The Stalking Skull

by Jose Pablo Arce Saborio
(Costa Rica)

It was a humdrum night for nothing was different from its quotidian arrangement. Everywhere I glanced, all the objects in my room were the same. All was the same. It was close to nine, and I was about to go to sleep like I always did.

For many years I closed my door and my window. I never failed in this task, not even once in 30 years since I moved to this rented room. Though it was cold outside, my room was warm enough.

Suddenly I felt a very atypical chill. I knew that it wasn’t a chill like the ones people have when it is chilly. This was something else, something… I can´t seem to describe. This strange sensation though unusual, was not important to me, so I just ignored it. This was not a wise decision.

The same happened a few minutes later, but twice stronger. I knew that something was going on. I had a hunch “something is beneath my bed. I must take a look” I said in scared tone of voice, and despite the ugly sensation, I was not afraid to take my lantern and glimpse below my mattress. I took the lantern from my nightstand and moved on very slowly. Once in there the light showed up something that I thought lost a long time ago… something that froze all my being… something that took me back to a horrible episode of my life

“NOOO, this can’t be happening. I threw it away in that river. I saw it sinking. DAMN IT! I saw its evil light going down the water and disspearing. This evil is coming back for me!” I could not believe my eyes. This happened many years ago. I thought I was hallucinating, that maybe my mind was playing tricks on me, maybe I was kind of giddy, but it was really happening.

“My past is hunting me. I got rid of it. I can’t believe that I have to do that again. I almost lost my life to get rid of this evil…” I yelled.

I knew that I could not complete this task alone, and I only knew one person for the job, one person to whom I promised that I would never look again, one person to whom I promised that would never have to help me to… again. I was running out of choices, and time. I had to move on. If someone saw that thing I knew that my life would be over.

“What can I do? I have no idea where he lives. He even changed his name, and probably his face.” I yelled in a desperate manner. I knew that somehow I had to find him. He was my only choice and the only one that knew how to solve this once and for all. “If I don’t get rid of this soon, I will be doomed for sure”

I could hardly sleep that night. The nightmares that I had were really vivid for they transported me to that terrible day where I was so close to die, that terrible day when the twilight showed up right before everything was over… well, at least that´s what I thought.

Very early in the morning I embarked on my mission, a mission to save my life and wipe out that malignant… I decided to start in the place where everything began. I could remember the exact point where I saw that thing sinking. All was the same. Nobody would ever suspect of what happened there. I could feel a strange aura in the ambience; it was the same aura that I felt that day.