The Red Room

“With the lights out, it’s less dangerous”

-Nirvana, Smells Like Teen Spirit”

I have a confession to make. I went on the dark web and weird things started happening. I feel like what I did was the equivalent of opening Pandora’s box, or for me the apocalypse before Satan’s army came to take over the world. Just because I die doesn’t mean it’s the apocalypse or anything. I thought it better not to consider these kinds of things. My advice for the 21st century, one that I believe is a religious one, one would be wise to stay away from such temptation from what I perceived to be nothing but evil, like the snake edging Eve on, leading to mankind falling from grace, infuriating God in Heaven.

My father had gotten a weird message on this phone.

The Monk is coming.

It was enough to confuse him and terrify me. Did my house just become the home alone house? on a Friday, so my parents planned to go out on a dawat in a neighboring town, a party where many of the members of the Bangladeshi community would meet up to eat biryani like they do back home and chat late into the night. I had to stay at home alone planning watching TV, just as it was dark out when all of a sudden the electricity went out. This was common back home in Bangladesh, but we moved to Mississauga, Ontario to a neighborhood in the Streetsville area in Canada. I never expected the power to go off here. I was all alone in our house. Must have been the circuit breaker I assumed. My paranoia was working overtime. I was mystified by the little box with switches, the circuit breaker, something I knew nothing about. It was so dark that the only light came from distant constellations and a little bit of moon far away on the horizon. I was alone. I made it to a part of the house I knew my mother kept candle stands for decoration with real candles. I lit the wick of one with the stove and set up shop in my bedroom. The candle wax burnt my hands. I locked myself in my room, praying for the best but fearing the worst. 

Sounds became more noticeable, each scared me. This continued through the night. There was no TV to distract me. The pounding continued for at least another half hour. I prayed kids were probably filming something for Youtube and were desperate for a reaction, but I wasn’t planning on giving them any pleasure.  

“Get lost!” I shouted. I was not in the mood for punk kids. 

They ignored my demands and began pounding, even kicking at the door. I walked to the door and then again, there was nothing. Now, I became angry. I slipped on my shoes and began searching for the kids, but there was nobody in sight. 

I shut the door and went back to my room. I was so scared I began noticing each and every loud noise in the house from the sound of my heartbeat to actual noises. This time the doorbell rang out clearly, of this I am sure, and so this time I put on my shoes and decided I would confront the kids. Again, I opened the door and there was no one there. I walked out of the front door, my heart pounding when I thought I saw in the distance the reason for the disturbance. There was a man at the end of my block wearing a mask. 

“Hey, what do you want?” I screamed, trying to show more courage than I had. He didn’t go away until I threatened to call the police. There was no way I was going to chase him but it took some time for me to collect myself. I crept back to the house, noticing that I had left my front door wide open. I went back inside and double-locked the door, then went to my bedroom and locked myself in, just to feel safer. 

Suddenly, the phone began ringing. I crept out of my bedroom to the phone and picked it up. “Hello?” I said. There was no answer. Only heavy breathing on the other end. After I hung up, I checked the caller ID- unknown caller flashed across the display on the cordless. I unhooked the phone. 

At this point, I was more scared than I had ever been before in my entire life. There was some conspiracy against me-or someone was clearly after me. I had entered one of those terrible horror movies I had been watching all night. 

At some point I dozed off, only to wake up again to the incessant knocking! I looked at the clock and It was 2:00 in the morning! I sat up with my ears open. For a few moments my heart stopped when I realised that the knocking was not at my front door but at my bedroom door!

The door to my bedroom crept open as if someone was pushing it lightly but it was too dark to see who or what could have caused it. 

“What are you doing! Let me go to sleep!” I cried.

Very light footsteps began working its way to my bed. Then the footsteps stopped. I turned over to my side and saw a figure next to my bed- a man 7 foot tall. The man finally said.... “Boo!”

That’s when I couldn’t take it anymore and started screaming! Suddenly, my parents thrust open the door and turned on the light. There was no figure there. I told them everything! My mother hugged me tight and my father figured out the whole thing was just a circuit breaker box problem. I told them about the man in the mask outside, the phone call from an unknown number as well as the incessant banging. I was clearly shaken and not acting sane. We decided to report these incidents to the police.

The police traced the call and found that there was a call made to our home number from a payphone outside the local Masonic Lodge. There was no other evidence that anything out of the ordinary took place that terrible night.  

 Was the whole thing my imagination? I know what I saw!