The Twilight Zone

For those too young to know, "entering the twilight zone" is a popular expression to describe a strange situation we find ourselves in. It refers to the hit TV series The Twilight Zone where the characters in each episode find themselves in a strange alternate reality. Around 4am this morning, I found myself in a similar eerie place.

David had quite some packing to do last night because he will be leaving for his hometown the next morning (today) at 6am. I went to bed around 12.30am but his bags were still strewn messily on his bed so I decided to leave the lights on so he could continue packing after he came back. I don't like sleeping with the lights on so I put on my eye shades. And soon enough, I drifted to sleep.

I experienced a dream in my sleep and when I woke up from it, I was startled with the glare from the fluorescent lights. The sheer brightness made me wake up that instant. I looked around and David still hasn't come back. At first I thought that maybe I haven't really slept and it was still around 12.30am but when I checked the time it was already 4am.

I felt a queer feeling in my stomach - what is David up to? I looked at his side to see if any items have moved. Nope. He hasn't been back at all. As usual with early mornings, I walked gingerly to the toilet to pee. While emptying my bladder, I began analyzing the situation. He has never been out so late before, but it won't surprise me as he has mentioned about playing some card games with friends before. But I didn't think he would play the night through.

After finishing off, I didn't walk back to my room. Instead, I tried to check Albert's room upstairs. David might just be there. As I walked around the hostel, the corridors were awfully quiet. Usually some sleepless jerk would be playing computer games and blasting out technno music, but not tonight. Coupled with the intense brightness of the lights, it becomes weirder - like the Twilight Zone.

I didn't see David's slippers outside Albert's room, so I went back to my room. I decided to end this fantasy at once and just SMSed him. I doubt he was kidnapped. The thought did cross my mind but it was highly unlikely. At any rate, he confirmed my suspicions 5 minutes later. He replied that he wasn't planning to sleep and he will come back at 5am to finish packing.

I became extremely annoyed and I replied with similar sentiments because I purposely left the lights on for his sake, but he never even informed me that I shouldn't expect him early. Of course, he is not to blame as he didn't know that I would do so. But if he did, I would have butchered him nicely when he returned.

Obviously he's on his way home now, and I have the room to myself. All my lecturers have permitted us to skip the class so I don't really have anything to do. As I wrote before, I have lost all will to study so I'll probably freeze my brain and just do a movie marathon - I'm planning to go through Lost, 24, Transamerica, and Brokeback Mountain (the highly anticipated movie that has been banned in Malaysia).