Duskwood

4.

Knock. Knock. Knock.

Gasped awake, Jude stirred in the bed underneath the blankets at the three knocks. Unsure of which direction they came from, his forehead adorned a bead of sweat as he flipped himself over and looked through the darkness.

The neon signs of the motel shining through the thin curtains of their room, a window cracked open that caused a breeze to enter and the curtains to dance against the windowsill. His eyes wandered, searching for that sound from moments ago.

Knock.

Knock.

Knock.

Each knock was louder, pausing in between and it echoed through the entire motel room. Bringing his fingers up to rub at his eyes, he pushed the blanket off himself and rose to his feet.

Jude walked to the motel door and unlocked it, pulling it open quick and he peered his head out, looking down the paths. Fog gathered in the night, no vehicles in the parking lot anymore and he shook his head. Stepped back into the room, closed and locked the door back behind him.

He turned back around to face the bed, Gabi laying in peace underneath the covers with her back turned to the neon flickering. Jude walked over, around the bed and to her side watching her breath sweet in her sleep for some few seconds before he reached his hand down to brush his fingers gently against her cheek. He pushed some hair out of her face, fingers trailing lower still until they brushed against the vein on the side of her neck.

It was quick, his actions falling into that of violence that could be stopped. He lunged above her, hands wrapping around her throat as she flailed and thrashed beneath his large form struggling to catch air as he choked her lungs of it.

Knock. Knock. Knock.

Gabi's eyes fell open at the sound, breathing sharp as she woke from her sleep and looked around. Those neon lights humming, the curtains swaying to the breeze from the cracked window, she rolled over and saw Jude fast asleep beside her.

Murmuring in her throat, she rose from the bed and from under the covers. Trekking across the room to the bathroom where she sat on the porcelain throne and did her duty, reaching for the handle to flush. It didn't work. She stood up and turned towards it, pressing down on the handle a couple times to try and flush it again to no avail.

Nothing was working.

"Shit." She whispered under her breath, reaching over to grab the plunger. She shoved it into the toilet bowl, pumping at it to try and get it to flush.

A brush of fingertips, she dropped the plunger from her fingers almost immediately at the feel of them and spun around. Her eyes glancing through the doorway to the bedroom where Jude still laid asleep on the bed, her heartbeat picked up in her chest and her breath hitched.

The hum of the neon lights still loud as the colors flooded the room in rhythm.

She turned back to the toilet, eyes pausing to the mirror above the bathroom sink when she saw it standing there.

A black figure with horns, it stood ominously in the middle of the motel room and she was quick to glance back into the room.

It wasn't there.

She looked back to the mirror.

Again it stood in the middle of the room, her mind racing with thoughts as she twisted her attention back to the room.

This time it stood in the doorway, mouth opening to reveal sharp teeth, glowing red eyes and it emitted a terrifying hiss from its lung causing her to fall back against the toilet. Her heart pounded in her chest, curling against the toilet as she shut her eyes to the creature tormenting and grabbing at her limbs, trying to pry her away from her curl against the bathroom wall.

"No! Let go of me!" She fought back, the creature hissing and snarling as it's claws scratched against her skin and she cried in pain.

The bathroom light flicked on.

"Gabi?" Jude's voice rang loud in her ears. "What the Hell are you doing on the floor, baby?"

She looked up at him, tears in her eyes and confusion etched on her features as she looked at her boyfriend and back to the bedroom where she had seen him asleep only he hadn't been asleep. Her eyes widened in that confusion.

"Wait...you were...what..." Breathless words escaped her lips as her eyes frantically looked to him and back to the room and back again, shaking hand pointing to the motel room.

Jude knelt down, reaching out to help her up. "I went to go get my phone charger, I left it in the car...Jesus, you're shaking, Gabi."

He helped her to her feet, her body shaking against his grasp as he held onto her and brushed the hair from her face and the tears from her eyes, making her look up at him.

"What happened?" He asked.

She breathed soft then, voice hoarse against the words. "N...nothing, I just had a bad dream."

Gabi pulled away from him, mumbling towards him as she walked back into the motel room and to the bed. She laid herself down in the bed and quickly pulled the blanket over her body, her eyes looked at the alarm clock on the nearby night stand. The dull green light switching the time.

3 AM.

Jude switched off the bathroom light and she closed her eyes tight.