The Curfew

Prologue

A short girl with long, black hair, knocks on the gate of the apartment she rented. "Hello? Uhmm... I'm your new roommate."

The window at the second floor of the apartment was opened and the head of a girl with short brown hair and oblong brown eyes came into view. "Hi! Wait. Hold on for a second." She disappeared, and reappeared at the main door of the small, two-storey apartment. "My name is Stephanie Garcia", the girl said as she opened the gate. "You can call me Steph. Let me help you out."

"My name's Angel... Angel Lopez", was the reply as she handed Steph her blue trolley bag. "I'm your new roommate."

The two girls entered the apartment. Angel described the apartment she rented silently. There's an L-shaped red couch on her right. Two brown doors on the left in which one leads to Steph's room and the other leads to the bathroom. At the far end is the kitchen sink, and a staircase leading to upstairs partially blocks Angel's view of it. Thre are four sets of uniform hanging beneath the staircase. Each set consist of a short-sleeved buttoned blouse and checkered skirts, which has the combinations of the colors white, gray, and black.

"Your room is located upstairs. Don't worry. I always clean every inch of this place."

Despite Steph's petite body, she was able to carry Angel's trolley bag, which is obviously overloaded judging by its looks, to the room upstairs. Angel followed her and asked, "Are you a student of Holy Angel University? I just saw your uniform..."

"Yes, I do. I'm an incoming civil engineering student. How about you?"

"Accountancy. I'm first year too. I guess we won't be classmates then."

"Do you have superpowers?"

"Yes, I do. But it's not that interesting. I have night vision. I can activate and deactivate it on my own will."

"That's cool, actually. In my case, I have the ability to manipulate ice. But, the only thing that I can do is to put ice cubes on my drinks just to make them cold and that's it."

"Well, that's convenient in a way."

The room upstairs is 3 meters by 3 meters. It consist of a mattress, a closet, and a dressing table.

"That's my mattress by the way", Steph said as they two girls finished in arranging Angel's clothes. "Sometimes, I sleep here. You know, the weather is hot, and it's hotter downstairs compared to upstairs."

"I see."

"Anyway, we'll split the rent since we're roommates."

"Okay. So... half of five thousand pesos is..."

"Two thousand five hundred", Steph interrupted her.

"By the way, does the landlady have rules and regulations in this apartment, aside from settling bills and cleanliness?"

"Since we're still two weeks away from the first day of classes, there's nothing I can tell you yet. But once the academic year starts, there is only one rule."

"What is it?"

"During the entire academic year, there will be curfew hours that will be strictly implemented. 11:30 PM to 5 AM."

"I have no problem with that. But how about the cars that pass by?"

"The streets will be closed. Well, there are gates which separate the streets to the highway."

"What happens if you were outside during the curfew hours?"

"Strange noises which are otherworldly. Those are just rumors though. Anyway, I'm mostly likely be asleep during those curfew hours."

"Me too. Well, there's nothing much to worry about."

-+-+-+-+-Two months later-+-+-+-+-

Angel arrives at the apartment at exactly 9:30 PM. Steph, who is currently studying her previous quizzes, noticed Angel's body language, visibly exhausted.

"Just had my dinner at McDonalds. Tons of homework just before preliminary examinations? That's insane."

"Just accept the fact that there are some insane professors out there."

"Anyway, I'll go to sleep."

"Sleep tight."

Three nights later, Angel experienced insomnia due to the stress from one of her subjects. She is lying down on the mattress, forcing herself to sleep. She can't despite the darkness surrounding her. Angel checked her phone, which is 11:28 PM. She remembered the curfew hours from Steph, who is currently sleeping downstairs. At exactly 11:30PM, she hears knocks from the window and the door, the sound of something scratching at the ceiling, and something that is dragged on the floor on different places. Out of curiosity, she opened the window by a millimeter, and saw the bloodied body of her classmate dragged along the street by an unknown force. The wind suddenly blows the window wide open, which emitted a very loud creak. It followed by a short, bloodcurdling scream which made Steph wake up suddenly.

"Angel?", Steph became concerned, but remembered the curfew hours. She could still hear the loud swinging of the window upstairs.

Moments later, someone is knocking on the door of her room, in a slow manner. Steph's heartbeat starts to intensify, such that she covered her mouth as her breathing is starting to catch up with the pace of her heartbeat. The knocks on the door are getting harder. She hears something scratching on the walls, and the sound of something hissing.

"I have the fear of snakes", Steph closed her eyes tightly, and tried to calm herself down. The sounds are getting louder. Someone is forcing the door to open. Tears start to flow down her eyes. She starts to count numbers carefully in her mind to ignore her surroundings, while keeping her eyes shut. "1, 2, 3... 31, 32, 33...", Steph did not notice herself fall asleep.

Next morning, Steph woke up 6:30 AM, just 30 minutes before her class starts. Remembering the scream last night, she took a peek at the room upstairs. To her horror, there is no sign of Angel's body. Even her accessories, her books, her things, her luggage, everything belonging to her roommate Angel Lopez disappeared without a trace, as if her existence was deleted in one night. Steph's body begins to tremble, as she hurriedly prepared herself for her first class, in which she was able to make it in time.

During lunch hours, Steph went to the library and found some of Angel's classmates, which are all female, as her next class will start at two in the afternoon. Steph approached them and they smiled at her, as they recognize her as Angel's roommate. Steph asked them, "Have you seen Angel?"

"Angel?"

"Yeah. Angel Lopez is her full name."

The girls looked at each other in confusion. Steph observed them, as they simply shrugged their shoulders. After a while, one of them informed Steph, "We don't know someone named Angel Lopez."