FUTURE REVISION

TOMORROW'S EXAM 1st BACH - IMPORTANT INFO.

Please, instead of reporting to rooms 116 or B01, REPORT TO THE LIBRARY.

Thank you.

The Closet by Fran Orcha.

THE CLOSET

A few years ago, there was a young man called Jimmy who went to university. He didn’t have too much money to live in the campus, so he had to rent an apartment in the city.

After he had been living there alone for a while, he began to see some strange things happening. When he came back from the university, the curtains in his bedroom were painted and some of his posessions were not there. These strange ocurrances started to scare him, so he decided to talk to his friends.

They met him in a restaurant and over the coffee, he told them all about the strange things that happened.

“Maybe I’m going to be crazy, but I think someone is entering in my apartment while I’m in classes”.

“Why do you think that?”, asked Max.

“Because I’m losing some belongings and also the curtains are painted”, answered Jimmy.

“It sounds crazy, but you might have a stalker”, said Ana. “It’s a possibility. If it’s true, I think the best option is to call the police”.

“What can the police do?, asked Max. “They’re not going to spend time guarding his apartment”.

“So what can I do?”, suggested Jimmy.

“It’s easy. Just get a video camera, put in your bedroom and if you really have a stalker, you can show to the police the evidende”, proposed Ana.

“You know, that’s a great idea”, said Jimmy.

The next morning, he hid it under some folders on his desk. Before he went to the university, he pressed the record button and left the bedroom.

After 6 hours, he arrived home and took the camera to watch the video while he is talking on the phone with Ana.

He pressed play and watched the recording. He saw himself leaving his apartment in the morning, closing the bedroom door. Then there was nothing. He pressed fast forward the video. The room was empty.

“Still nothing”, he said.

“I can’t wait”, replied Ana. “I’m getting very nervous”.

“OMG!”, cried Jimmy while he stopped the video.

“What? What?”, Ana asked with fear.

“The door is opening! It’s a woman”.

“What’s she doing?”, asked Ana.

“She is closing the door… Walking around. I can’t see her face”.

“Do you know her?”

“No, I have never seen… She has a knife, a big knife. She is going around my bedroom and picking up my clothes for sniffing it. Now she is going over to the closet... She just got into the closet”.

“Fast forward and see if she does anything else”, said Ana.

“Nothing more. I don’t see her”, answered Jimmy. “You know what this means? I have the evidence now, so I can go to the police and they will take me seriusly”.

“I know”, said Ana. “They will have to. Let’s go to the police now. I will go with you”.

“Ok, I’ll meet you in 10 minutes”, said Jimmy.

“Oh… Wait a second”, ordered Ana. “You said she got into the closet. Did she ever leave?” Jimmy, did she ever get out of the closet?”.

Behind him, he heard the closet door open.

“Jimmy! Get out of there!”, screamed Ana, but it was to late. The phone went dead. When she tried to call him again, there was no answer.

Later that evening, the police found the body of the student in a pool of blood. The video camera was on his hands. When the police examined the camera, they discovered that the memory car was missing.

The woman was not found. Right now, she could be in your closet.

Fran Orcha

(One of the four best stories in the contest)

Halloween Story by Xiao Fernández.

I woke up in a weird room yesterday. The last thing that I remember was that I was going to my bed in my house. Later on, in this strange room I found a little notepad and a pen, so i started writing this letter.

I tried to get out of this room but I didn't find any door. It’s only a room with photos of people at the walls. Now I’m trying to figure out how do I end up here.

FLASHBACK.

Monday, November 26th  2007. One week ago.

I’m at work and I’m having a strange sensation, as if someone is observing me 24/7. It must be my imagination.

I’m thinking again about last night when I started to watch a horror film that a friend had lent me, but I couldn't finish it because it was very scary.

Well, I don't care, I'm going to start doing  my work because my boss isn’t here today and because he's always saying that I'm a lazy, useless and a weirdo. If he thinks all of those things I don't know why I'm still working here. But anyway, I'm going to start to write my composition for the local newspaper because I'm a journalist.

Tuesday, November 27th  2007. 6 days ago.

I'm still having the feeling that someone is watching me, but less than yesterday.

Today I have to finish the column that I started writing yesterday and start with an idea for a comic strip. And seriously, I don't have any clue about what to do it about.

Lucky me that my boss is sick or something like that, because he is missing today, too.

Therefore I'm trying to have all my work up-to-date for when he comes back surprise him.

Wednesday, November 28th  2007. 5 days ago.

I slept great last night and, the best news of the day is that my boss is missing today, too. I should be worried about him, because since I’d know him, he has never missed a day of work.

I'm going to ask to his assistant and we'll see if she knows something. I will write you again when I get some information.

Thursday, November 29th  2007. 4 days ago.

Yesterday I couldn’t write to you because I had to leave the office, because someone called me saying that my house was on fire. Then I arrived there and nothing was happening, so what I did, was continue watching the horror film about a boy trapped in a really weird room.

