The glowing digits of the bedside clock read 12:47 AM.

After managing to finish the target for his report, Jasper was sprawled across the king-sized bed, tangled up in the sheets. Unlike normal days where he’d share the sheets with Marjorie, he had them all to himself. No having to make do with a quarter of them while she hogged the other three-quarters.

That didn’t make this night’s sleep any more comfortable, though.

For unknown reasons, sleep eluded him, with his mind drifting in and out of hazy half-dreams that made little to no sense. He shifted again and again, trying to get a comfortable position to fully doze off in. Yet, there was… this sense of unease in the atmosphere that refused to subside.

“Ah, but what’s going on?” he wondered as he stared at the ceiling. Sure, the absence of Marjorie and the kids had left a gaping hole in the house. But it wasn’t like he hadn’t spent time away from them before or vice versa. While there would be that normal feeling of emptiness, it wasn’t like this. At the moment, the house felt… off. It felt as though there was this heavy, watchful silence looming over it.

Jasper sighed and shook his head. “I really wish I could just fall asleep,” he muttered. “Tomorrow’s a busy day. It’s not now that I’m going to struggle to fall asleep… hmph, they always said counting up to one thousand might help. Let me see…”

He began to count. “One, two, three, four, five, six…”

He went on and on, counting as many numbers as possible. It seemed to work, for by the time he was close to 220, he began to drift into a shallow doze.

His eyelids fluttered shut… his body began to drift into shutdown mode…

And a sudden noise jolted him awake.

A faint, distorted sound.

Springing up in bed, his heart pounded against his chest as he strained his ears to find out what sound it was. It took him a moment to identify it: a low murmur of voices.

His heart leaped into his throat as he sat up. “Jesus! Are there armed robbers in the house?” he wondered as his ears strained to pinpoint the source. Surely that couldn’t be the case; he never compromised on his security consciousness, always ensuring all doors were locked and the burglar alarms were on.

He listened further to discern the source of the voices.

Then he realized… the sound was coming from the TV.

“What the…” he muttered, sliding out of bed. “How come? I distinctly remember turning it off before coming upstairs. How did it come back on?”

Grabbing his phone for light, he padded down the hallway. As he descended the stairs, the sound grew clearer. It was a low, disjointed buzz of voices, punctuated by occasional bursts of static. Jasper reached the living room to find the TV screen glowing.

He frowned, grabbing the remote from the coffee table and pressing the power button. The screen immediately blinked off, plunging the room back into darkness.

“Dunno how the hell that happened,” he muttered as he turned to head back upstairs. On his way, his bladder called for a quick emptying.

He duly made a quick detour to the bathroom. As he relieved himself, he couldn’t shake the weird unease. It was so strange; never had he experienced this kind of aura in the house. And as far as he was concerned, nobody else had ever felt this. So where the heck was it coming from?

He finished, flushed the toilet, and stared at his reflection in the mirror, frowning. “Why does it feel so weird in here tonight?” he muttered under his breath.

Before he could dwell on the thought, the lights suddenly went out.

“Oooh! Ah, damn it!” Jasper cursed, the sudden plunge into darkness disorienting him.

Good old ECG carrying out their usual irritating antics.

He grabbed his phone and put on the torchlight. He then stared at his reflection once more, shaking his head as he muttered angrily, “ECG diɛɛ, this is all they know. Hoh!”

Just his luck that the house’s generator was at the repairs shop. Now he’d have to issue some urgent reminder to Kazar to speed up the process, because sleeping in darkness at night was just not pleasant.

Jasper trudged back to his bedroom, his phone casting a feeble cone of light ahead of him. By the time he flopped onto the bed, a fresh wave of irritation coursed through him. “Bloody ECG,” he muttered, tossing his phone onto the bedside table. “Now I have to try this sleep thing again. With no light. Such nonsense!”

He sprawled out, the heat beginning to cling to his skin. The room already felt stifling, with the oppressive humidity wasting no time in wrapping around him.

As he shifted uncomfortably, trying to find a cool spot on the mattress, he continued to grumble. “Ugh! Chale, chale, chale, first thing tomorrow morning, I’m calling Kazar and telling him to be fast with it. Ahba! What kind of heat is this? Mtcheww! Chale, those who don’t have generators and the like, I wonder how they survi–“

Another strange sound cut him short. A soft, deliberate creak.

Frozen by a spike of anxiety, it instantly dissolved into further irritation.

Another noise? What was with all these strange sounds?

He sat up slowly, snatching his phone and switching on the torch. “What now, for the love of God?” he grumbled as he shone it around. “A loose window shutter? Another bloody cat? Or some walking toy has entered th–”

His words died in his throat as his beam reached the center of the room.

“What the actual…”

Standing there, bathed in the cold glow of his phone’s light, was a little girl.

She couldn’t have been more than six or seven, dressed in a simple white nightgown, with a most unnerving smile that stretched across her lips. A sweet, almost cherubic smile that seemed entirely out of place.

Jasper’s breath hitched, his heart thudding painfully against his ribs. He trembled violently, pure fright coursing through his veins. “What the… wh-who… who are you?” he stammered, his voice cracking as he gripped his phone tighter.

The girl didn’t respond. She didn’t move. She stood perfectly still, her arms hanging at her sides and her head tilted slightly as she gazed at him. The smile never faltered.

Jasper’s skin prickled, cold sweat breaking out across his brow. This was beyond terrifying.

“H-h-how… how did you get in here?” he demanded, his voice rising. “Wh-wh-what are you doing here?”

The girl’s silence was deafening. The only sound in the room was Jasper’s ragged and panicking breathing.

His mind raced, a whirlwind of panic and confusion. How did she get in? There’s no way she could have slipped past the locked doors. The windows? No, they’re all secure. Did I forget to lock something? No, impossible, I’m meticulous about that. Could she have been hiding inside the whole time? How could I not have noticed…

Suddenly, the smile on the girl’s face vanished.

And her face twisted into a grotesque snarl, her eyes narrowing into black pits of rage. Her delicate features contorted into something primal and monstrous, her teeth bared in a feral grimace.

Jasper felt his eyes dilate, and his heart sink right into his stomach.

This sudden transformation was the stuff of nightmares.

“What the–“

Before he could finish, she moved.

With a guttural shriek that tore through the air, she leaped at him, her small frame suddenly unnaturally fast and powerful.

Her outstretched hands, claw-like and gnarled, reached for his face.

Jasper’s scream filled the room.

What the hell, man! This is definitely a demonic attack!