'You will die today'

The sticky note attached to the ceiling of my room read with the moonlight from my window. I blinked my drowsy eyes and did a double take at the piece of writing. I wondered 'who could have gotten into my room without making any noise'. I'm a light sleeper so the mere sound of the door opening should have awoken me.

I struggled to life myself from my sheets and stand on my bed. My body felt unresponsive to my mental commands. I stood unsteadily on the old spring mattress and reached up towards the yellow sticky note. With the sound of the morbid note coming off the white ceiling I doubted my own sleeping habits. 'Just how someone could… why would they… this is too much thinking for the morning. It's probably supposed to be a joke.'

I got down from the bed and put on some slippers before walking out the bedroom. The pajamas I wore felt softer and warmer than they had ever felt before. The air was smoother as it passed by my throat going into my lungs. The hallway was dark since I had awoken before the sun rise. The bamboo floor creaked as I went along. The house creaked as if in response but more likely due to the house settling.

As I approached the hallway turning left into the stairs, I noticed another note stuck to the wall. I went closer to it in order to better see the yellow thing in the darkness. It was too dark in this hallway with no windows so I took the sticky note with me and went down the stairs. I made sure to hold on to the iron railing as it was easy to fall down the stairs with this little amount of light.

The stairs ended next to where the front door of the house was. It was a wide two door iron heavy door done in the same likeness as the stairs. Next to the front door was a rather large window looking out into the yard. I walked over to it and found another note on the glass. I yanked that one off and held the two sticky notes up to the moon light so that I could read it. 'I am near,' and 'You need to wake up,' read the two notes.

'What the hell?' I thought. "Splat", suddenly something hit against the window spooking me to the point where I made a small jump. A heavy amount of rain started to fall against the large glass window. 'It started raining?' I questioned. The three notes followed by the sudden rain confused the hell out of me. The random white noise of the rain filled my once quiet empty home with echoes of the rain.

I stared out the window while listening to the pitter patter of the rain. A streak of lightning flashed in the window causing me to flinch. Shortly after the rumble of the thunder came through indicating that the bolt was a rather strong one or a rather close one.

I placed my hand along the wall to feel for the light switch that shouldn’t be too far away. My fingers felt the two switched and quickly flipped them on. No change. 'The power is out?' was the quick realization my mind came to. I continued along the wall toward my kitchen hoping to find a flashlight in one of its drawers.

My hands crawled along the wall until they reached the cold metal of the refrigerator. They then slowly slid across the smooth metallic surface before coming in contact with the not as cold wood that made the cabinets. 'The flashlight Mom gave me should be in the second drawer,' I remembered.

My hands lowered until they felt the hard marble countertop, then they kept on going feeling the knob of the drawer. I pulled the resistant thing open and heard the flash light hit the walls of the drawer. I quickly reached in and pressed the rubber covered button. Finally there was light hitting the ceiling illuminating the rest of the room.

I blinked a few times then saw that there was another note stuck on the countertop in front of me. It read 'I. AM. COMING. FOR. YOU.' I dropped the note and started looking behind me for the disturbed prankster. Amidst the noise of the rain sounded out the heavy footsteps of someone upstairs.

'Where did he come from? My room is the only place up there. No one went up the stairs since I came down here. That means that someone was in my room while I was sleeping…' my mind came to a lighting fast realization.

I made a quick dash for the front door while the thunderous footsteps picked up in speed. I threw the heavy door open with strength I did not know I had. I ran into the darkness and across the yard into the road with speed I did not know I had. The light from the flashlight in my hand ran back and forth along the black road.

I did not know where to go. I did not know if it was following me. I just knew that I had to run and run I did. I sprinted down the road turning with the curves until I hit a puddle and slid into a muddy ditch. I quickly switch off the flash light and waited. The rain fell on the road, trees, grass, mud, and me. I was half sunken into the mud and water that collected in the ditch.

My body was in an awkward position but I didn’t move because of the fear that he find me. My heart pounded harder and faster but my limbs stayed still. I stared out into the black skies hoping for there to be no more lightning flashes so that it could not find me.

Somehow nature heeded my wishes and the storm slowly faded away. Still I made no movements and kept myself on alert. It could walk past me at any moment. So I stayed still until the black of the sky turned to purple then to red and yellow. The sun had risen and I was still alive.