As soon as I started playing the film, the lights went out, so I decide to go to bed.

Today I woke up and the lights were still off, so I just tried to turn them on again, which meant arriving late this morning.

The assistant told me that she hadn't seen by boss, so now I'm going to call the police, and let's see what they can do. After that I'm going to continue my work and try to watch the movie while making sure that nobody notice that I'm not doing my work.

Friday, November 30th  2007. 3 days ago.

I still have the sensation that I had 4 days ago, that someone is observing me, but this time multiplied by three.

Yesterday at work I finished the movie, and it was a strange because the protagonist of the film was exactly like my boss.

Now that I think about it, my boss disappeared the same day that I was lent the movie.

Saturday, December 1st  2007. The day before I woke up here.

I was walking by the street and I  went to the store to buy some juice, the weird thing is that I noticed there's someone behind me all the time.

Later on, while I was having a walk by the river, I saw a man with a notebook looking at me. I started thinking again about the movie, because I was afraid of that man.

At the end of the movie, the boy gets murdered by some strange person.

PRESENT DAY.

Okay, I have been here one day and  a half, and I still don't know why I am here. I'm looking by the windows and I'm in a forest.

Wait…

Windows?

I have been so distracted writing the things that I can remember after arriving this place that I didn't noticed that all the photos on the wall where windows.

All the time they have been observing me.

SECOND PERSON.

After that, a hidden door started to open. The boy look to the other man that had a knife in his hands, and suddenly, the TV went block.

Xiao Fernández

(Silver medal in the contest)

Trapped in the Dark by Guillermo Altieri

TRAPPED IN THE DARK

The milk was almost to spill. I have always found curious how particle's faster collision due to the heat turns everything into a permanent state of entropy. Just like if you put an amount of living beings into a confined hot space, I usually imagine a furnace. The question is when you directly put these subjects in they will jump out immediately whilst warming it up very slowly they will roast like the frigid body of an unheaded chicken in a roaster, like an inferno.

After I had drunk my yummy glass of milk with sugar, which I always have before going bed, I went to say good night to mum. “You still have a milk mustache Mattie” she said laughing, and I laughed too before cleaning it up. “Good nights mum” I said, “Oh sweetheart good night to you too” she answered. She is the only one who calls me “Mattie” and I frankly prefer it than Matthew.

Once my little “ritual” was completed and I went upstairs I reached my bed, my red-blood lovely bed. I was ready to sleep and once got the disconnection I would be able to explore unconsciously every nook of my deepest thoughts. Meanwhile my brain would take the reins and my mind would rest innocently.

Those were my last memories from that night, nothing special, and nothing unusual, nothing remarkable that would shed some light to the next day’s events.

I sweetly woke up while at the same time I slowly started to recover consciousness of myself. I perceived I had rested properly because I did not feel any exhaustion. You probably know what I mean, this situation when you think you just have not recharged any energy rather than lost any kind you had. This happens when you break a “sleep cycle” and is the same reason why whenever you take a nap it should not last any longer than twenty-four minutes or your organism will surely feel tired respecting mental activities for a short time.

Well mine seemed to have been perfect because I could just think about the warm comfort that I felt between my smooth sheets and my covering eiderdown.

Unfortunately, everything has an end and this time it had to be close taking into account that I had met for hiking with John and Carl soon in the morning. Time for me to get up.

Then… then I realized, I simply could not. I could not open my eyes, they were like sewn but it did not hurt, I wish they had been sewn, at least I would have known the reason of my impotence.

I could not move my body. It was like a stone, petrified in my own bed, immobile. I felt an anxiety I had never felt before, I wanted to shout “Mum, help!” as loud as I could, and of course my mouth did not move.

There were just two things left to do: breathe and think. Think as fast as I had never done, my mind was a chaos, my breathing had never been louder and yet none listened to me. My own existence was beyond my control in a mere blinking. 

All of a sudden, I heard them. Footsteps coming upstairs, but bad news for me… That was not mum. I knew it was not her because of the weight of the body, I knew it was not her because of the roughness of the intruder, I knew it was not her because deep inside my chaotic mind, I felt even worse.

I heard him, yes, him, inside my room. After a while listening with my heart beating faster than it had never had I could tell more specifically, a burglar.

I knew he was examining around, but in the distance, looking for precious objects. I imagined he was a scavenger who circled my room looking for something worth it, and if he did not find it, he would suppose I was dead and took my guts out painting my bed even redder than it was. Devouring my organs and making two sweets out of my blue dead eyes. Enjoying the banquet.

He approached to look under my bed and took all stuff out of my bed-drawers noisily increasing my general discomfort to another level that again, I had never known. 

Then… the vulture started to come gently closer to my face, closer… and closer… and closer. Until I finally felt his disgusting breathing on my cheeks.

That is when I woke u p and  that is  the story of how I first and last experienced “the false awakening”.

Guillermo Altieri.

(Winner of the contest).