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The original was posted on /r/nosleep by /u/likeeyedid on 2024-10-31 15:40:34+00:00.

I live in a small studio apartment. Bedroom and kitchen all in one, with the only other room being my bathroom. Not really the kind of space where you’d get a roommate, right? 

Right. But Jimmy thinks it’s the perfect living condition for the two of us. He’s happy and as long as he’s happy, he is staying.

Jimmy came out of nowhere a few days ago. He woke me in the middle of the night when he plastered his damp hand over my mouth and shut my nose close with his other. 

“Don’t scream,” he whispered.

My eyes widened in panic as I struggled to breathe. If you live alone you often wonder what you would do if someone broke into your home, but at that moment my mind was blank. I couldn’t get a weapon. I couldn’t even move. 

He removed his hand and I tried to take a deep breath, but it didn’t fill my lungs with enough air, turning more into a panic attack than anything.

“I’m just kidding. You can scream if you want, but it won’t do anything. Nobody can hear you. Not anymore.”

He grinned widely, his teeth so white and shiny that they were the only thing I could really recognize in the dark. 

“Are you always this quiet?” He continued without a hint of care. “Let me turn on some lights so we can get to know each other.” 

He jumped up and turned on the light switch and that was the moment my fight response finally kicked in. I grabbed the blankets and threw them over him as I ran towards my door, struggling with the locks while the stranger only laughed. He didn’t even move closer or try to stop me. Finally, I unlocked the door but as much as I tried it wouldn’t open, so I started banging against it shouting for help first and then screaming fire, but nothing happened. I couldn’t even hear anything on the outside. 

So I finally turned around and looked at the stranger. He was still standing next to the light switch across the room, tilting his head slightly. His eyes were the brightest green I’d ever seen on a human, almost neon. He wore a loose hanging suit and had one of those hair circlets with little red devil horns on his head. 

“Are you gonna go through a whole crisis now? Trying everything to survive and all that blabla?” When I stayed silent, he just nodded. “Alrighty, let’s fast forward a bit then.”

He took a few steps to get to the kitchen part of my studio and pulled out a large knife. 

“Now check this out.” He moved closer, showing me the knife from all sides before he turned it around and rammed it right inside his stomach.

He giggled before pulling it back out, leaving a red stain on his white shirt. 

“What?” I whispered.

“Oh look, you can talk!”

He proceeded to use the knife to cut right across his throat as well before dropping it to the ground and shrugging his shoulders.

“See, can’t be killed before you try to get creative.”

Then he walked up to the window and tried to pull it open.

“Stuck, hehe, just like the door. Can’t break them either.” He waved through the window and turned to me. “Nobody outside can see or hear us. It’s just you and me, buddy, for as long as I want.”

“What are you?” I spat out.

“Oh, shut up. You sound like some character in a shitty movie. I’m Jimmy. Just Jimmy.”

He left the knife on the ground and walked up to my bed, sitting down and bouncing on the mattress a few times. “Hmm, comfy. Are you gonna stand there all night? Come on,” he patted the mattress with his hand, gesturing to me to come closer but I was still glued to the door that wouldn’t budge. 

The carefree look on his face vanished, and his eyes turned two shades darker.

“I can’t be killed, but you can, so come here and spend time with me, Joe.”

I didn’t even question how he knew my name.

When I still wouldn’t move, he got up and trudged closer, his mouth forming into a wicked grin. He grabbed my arm and an excruciating pain went through my entire body. My hand started feeling numb, like when you sit on it for a while and when I looked at it I saw that the skin was shrivelling and turning green, life slowly drifting from it. 

He let go and it became normal again. I gasped, and Jimmy chuckled.

“I can do that with your entire body. Slowly drain you and hang you up to dry so I can make jerky out of you. Or you can decide to be a decent roommate and have fun with me. I think we could become the bestest of friends if you only give me a chance.”

I nodded.

“Okay, yes. Let’s be friends,” I whispered.

He moved back to the bed with a skip in his step and I reluctantly followed.

We sat next to each other, our backs leaning against the headboard. I had a television right in front of my bed so I asked if he wanted to watch something, which he thought was a great idea. So I turned on some cartoons and Jimmy kept completely silent, simply staring ahead.

