Novel: Horror
When I woke it was noon, light full in the hotel room. I stretched awkwardly beneath the blankets and rolled over, but the space on the bed next to me was empty and cold. I sat up and looked around the room, at the window where Sam spent so much time. He wasn’t there.
“Sam?” I called, swinging my legs over the edge of the bed and starting to panic. If he had left the room without me…
“Yeah?” Sam came around the corner from the bathroom. Soap suds were on his face and a straight razor was in his hand.
I flumped back down on the bed. “I thought you had left.”
“For what? Lunch? I mean, you’ve been snoring a while but I was still going to wait for you.”
I flung a pillow at him and he ducked back into the bathroom to avoid it.
As I dressed I could hear the razor swishing occasionally in the sink. Since when did Sam ever get out of bed before me? I thought back to last night, to a watch dropped on the floor of the room, Sam poising his knife over it. As he brought it down I had fallen forward onto the carpet and thrust out my hands over the watch. He couldn’t quite stop his motion, could only turn the knife aside, nicking the outside of my left hand.
Smeared Black Ink 