It was a cold, rainy night in Switzerland. Like every night, I tripped over the crooked step on the outside of the
pub, but still somehow managed to keep my balance and not fall over. I shivered, and zipped up my jacket to protect
myself from the rain and the cold. I found myself staring at the gloomy, yet somehow hypnotically pleasing
streetlamp across the street. It's dull orange light flooded across the street, casting an even duller shadow behind
me. I broke out of my trance, and started walking. I must have taken some wrong turns, it seemed like I had walked
for nearly 40 minutes. The rain had gotten much thicker, I debated if one could still call it "rain". It was
literally buckets of water pooring down, slowly soaking through my jacket. I walked aimlessly through the streets.
My shoes were soaked, and I could feel the water running down my back on the inside of my T-shirt. I stumbled
through the streets, hoping I'd find something familiar. After what felt like another 30 minutes, I came across a
hotel. "Jolly Hotel" a big billboard screamed into my eyes. I decided to stay the night here, and find my house the
next day. I entered.
The room was large, and had nearly nothing inside it. The floor was carpeted with bright red, outlined by golden
silk. There was a random old chair in one corner, with a picture of an ugly man hanging over it. The walls of the
room were very old. They had scratches and cracks all over them. At the very end was a wooden, polished desk, with a
small set of stairs in front of it. I walked up to it, and spotted a small ugly man inside the desk when I reached
the top step. He had a long, wrinkly nose, a chin that would make American Dad look lame, very small ears, and very
little hair. He gave me an impatient, hateful glance, one eye seemed to be bigger than the other. Me ordering a room
just made his big eye almost pop out of his skull, where his other eye sucked in as far as it possibly could,
wrinkling up his eyelid. After 10 seconds of complete silence, he bent down, fetched the keys, and handed them up to
me with a low, gurgling grunt. His small eye had returned to the surface so I could see it again, his big eye looked
like it was about to explode. I thanked him and walked off. I found myself studying the picture hanging above the
chair, and finally realised it was the man from the desk.
I reached room 305, and shoved the heavy iron key into it's keyhole. It was one of those old fashioned keys they
used in old wine cellars, and it was pretty easy to pick the locks. The unlocking sound vibrated in the wooden door,
causing a shiver to go down my spine. The room wasn't any different than the entrance hall, only it had what I'd
been waiting for in it : a bed. I lay down and anticipated the welcoming world of dreams. I half smiled at the
thought, when suddenly a loud object collided with the door of my room. I nearly fell out of my bed. For a long time
I kneeled on the bed, piercing my ears for any further sounds, but there was only silence. I was about to return
under my covers, when I heard faint patting noises, like ducks feet on wet grass. I decided to get up and peek
through the large keyhole of my door. I saw a little girl, skipping around. I didn't know if I should be scared, or
relieved. Though I did know that she would desturb my sleep, I was a very light sleeper. So I opened my door to
check if she was lost. I stepped out, opening my mouth to talk when I noticed she was gone. I almost blurted out the
words I had rowed up in my mind, but the shock of her disappearance completely shut off my vocal cords. She was
there just a few seconds ago, yet now she was gone. She couldn't have hidden anywhere, there was nowhere to hide in
this big room. Running away in that short time it took me to open the door was impossible too. I stood there for a
few tortuous minutes, my mouth still gaping open, eyes wide, ears pierced. I considered the physical state my body
was in after my visit to the pub, and decided it was just an illusion. A trick my mind was playing on me. That's
all. It couldn't be anything else, could it? My mouth had closed, and twisted into a smile as I turned around to
enter back into my room, as I found the little girl STANDING RIGHT IN MY DOORWAY! The shock caused me to tumble
backwards, landing hard on my tailbone. I cringed at the pain, though still managed to look up to meet the little
girls eyes, but she had disappeared. Again, I heard little patting noises behind me, getting louder and louder by
the second. I crawled forwards into my room and slammed the door behind me. There was another collision with the
door, this one even louder than the first one, followed by awkward silence. I peered through the keyhole, panting,
beads of sweat rolling down my forhead, adrenalin turning my knees into pudding, to see if I could make out
anything, but all I could see was a soft red colour blocking my view. Had she ripped some of the carpet and placed
it over the keyhole? I kneeled there, shaking, staring, waiting... Expecting something horrific to happen,
anticipating the worst, wild thoughts spinning in my head about what could happen next. But there was nothing. I was
there for what had to have been 7 hours, staring through the keyhole at the red material on the other side, when the
first rays of the sun shone through the little window in my room. After a sigh of relief, I collapsed on the floor
and dozed off into a world of magical dreams.
I woke up at 3 pm, and instantly peeked through the keyhole. The red material was gone, and I could see the room
that lay on the other side. I packed my stuff, and went downstairs to bring back the key and look for my house. The
small man was as small as ever, and his big eye was almost twice the size as I remembered it. Giving him the key
oddly made it shrink a little. Not caring much about that, I bed him farewell and was returned by his usual grunt. I was
about to run out of the front door when I stopped dead in my tracks. I was staring at the picture above the chair,
where the old man should have been. The picture wasn't the old man anymore, it was the little girl. Only now I could
see her face, and I noticed that the red cloth I had been staring at hadn't been a piece of red cloth at all. I had been staring
directly into the little girls blood-red eyes the entire night!
And that's why my name is TheComet.
TheComet
