Doors Were Made to Be Closed

This has always happened to me during my entire life, but these past days have been a lot more ... intense. I have this strange obsession of closing doors. I never fully understood this, but there is something in the back of my head that always tells me “Close the door”

There is also something strange about this obsession, it only happens at night. During the day, open doors don’t cause me any trouble, but when it starts getting dark, I get this primal instinct, almost involuntary, to close the door. I guess during my entire life, I always slept with the door closed.

Until a few days ago.

I came home late from work, and was completely exhausted. I opened the door to my bedroom, changed clothes, and went to bed.

I suddenly awoke at 3:25 am, and tried to go to sleep again when a thought hit my mind.

I left the door opened.

At first I didn’t make a big deal out of it, but then ... To this day I still don’t know if what happened was real or was just the product of my hyperactive imagination.

Every little noise I heard, the house creaking, my sheets moving, or just the cars driving outside would send my mind into a state of extreme paranoia. For all I know, it could have been anything and everything.

Until I heard it.

It was so faint, I don´t know if it was just the buzzing on my ears, but I swear I heard footsteps, coming from outside my room. I started to sweat profoundly, I couldn’t handle the heat of my winter sheets. Every step it took towards my room, I got more and more paranoid. Then, my heart stopped for a second.

It walked into my room.

It stopped at the doorway, but it was so close, I could hear its breathing. It was heavy, like of a big animal. At that moment, my body froze even more. If I couldn’t move before, now it felt like my muscles were made of concrete. Anyone who saw me could see the terror in my face, but inside, I went on a complete rampage. I thought about everything to distract my mind about the thing, but it was useless.

It started to walk, until it stopped right at my side.

If I was in panic before, now I was in complete brain meltdown. I don’t know how it didn’t notice I was awake, my sheets looked like an ocean of sweat and the smell coming out of it would make anyone throw up.

Then, as if it knew I was suffering like a poor defenceless animal, it walked away.

I heard it go out of my room, and sure enough, it was gone.

As soon as I couldn’t hear it, I turned on the lights, jumped out of bed, locked the door, and stayed awake until it was day.

After that event, I developed insomnia. The next day I couldn’t sleep at all. I took my coffee machine to my room, locked the door once again, and waited for the sun.

But before I could see the safety of light, at 3:25 am, I heard a knock on my door.

All the feelings of fear, paranoia and dread of the previous night came rushing into me.

It kept knocking and knocking, until eventually, it stopped. I knew I couldn’t keep going like this, I had to put this behind me.

Today I will try to sleep and forget about this forever.

I did what I always do, as soon as I got in my room, I closed and locked the door. I took my sleeping clothes from my closet and went to sleep.

I awoke again in the middle of the night. I didn’t want to see the hours, but I knew it was 3:25 am.

Then, I heard it. Not only did I hear that breath, but I could also hear a growl accompanying it, and with that only one thought came to my mind.

I left my closet door opened.