I was sitting on the soft, comfortable couch, munching on the bag of chips. I was watching my favourite series on Netflix while waiting for my mum and dad to return home from their friend’s promotion party. Before leaving, mum drew the curtain and warned me to lock all the windows and doors, and dad told me not to open the door for anyone while they were away.

Time passed, I was feeling sleepy now as it was already midnight and my parents had not yet returned, I felt a little worried. I turned off the television and stretched my rigid body. I got up from the sofa to go upstairs to my bedroom.

As I stepped on the stairway, I saw a reflection of something horrendous on the black TV screen. It was standing behind the window, with red, sinister eyes locked upon me. It was enormous and as black as coal. It had four arms with razor-sharp claws at each end.

I was frozen, too scared to move, but after a few seconds I gathered up my courage and acted like I hadn’t noticed anything.

I pretended to be calm and slowly proceeded towards my room and then to the washroom. As soon as I locked the door to the washroom, I started panicking. I hastily took out my phone to call the police, but then a thought came to my mind, “Maybe it was just my hallucination.”

I was confused for a bit when I heard strange, distorted breathing behind me. I was frozen stiff. My heart stopped beating and my lungs felt like they were being squeezed by an external force.

I suddenly fell unconscious and a void of darkness surrounded me. When I gained consciousness, I found myself lying on my bed. I violently jerked my head up only to find that it was 5pm in the evening. I was sweating from head to toe. I got up and slowly moved downstairs, still confused and scared because of the nightmare I had experienced.

I observed that my parents were all dressed up, as if they were going somewhere. I asked them where they were going and their reply made my heart race frantically.

“To our friend’s promotion party!”

Published in Dawn, Young World, May 7th, 2022