flower petals, dishes and jewelry that were in the locked room seemed to have disappeared somewhere. Even though Mrs. Hanis never appeared again. And when Ed once again peeked into the keyhole this morning, he saw flower petals, dishes and jewelry had appeared again. He begins to connect all the mysteries and events that exist with each other.
“Every time the flower petals, dishes and jewelry are there, the occupants of the boarding house will definitely have nightmares! and every time the occupants had a sick, all of that will disappear somewhere as if the flower petals, dishes and jewelry disappeared along with the health of the occupants! Who took it? And what kind of creature appears in Sammy, Dinno and Marshall's dream?”
Ed's curiosity arose, he wanted to get answers to all these unsolved mysteries. Currently, only Ed remains the only occupant in the boarding house. With determination, he peeked into the keyhole of the room and saw the flower petals, dishes and jewelry lying on the bed.
That night he had fallen asleep in his room, he was suddenly awakened by the sound of a banging on the door from outside. “Dooooor! Dooooor! Dooooor!” the door was continuously banged by an overwhelming force from outside. Spontaneously, he hid in his wardrobe. A moment later the door was successfully broken open and the uninvited creature actually appeared. Ed watched the creature from a narrow slit of his wardrobe. It was a demon-like creature with an all-black appearance and razor-sharp fur.
"One person left!" the creature sounded like a mix between a dog's howl and a lion's roar. Ed's heart couldn't stop beating erratically, sweat had drenched his whole body. The feeling of drowsiness has been completely replaced by a tense feeling that is incomparable. He now regrets having made the decision to survive and solve this crazy mystery, he still hopes if this is a dream. If so, he hopes to wake up, return home and fix his mistake because at this moment, the creature and Ed stare at each other between the gaps in his wardrobe.
[The end]...
Hello @faitz007 This is indeed an intriguing story, which fills the reader with suspense. However, this does not feel like a full story, as such we do want to note that we do not accept multipart fiction in The Ink Well. If you did intend to have this as a complete story, we hope you will consider adding a resolution to this tale. We have many great resources to help you along!
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