When enough time passed, I dared to speak again.

“Do you mind if I go to the bathroom?”

“What? Of course not! When nature calls, you answer, Joe. Go right ahead.”

I locked myself inside the bathroom and just sat there, panting and wondering what to do. I spent so much time there that I almost convinced myself that I’d imagined it all, so I finally unlocked the door and walked out. At first there was no sign of Jimmy and I almost let the feeling of relief go through until I found him crouching on the kitchen floor. There were scissors and tape on the floor next to him and it seemed like he was making some kind of collage but he was leaning over his supplies so I couldn’t see much.

“What are you doing there, Jimmy?” I asked in a shaky voice.

“Crafting. You were in there so long I thought you’d fallen into the toilet,” he snorted.

“What are you crafting?” 

This was absurd, the absolute definition of insanity, but what could I do? There was no way out, no way to kill this thing and at least so far, he seemed mostly friendly as long as I didn’t say no to things. So I had to at least try to keep him that way, and apparently it worked best if I showed interest in some kind of friendship. 

“I brought all these pictures I took from old friends and I thought it would be nice if I made them into one big poster and then we can hang it up on the wall because right now this only looks like your home but it’s mine too.”

“Yes, uhm, good idea,” I mumbled. “Can I help?”

His eyes started shining and he smiled at me genuinely.

“That would be most fantastic, Joe. Oh I like you already. Alright, sit down.” When I did so he continued, “So I have these photos and I’m taping them together to become one big one and then maybe if you have glitter we can add that too.” 

He got up on his feet and started rummaging through my drawers and leaving me alone with the pile of photographs. 

Bile made its way to my throat as I looked at all the photos, picturing different people massacred in the same gory way. 

He had cut their eyes out of their sockets and slashed across them. Chunks of hair were ripped out of their scalps, leaving their hair patchy. Someone had sewn their mouths shut.

And they were all wearing Jimmy’s little devil horns. 

I turned the pictures around and found names on each of them. Jay, Juan, Jack Jordyn and so on.

I’d already learned that he didn’t like it when I acted helpless or afraid, so I decided to act as if this was completely normal.

“All their names start with J,” I said as calmly as I could manage.

“Yeah, I like alliterations. Dammit Joe, where’s your glitter? Jarrett had a bunch of glitter.”

“I don’t have any, but hey, Jimmy. Are you planning to take a picture of me as well?” I asked carefully.

“I don’t have my camera, sorry, buddy.”

“That’s okay,” I whispered. I slowly got back f to my feet and went to the bathroom to throw up until there was nothing left inside my stomach.

–

When I dared to get back out, Jimmy had finished his project and the grotesque collection of his victims was hanging right beside my bed.

“Looks great,” I muttered and he beamed with pride.

“I heard you puking, Joe. Are you ill?”

I only shrugged because I didn’t know what he wanted to hear. 

“I can make you some soup.” 

“Okay.”

I’m not sure what that concoction was that he made, but I ate it all the same. It smelled like sweat and tasted like vinegar, but there were crunchy pieces in it that I tried not to think about. Jimmy joined me and when he finished his bowl, he kicked it clean with his tongue. A tongue that had little suction cups all over it but I decided not to comment on that.

It took the last of my willpower not to throw the soup back up again. Some time passed and I seemed to be fine so at least he hadn’t poisoned me. Quite the opposite actually, I felt pretty good. Not mentally, of course, but physically I was doing quite well. My panic had receded and I was fully awake. 

Luckily though, the soup was the only food Jimmy made. He left me in charge of our other meals, when we ran out of something, he left for a while and came back with food. I had to make specific lists, however. If I didn’t, he just came back with rocks or pieces of skin that I didn’t want to know where he got. 

Jimmy was able to come and go as he wanted but I was stuck the entire time. During the few times that he left, I looked for ways to get out but so far I haven’t found any. I keep wondering if anybody misses me. My parents or friends. But nobody has tried to come for me. I’m not sure if they haven’t noticed or if they aren’t able to. I’ve tried texting and calling but nothing will go through.

I’m truly stuck here but as long as I keep my roomma…

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