So before I tell this story; keep in mind I was going through a rough patch in my life at the time. So to see my friend who ghosted me for quite a while and come back into my life only for him to get a dating app onto my phone isn't the strangest thing to me. When I met him again; the look in his eyes were different, wearing a smile but his eyes hadn't matched his face. He wasn't the most convincing salesmen on anything he'd try to get me to do but this time around it's like he suddenly got enough charm to sway a crowd, it felt off putting, strange, wrong. The body language not matching him with how he moved on his feet.
His arm wrapped around me, my phone in his hand as he says, "James; buddy look at me with beautiful girlfriend, if I could get her, then I can help you on this app as well!" My mind started to fog in a daze, feeling like he had a counter response to everything I had to say for not wanting too before I spoke, "I know you been lonely, you can't just keep trying to dwell on your failures with trying to date!" His girlfriend moved in closer, smelling like apple wood. He sighs, "I'm sorry for being gone for so long James but I promise I'll make it up to you, Jerry's bar; drinks on me."
I'm taken aback with confusion in my voice, "why are you doing this and what are you up too?" He gives me a soft punch on my arm.
He casually mentions, "because I'm tired of seeing you being a sad sap like I was; come on. Just give it a try." His words, seem genuine but his body language just felt off, not wrong but not like him. It's genuinely hard to explain but his aura, how he stood up, the muscles, everything; imagine seeing someone go from a depressed boney guy to a warm smiling confident wingman with a beautiful girlfriend. Even how he smells is off, gone from a sweaty strong body odor smell to something inoffensive, sweeter even. A natural scent, not a product applied.
Besides these factors making me nervous, I had the feeling of the loneliness take it's toll on me after all these years. Even seeing him with a girlfriend before me, is making me jealous. He noticed the look on my face in an instant and changed his body language with relaxing his posture. Again, not something my friend Thomas would do.
Thomas with concern in his voice, "what's the matter buddy; it looks like you seen a ghost."
I shrug it off, "I just find this all hard to believe is all; it's quite a sudden 180 with you is all. Forgive my gawking."
Thomas laughs it off, "oh don't sweat it James. I just had my ugly duckling moment is all. Now come on, join me for some drinks." I do just that; join him for drinks, as I drink I'm getting through my profile, setting things up and the more I drink the more I feel like my friend is changing his posture, how he sits and even his body language but it could just be the booze I think to myself. I'm setting up my profile but notice my friend helping me select my photos, I don't fight back against him. At some point I blackout.
During my blackout I have a dream of a creature eating my insides, feeding on my guts and tearing me a part from the inside out by a bronze—skin tone demon.
By the next morning my head hurts with me getting a notification on my phone, to notice a instant match. The woman of my dreams, bronze—skin tone with a strong jaw and somewhat muscular, a woman that looks very Greek. It should've been a red flag in my mind that the longer I'd look at the woman the more attractive and the more she looks like my type, the slight changes at first that aren't noticeable with the cheek bones but every time I check my phone I swear it's like a new feature, a new detail popped in I hadn't noticed before.
This only making my nerves worse. Thomas in the kitchen with his girlfriend making and bacon along with hash browns; this has me shocked even further with remembering how many meals he'd just microwave. My thoughts going, "he's changed so much for the better and yet why does this scare me? Am I just scared of change or am I scared of him? Am I afraid of losing my friend?" As my thoughts run through my head he turns to me and gives a warm smile.
His pearly white grin that wasn't there before as he spoke, "oh rise and shine sleepy head. You want some breakfast?" I shake my head.
I assure Thomas, "I really should get going." That was until the smell of French toast hits my nose, I swear that smell wasn't there before. Trying to will my body away I couldn't help but sit down at the table as I say, "maybe I'll stay for some food." As I sit down with him he notices the ping of messages I'm getting for the notification on my phone. He opens up my phone, I would go and protest but some part of my mind is resisting against it. Him pushing the match I got to me. I fumble with my knife and fork as I try to eat the French toast.
Thomas gleefully says, "you should ask her out! Come on dude she is totally your type! Even anything goes wrong; just call me." I relent and do so. As I'm about to send my first message he snags the phone from my hands.
He goes, "woah! Woah! You're going to send, "hey you're pretty" she likely gets a thousand compliments a day! You got to do a cheesy pickup line!" He hands the phone back to me. A roll of my eyes I change it, he looks over it and gives me the thumbs up. I wrote, "hey baby are you a cake but you look so sweet."
She replied, "oh you find me sweet? I might be a bit too sweet for you cutie." In that moment my heart skipped a beat. I was quick to answer. I don't get what made the woman of my dreams want to be with me. I left Thomas's place with me talking to her on the app until I finally got the guts to ask her out on a date. She was quick to agree and we exchanged phone numbers. I called Thomas to share the success of getting a date.
I could hear his smile through the phone, "see, I told you it'd work!"
I softly concede, "yeah you were right. I'm meeting her March 13th." That night I had one of the worse dreams, I was in a dark house with the soft iron smell filling the air. This place I've seen in my nightmares, of all the times for this to come to me, not something I dreaded with it being so long from before. The only light source was at the end of a hallway into a bedroom with rose pedals scattered across the floor leading towards the bedroom. I call out, "hello, anyone here?" For a moment no one called out.
