3:01

Bianca woke up with a jolt on her bed, it was some plastic rustling noise. There was a night bulb in her room so she could see almost everything there, she looked around but everything seemed normal. She whispered to herself with a snort that she should minimise watching horror movies. Bianca was about to lay down but she realised that she need to pay a visit to the washroom so she got up from her bed and was about to open the door when she saw a plastic wrapper on the floor near it and everything made sense to her, giggling, she opened the door.

As Bianca was going to the washroom, crossing the kitchen, she felt like she saw something but she ignored it thinking about what happened few minutes ago.

After two minutes she came out and was closing the washroom door when suddenly an urge came from inside of her from nowhere, to peek into the kitchen. She was about to peek when someone from inside of her told not to, hence she didn't. Bianca turned to go back to her room, when suddenly a noise came from the kitchen. She paused abruptly, the noise felt like a bouncing ball. She looked into the kitchen and all of a sudden she felt like her body was being injected with innumerable needles, she felt like someone just blew cold air on the nape of her neck. It was not something she thought she saw in the kitchen few minutes ago but it was someone. A dark figure was standing in the kitchen right infront of her, it was obvious that it was a female because of the curves of the breast and hips and long hair but nothing could be seen; neither her face nor any part of her body. Bianca thought it was her mom. So she told to the dark figure, "Mom! You literally scared the hell out of me. God!!! What are you doing in the kitchen in the middle of the night standing like a ghost! Am so tired of your pranks, mom. Good night!"

Bianca closed the door of her room and climbed up on her bed. She grabbed her phone and checked the time, it was one minute past three in the morning. She slowly lied down and closed her eyes; she could feel herself slowly drifting off to sleep, when all of a sudden she sat upright with a jerk. That sound! That similar sound of a bouncing ball woke her up. She looked blankly in the air and to her aghast, a yellow ball was bouncing on it's own, infront of her eyes.

"W..wh..where d..did this ball come from?"

"How i..it is b..b.. bouncing on it's own suddenly?"

"T..that is n..not my ball, wh..whose b..ball is this then?"

Bianca was sweating now. That ball was bouncing quite high in the air on it's own in the room, as if someone was standing there and making it bounce like that. From the corner of her left eye, she saw another ball came bouncing into the room through her closed door; as if there was no door at all. Bianca was petrified now. She was looking at the door and the ball continuously. She couldn't understand what was happening in front of her eyes.

Bianca asked herself the same question again and again that how is this possible. She asked herself that how this red ball came inside the room through the closed door. She looked at the ball closely and she almost chocked up; it wasn't a red ball, it was actually a blood covered orange ball. She quickly crawled to the corner of her bed, she was surrounded by walls except from her left side now; the door was on her left side. Bianca suddenly felt like someone was climbing on her bed slowly from her left side, she could clearly see light depressions on her bed. It felt like someone came and sat next to her, skin to skin. Bianca started trembling very bad. She immediately brought her knees to her chest and buried her face in the minimal space between her chest and knees. She tightly clutched herself.

Bianca felt her left side freezing, it was chilled as ice. She shut her eyes tight and prayed for this to end soon. The ceiling fan was operating at high speed and yet Bianca was sweating like a broken pipe. She doesn't remember how long but suddenly she felt a hard push on her left side and this made her open her eyes instantly. When she opened her eyes, she saw her ceiling and the ceiling fan.

"H..how am I laid down h..here?"

"B..but I w..was there in t..the c.. corner"

Bianca felt too heavy to pick up herself. The bed felt very wet. She slowly touched her face and she was completely drenched in sweat. She slowly found the courage to sit, then she took her phone and checked the time, it was one minute past three am. Bianca grasped her phone hard and kept looking at the door, as if she was waiting fo some balls to come through the door; she was quaking in fear lightly. Out of fear she started scanning her room from her bed and at the corner of her wardrobe, opposite to her she saw a yellow ball once again. She gasped loudly and fixed her eyes on the door now. Her breathing was getting heavier, tears were rolling down on her cheeks uncontrollably; Bianca held her bed sheet tight. She was shaking when once again she felt a hard push and opened her eyes instantly; to her shock, it was her mother who was lightly pushing her to wake up as it was mid noon.

Bianca sat up immediately, she was trying her best to recapitulate the scenes of last night, was it a dream or a dream of a dream? Or everything was real? She tried to solace herself by ignoring everything and saying it was a silly dream and was about to get down from her bed when her eyes got stuck at the table clock beside her wardrobe opposite to her, she felt like someone has just drained all the blood from her body. The time on the clock took her voice away. Bianca couldn't move, a word came out of her mouth as a whisper instead, 'How?' and she fainted on her bed. The clock was actually stuck at a particular time and that's what paralyzed her senses, it was one minute past three.