The Hostel Looks Different at 2 A.M: Things I See While Everyone Sleeps

 

There is a girl who hasn't been sleeping much lately.

Not because she doesn't want to sleep. In fact, she wants nothing more than to close her eyes and wake up when morning comes. But lately, sleep has become difficult. It visits when it wants to and ignores her when she needs it most.

So, every night, she waits.

After a while, she stopped trying to force sleep. Instead, she started paying attention to the things that happen after everyone else has drifted off.

It's strange how different a room feels when everyone in it is asleep.

The same walls that seem ordinary during the day suddenly become unfamiliar. The shadows stretch across the room in ways they never do under sunlight, and every little sound suddenly feels much louder than it really is. The room hasn't changed, yet somehow it feels like it has.

Sometimes she stares at the ceiling for so long that the little cracks begin to look like faces. The hanging clothes in the corner become people for a second before her eyes remember what they really are. A bag resting on a chair suddenly looks like someone sitting perfectly still.

The funny thing is that she knows none of it is real.

Her mind is simply trying to entertain itself.

Or maybe it is trying to scare her.

She hasn't decided which one.

Her roommates are asleep by now. They don't know they're part of tonight's entertainment🌚. One of them has somehow turned completely around. Another has managed to steal almost the entire blanket without waking up. It's amazing how much people move while they're asleep. If she didn't know better, she'd think they were secretly awake, changing positions whenever she looked away.

Then there are the rats.

They wait for the perfect moment.

The moment when the room becomes quiet and everyone has surrendered to sleep.

That is when they begin their own routine.

Tiny footsteps across the floor, or on the pots 😂.

Something scraping against the door.

A sudden sound from the corner that makes her turn her head a little too quickly.

These rats don't seem afraid of anyone. They move around like the hostel belongs to them, carrying tiny treasures from one place to another as if they're redecorating the room. After everything she's seen them do, she wouldn't even be surprised if one of them started paying rent.

Oddly enough, the silence isn't the worst part of being awake.

It's actually... peaceful🌚.

The world slows down after midnight. There are no conversations, no footsteps in the corridor....well except the ones heading to the restroom🫠, no alarms reminding you of the next thing to do. It's just quiet.

The kind of quiet that lets you hear your own thoughts.

Sometimes that's comforting.

Sometimes it's dangerous.

Because when your mind has nothing to distract it, it begins to wander to places you never invited it to go.

Tonight was supposed to be different. She had just finished studying and was certain she would finally sleep...wait...certain? Nah!...

Instead, she found herself staring into another long night...like she does most nights...I guess... watching shadows, listening to rats that have entirely too much confidence, and wondering if sleep had simply forgotten her room.🫠

Maybe tomorrow night will be different....she really hope it's different! 

Or maybe, by then, she'll have discovered what really happens after everyone falls asleep.