A voice responds back which had me almost had me jumping out of my skin, a sweet feminine voice calls out from the bedroom, "come here my darling." The heavy chains of fear snapped from my body as I make my way towards the bedroom with that same sweet smell from before hitting me, growing stronger as I step closer. A part of me was dreading this wanting to flee as I see the figure coming out of the bedroom. She looked more beautiful in person than she did on the dating app. She was dressed in lingerie, proudly displaying her figure. She took me by the hand to the bedroom. My heart beating like a drum the closer I get to the bedroom. As soon as we step inside I notice a flicker of a change to her face with the alarm clock blaring me awake. A disappoint of it being a dream and yet somehow feeling more real than I realize; the smell of roses staining my body with a tinge of iron.
Looking back on it; ignoring the warning signs before me of a vision should've told me what I was getting myself into, instead of only thinking of it as a dream. After that night, for the next following six nights the same dream but slightly different. Each time I got closer to her bedroom, I felt something pull me away and the further in the bedroom she was with me taking couple more steps further into the bedroom. This always left me with a dreading feeling when I woke up. This was until night number six where I felt the clawing, sharp pain of my body with waking up sweating and a cut on my arm with me looking at my other hand to notice I scratched myself while sleeping. I brushed this off as, "just nerves" how foolish I was.
I sent my friend a text, "I'll be gone at 8 PM, wish me luck." I sprayed deodorant on my body and tried to calm my nerves, a part of my body not wanting to step outside that door and head there like my body knew something that I did not. This next part spooked me for a moment until I remembered, "oh yeah I shared my location with him." Keep in mind it's just so if I ever got myself in trouble, he could find me.
He texted me back, "get your ass moving; you know pretty women don't like to be kept waiting." That isn't what got me moving, the next part did. He texted, "you don't want this to end up like Sally, do you?" An old high school crush of mine. Sure enough he was right and I relented with me heading on out. What was I scared for anyways? What some silly dreams that was trying to get me to stay alone for the rest of my life. I've never been with a woman and I'm just scared is all. As the time passes by with me stuck in traffic at 8 PM she shoots me a text with her wearing something skimpy, I gulp as it's the same outfit as my nightmare, both turn on and scared.
I arrive late, 9 PM; under my breath I curse out the traffic. A knock on the door only to be sent a text, "my door is open, come in." I do as she said. At the time I didn't think of it as strange she didn't greet me at the door. As I step inside my heart sinks into my chest with me realizing, this is the same house from before in my nightmares, well not entirely but pretty close to the same. Somehow worse than my nightmare. I mumble under my breath, "the place I can never escape."
I shout, "I- I'm hear!" I notice the bedroom light at the end of the hallway.
She shouts, "I'm in here baby!" The smell of roses draw me, as I make my way down the hallway that same rose scent grows stronger but another underlying smell I can't make out, the blanketed smell comes through. As confusion sets in I try my best to shrug it off as I warily make my way through the hallway draped in rose pedals. She was on the bed, more beautiful than the photos online but her body portions being larger than I remember online. Her nails a bit sharper, the eyes a bit more determined. However I was distracted by her beautiful black hair. Her muscular frame was flawless. Her beautiful blue eyes stunned me. She got up from the bed, entering the door frame and I could feel her rough hands pulling me in, her grip a bit too tight for my liking. She got on top of the bed, stretching in provocative positions and softly ask, "care to join me?" I throw off my shoes, then my shirt and finally my pants but as I do so I go face planting onto the ground.
She calls out, "are you okay sweet heart?"
I quickly respond confidently, "yeah I'm fine." Until I notice iron smell, hidden underneath the rose scent; look up to see the decayed bodies and one fresh one underneath the bed. Two bodies I notice, one being my friend and other his girlfriend. The painful dread shoots through me, I froze in place as I can only think what to do next. The only thing I could do as she approached me, gun for the door, grab my pants and shirt then full on sprint out of the room, on my way out I trip in the hallway.
She sweetly shouts, "wait sweet heart what's wrong? Come back!" At the last couple words sounded like the voice of the woman was cracking, picking myself up again I try to unlock the door to find it not opening, throwing my body out the window and adrenaline keeping me going as I try to get dressed, call the cops and only for them to find no one but the bodies and rose pedals. From outside I peaked inside to see the house changed on the inside, decayed and worn down. I show them the dating app, the messages, the phone number and everything but sure enough they couldn't trace them back to anyone. I was interrogated until they found nothing on me that'd pin the crime to me. Sure enough, most of the victims had been using the app like me which made them put me in the clear. I'd try to contact my friend only to find no response on the other end. I drive to his place only to find him gone and the same with his girlfriend. I go to the next door neighbor and ask, "hey do you know Thomas by chance? If you see him could you please give him a message for me."
The neighbor looks confused to ask, "who is Thomas?" They point at the house to say, "the Millers live there though but they've been out of town for quite a while now. I figured they were having you look over the house while they were gone." A cold chill runs down my spine. Over the following days I get multiple messages from multiple different phone numbers day by day and after each day I'm blocking one number after another, each one calling to me like a siren and so for my dreams? I see Thomas in them, along with his girl friend, they two trying to convince me to go back, and the Millers? Still missing today.
One day I finally snap and answer the phone shouting, "leave me alone! I don't want anything to do with you anymore!" The voice on the other side sounding like my friend.
Thomas asks in a worried tone, "James where are you? You never showed back up at my place once you got back."
I ask them, "your place? Don't you mean the Millers?" Thomas goes silent for a moment but chuckles. I press him further, "what did you do with Thomas?"
Thomas gleefully answers, "oh you know what I did with him. For what it's worth; he didn't die a virgin." I stop getting calls after that but I could swear, I can see her from the corner of my eye when I'm out in public though, always lingering somewhere nearby. My nightmares have stopped, finally stopped going back into that same old place.
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