Minutes after Ro-Ena had left, Nick decided to lie back down in bed in order for him to continue his interrupted sleep. Just as when he was catching his slumber, all was disrupted by a sudden knock on the front door. Nick groaned out and screamed, “Go away!” but the knock persisted, “There’s nobody home!” he called out. The knock had stopped and Nick smiled contently, allowing his eyes to remain closed.

He began to drift off, and just as when he was in the state of being half-asleep and half-awake, the knock returned, except it was louder and fiercer than the first set of knocks. Nick groaned as he finally decided to get out of bed to deal with whoever was disturbing his slumber.

“What do you want?” he blurted out while quickly opening the door, only to find nobody there. “Get the freakin’ message when I finally got out of bed!” he rolled his eyes while closing the door and began to head back in his bedroom to proceed with his mission of sleeping. After taking a few steps, the knocking began once again.

Nick quickly ran to the door and swiftly opened it up hoping to catch the culprit. Again, there was nobody there. “If this is someone’s idea of a funny joke, you better quit it before I get mad and kick some ass!” he screamed down the hallway then closed the door again. Instead of walking away, he remained at the spot he was standing it, hand still holding the knob of the door, ready to turn and pull the second the knocking returns.

Silence.

He waited for a few more seconds, giving the culprit another chance for any sign avenge of some sort.

Silence.

“I guess I scared them off!” he proudly said to himself while grinning. He took his grip off from the doorknob and retreated his body back to the bedroom. As soon as he got inside, he slightly closed the door behind him. Just seconds before he was about to flop himself down on his bed, a weird clunker arose from outside in the direction of where the bathroom was. He stopped and listened.

Silence at first then another huge sound was made that signified the turning on of the faucet as the water was left running. Nick moved towards the door of his bedroom and peeked out to the direction of the door. Did he remember to lock the door after he had opened it then shut it again?

He squinted his eyes in order to see if the lock was set on the front door. “I could have sworn I locked that!” he said as his heartbeat began to beat slightly faster than the normal.

Another sound was made, but that time around, it didn’t seem to have come from the bathroom, but the living room instead. Nick stood frozen trying to listen for any evident footsteps. There was none.

A sudden bang that seemed to have impacted on something hard made Nick jump an inch from where he stood. “Okay, enough of this bullshit!” he exclaimed as he quickly grab the telephone and pressed the on-button and dialled the number belonging to the hotel security. As he pressed the telephone against his ear, he realized that the phone line had been disconnected. “Shit!” he said softly. He looked around his room, looking for anything to use as a weapon. He spotted a ruler on top of his worktable. He quickly walked over to where the ruler was and picked it up. It was made of wood and rather sturdy, however short it may have been. “Good enough,” he assured himself. “Better than nothing! It’s not the size that counts, it’s the impact!” upon realizing what he had just said, he stopped and giggled to himself for a little bit then proceeded on.

He slowly began to walk towards the door of the bedroom, making sure each step did not make a noise to scare the culprit away. Each step contained an interval to certify that everything was still as copasetic as it could be at that moment. Eventually, he managed to get out of his bedroom without stumbling on anything. He took a quick peek in the bathroom as the hot water was left running. Steam began to formulate and within moments, smoke was coming out of the small bathroom due to the incessant run of the hot water.

Nick continued his journey to catching his prankster. Another booming sound was made, except it was louder and seemed more deadly. “What could they be doing?” Nick asked himself as his grip on the ruler tightened.

A sudden rush of braveness manage to overtake Nick’s entirety as he knew he was just prolonging everything and the only way to really catch the culprit off-guard was for him to come in quickly and unexpectedly. He took one deep breath as he began to take the first step to his vigorous run. He got to the living room and it was empty. He stood still and examined the room only to find nothing wrong in it. Everything was placed as it had always been placed. Nothing was moved, nothing was changed, and nothing was altered. Everything was the same.

He proceeded in running to the kitchen and once again it was empty. He walked back to the living room and dropped the ruler on the center table and placed both his hands on his waist while fixating his vision on his front door. The lock was placed in its proper way that will prevent anyone from coming in or coming out. His eyes spotted the alarm on the wall and realized it was set to ‘off.’ Nick walked quickly to where it was and turned it on to sensitive.

Afterwards, he turned his body around to examine his surroundings once again with his eyes. Nobody seemed to have been there; maybe he had imagined it all. Nick shook his head upon realizing that his mind was playing tricks on him and headed back to his bedroom once more. On his way, he passed by the bathroom where the hot water was still running. If nobody was there and he had imagined it all, who turned the bathtub faucet on? Nick slowly crept into the bathroom pushing the door ajar as hot steam began to come out through the given access.

The steam had collected enough to prevent Nick from seeing anything through it. He stopped and began to feel if he really was alone or not. Nothing gave him the vibe that he wasn’t alone. He headed to where the bathtub was and turned the running water off. He was confused and wanted to make sense of it all. He stood staring at the bathtub for a moment trying to give him legitimate reasons for the sudden occurrence. “Maybe Ena forgot to turn it off before she left?” he asked himself. “Yeah that could be it!”

Nick stood by the doorway of the bathroom as he allowed the hot steam to move out and give back the room’s original setting without the steam. As the mist began to fade off slowly, the image of the mirror can once again be seen. Bit by bit, as the steam continued to dissipate, the mirror became more visible. As the mirror became more the visible, the more goosebumps and fear appeared in Nick.