WRITING OBSTACLE
You can feel someone watching you, but you can't see them anywhere.
Describe this feeling in less than 500 words, using vivid and visceral language to make your reader connect with the character being watched.
Hotel Horrors
I sit on the hotel bed, a slight shiver from the cheap AC runs through me. I open my book but pause, the sensation of being watched lays heavy over me. I look up and can’t feel it anymore.
_Strange-_
I look don’t at the page and feel eyes on me again, this time closer. Panic catches in my throat as I fell the energy in the room shift.
_They’re moving?_
I glance up again and the feeling drops instantly.
_They know I know they’re here… but where._
The room is small, not many places to hide. I curl into a ball and clutch my book tightly. I look down at the pages and fell the warmth of eyes settle onto me once more. My phone buzzes next to me. I don’t want to grab it though.
_Every time I look away they get closer._
The phone buzzes again and I slowly grab it. A text from an unknown number.
“Personally I’m not a fan of Marisa Meyer.”
The message glows up at me and I stare back, frozen with fear. I go to shut the book when another message beeps next to me.
_I thought it was silenced…?_
I hesitantly grab the phone again,
“Don’t forget a bookmark deary.”
I put a bookmark in the book and text back.
“Who are you?”
They immediately text back.
“Better question: Where am I?”
The warmth of being watched quickly turns to the cold sting of fear.
“Look out the window darling.”
I stare at the message, afraid to look up and see my new stalker.
I raise my head slowly and see a dark figure in the window, presumably standing on the 1ft balcony. The creature has no features to its face and that’s when I realize…
there isn’t a shadow.
That’s
Their
Reflection.
The moment I realize it I feel their breath of the back of my neck.
“Hi.”
My whole body shivers. I don’t dare reply. They sit behind me on the bed, clearly waiting for me to acknowledge their Hi.
“It’s not very polite to ignore someone’s salutations.”
…
“I brought goldfish.”