Not Just a Nightmare

Samantha woke up, in her bedroom, with tears in her eyes but no cold sweat. She woke up quite peacefully, it didn't feel like she just experienced a traumatic nightmare, nor did it feel like she was in any ways sleep deprived.

She didn't even realise tears were flowing until she sat on on her bed and a tear dropped falling onto her lap.

"Why am I crying?" She asked herself, "What happened again?"

Liam wakes up the same way, except without tears. He was unusually a lot more energetic than any other day, he often sleeps only 4 to 6 hours in night, but today he woke up feeling like he slept the full 8.

His immediate reaction after waking up was sitting up and grabbing his hair, it wasn't a headache, instead it just felt like something is missing up there on his head, something, he's not sure what is it.

Samantha felt that way too. She held her head with her palms trying to recall what is it that's missing.

Creaks

A door outside was opened, Samantha triggered by the sound of the door creaking got up from her bed and scampered outside her bedroom.

It was Nick, walking downstairs from his bedroom with an emotionless face. Seeing Nick, Samantha remembered.

Liam turned to his right, Tyler was already awake and out of bed, standing right in front of the dorm room's window. Seeing Tyler, Liam remembered.

"Dad?" She didn't receive any responses, Nick continued walking downstairs in robotic movements, "Dad, where are you going?"

Liam looked in shock, his roommate who died in his embrace was standing right in front of him. However, nothing about him felt like Tyler, it was more like the empty shell of a man, without feelings, without energy and without a personality.

"Dad, stop..." Samantha kept calling out to her father but never received any answers, she followed closely behind Nick as he walked downstairs and through the living room.

"Oh hey, good morning you two! How was the show yesterday?" Heather, Samantha's mother greeted from the dining table while she's preparing breakfast.

Neither gave a response to Heather, instead they both walked past her, "Nick?" She questioned.

Liam was still waiting for his revived roommate to say something, he's never been the one to initiate a conversation between them after all.

Instead of a verbal response to Liam, Tyler stepped on top of his desk in front of the window.

"Dad, what are you doing?"

Nick stopped in front of the kitchen counter. He paused all movements for a second while intensely staring at the knives on the countertop.

"Dad?"

Nick slowly extends his arm, reaching for the largest and sharpest kitchen knife in the holder.

Tyler eventually got up onto the desk, Liam realised what he's about to do when he opened the window, he sprinted to Tyler but it was too late, he had already jumped down before Liam could even grab the hem of his shirt.

Nick held the knife with both his hands, then without a glimpse of emotion in his eyes, he thrusted the knife full force towards his own throat.

"DAD!" Samantha lunges forward and stops the knife's path.

"Nick?!" Heather rushes over after witnessing the attempted suicide. All three of them struggled for the knife until they all fell onto the ground.

"DAD!"

"Nick??"

They weren't able to get the knife off Nick's grip, their strength is simply inconsequential compared to his. But Samantha still struggles like hell, putting Nick in a chokehold on the ground while attempting to kick away the knife.

"MOM TAKE THE KNIFE TAKE THE KNIFE RIGHT NOW!"

Heather hurriedly went to grab Nick's arms and hold it back with all her strength. They were successful at the start, now all Samantha have to do is choke Nick until he's unconscious.

The emotionless Nick acted like a machine, his lower body wasn't moving until after his upper body was completely restrained, unlike the average human movement.

He kicked Heather in the guts, causing her to lose grip of his arms. Nick pulled his arms out of Heather's grip violently, the knife slashed Heather's palm on it's way out.

"Argh!" Heather exclaimed.

There were veins popping out from Nick's face and eyes due to being choked, but there's still not a hint of life on his face and body, completely lifeless.

Nick thrusted the knife with both his hand with all his strength towards his throat. The knife pierced through Samantha's forearm that was in the way and into Nick's own throat.

Samantha cried in agony, not just from the pain through her forearm, but also from how weak Nick's struggling suddenly became after the knife pierced through his throat.

"NO! NO! ARGHH..."

"Oh god!" Heather exclaimed and immediately lent a hand to Samantha in helping to pull the knife back out.

Heather was shellshocked, but more than that, she was devastated. After she dropped the knife to the ground, she broke down in tears.

So did Samantha, but Samantha was already bawling tears a lot earlier. She just lost her father again, in the same fashion of being covered in blood, sweat and tears, as well as being completely helpless about it.

She pressed her head against her father's while embracing his corpse in her arms, sobbing gutturally.

"Why..." Heather asked herself.

The two of them sat in the pool of their own tears mixed with Nick's blood, grieving and questioning.

Liam stared down the window at Tyler's body four floors below, with a gasping crowd surrounding it.

"Holy shit! It's from up there!" One of the students in the crowd yelled while pointing at Liam, averting everyone's attention onto him.

Liam didn't pay much attention to the stares however, his gaze was fixated on his roommate's body down below.

"Yo someone call the police man!"

"It's already called, there was another case just like this only about 10 seconds ago!"

"GUYS! SOMEONE FELL OVER HERE!" A distant cry informing the campus of yet another suicide.

"What's happening man? Holy shit."

Liam looked in fear, it wasn't a dream, it wasn't exactly reality either, then what the hell was last night?