Night had fallen thick over Aarush, wrapping the shared apartment in a silence that felt... tight. Kali flipped through an old magazine on the sofa, legs crossed, a candle lit beside her. Dahlia was in the kitchen, washing a cup with slow, almost mechanical movements. Neither of them spoke, but the tension was palpable.
A sharp thud.
Then another.
And then... something dragging across the rooftop.
"Did you hear that?" Kali asked, sitting up straight.
Dahlia turned off the faucet. The air in the apartment became one long, held breath.
They moved together to the balcony. The city lights flickered as if afraid to shine too brightly. Outside, only the night breeze... until something moved across the rooftops.
A figure. Not human. Too tall, too thin. It slipped between chimneys with quick, almost feline motions. It had long, twisted legs, and arms that hung like dry branches. It had no face—or at least, not one they could make out.
"What the hell is that...?" Kali whispered.
"I don't know..." Dahlia replied. "But it's not an animal. That's not... natural."
The creature leapt from one roof to another, vanishing behind a building.
Just as they were about to step back inside, both looked down at the street.
And saw it.
A human silhouette. Completely still. Wrapped in shadow. Watching them from below, unmoving. They couldn't see a face. They couldn't see eyes. But they knew: it was staring right at them.
The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.
"Dahlia... it's not moving."
"Who is it?"
"I don't know... but I feel cold in my bones."
The figure didn't move. Didn't leave. Didn't get closer. It just stood there. Like a silent warning.
They shut the balcony door and held each other without speaking.
That night, sleep took them faster than usual. As if someone had laid it over their eyes.
And what they found wasn't rest.
The Dream
Everything was black. Dense. The air smelled of damp earth and rust.
They stood in what looked like a cemetery, but not a normal one. The headstones were twisted shapes. No names, only ancient symbols. The sky was a canvas of pure shadow.
From the ground, right in the center of a circle of ash, a figure rose. Slowly. Dryly. As if the world were spitting it back out.
A human-shaped shadow, covered in black threads that moved like tentacles in slow motion.
It had no face. But they knew it could see them.
No mouth. But they heard its voice in their heads.
"The cycle is already broken."
"Now it's my turn."
It stared at them. And though it had no eyes... they felt it. A burning in their chest, like it was stripping them bare from the inside.
Invasive. Malignant.
And behind the figure, something opened: a mouth full of teeth, a hole of voices, a rift to something else.
Dahlia tried to run.
Kali tried to scream.
But the fear was so deep their bodies didn't respond.
Only the sound of black threads sliding through flesh.
And the terrifying certainty that they were no longer alone.
Awakening
Both sat up in their respective beds. Hearts pounding. Cold sweat on their necks. Thick air.
"Dahlia?"
"Kali?"
They both stepped out of their rooms at the same time. They met in the hallway—same dark circles, same pale skin, same trembling lips.
"I had a horrible dream," they said in unison.
The silence was shattered by an impossible detail.
The kitchen clock read 5:03 PM.
Dahlia rushed to check her phone.
Kali looked at hers.
"It's Tuesday. But how...?"
"Did we sleep... seventeen hours?"
They both froze.
"The boy's statement...?" Dahlia whispered.
"It's today!" Kali shouted, already looking for the most decent pair of pants she could find.
They dressed in a hurry, no time to process the horror of what they'd just lived—or what was happening to them.
Only a final glance exchanged in the elevator.
"You saw it, didn't you?" Kali asked.
Dahlia nodded.
"And I don't think it's just a dream anymore."
The elevator doors shut.
Outside, the sky was darkening faster than it should.
