“Let’s go back inside, shall we?” Courtney said, her voice steady as she guided Sara home


“NO! You don’t understand!” Sara shouted, her voice quivering with a desperate urgency. “He was right here! He was pounding on my door before you came!”


Courtney stepped back, and the muted light from the hallway bathed Sara’s face in a ghostly glow. Her wide, terrified eyes reflected the tempest outside, as tendrils of hair clung to her forehead like a shroud. Sara was not one to panic easily; her calm demeanor had always been a source of strength for them both.

Sara bolted to her bedroom, heart racing with a palpable fear that gnawed at her insides. Courtney stood frozen, her friend’s frantic energy lacing the air with tension. She couldn’t understand why Sara was acting this way, why terror had painted her normally cheerful visage a shade of dread.


Sara sat on her bed, fists pounding against her thighs. “I put you there, Drake! I saw you at my door!” She mumbled this mantra, her voice trembling. Her thoughts were a storm, swirling between confusion and terror. She gripped her hair, pulling at the roots as if attempting to rid herself of the visions that haunted her.


“Sara, I’m gonna make some tea. Would you like a cup?” Courtney’s voice broke through the door.


Sara shook her head fiercely, desperate to quell the thoughts that clawed at her mind. “Uh, yeah, I’ll be right out.” Her voice came out hoarse.

As she stood to compose herself, she heard it—the faintest tap, tap, tap on the window. Each sound sent a jolt of icy fear coursing through her veins. Was it her imagination?

She had to know. Slowly, she walked to the window, every step heavy with dread. She hesitated—her heart a frantic drum, pounding in her chest. What waited beyond the curtain? With trembling fingers, she pulled back the heavy drapes.

The world outside was cloaked in darkness, but there he was—Drake. He stood outside, his pale face illuminated by the faint glow of the streetlight. His eyes were piercing, almost unnatural, as he tapped softly, beckoning her.

“Sara…” he whispered, and the sound crawled under her skin like the soft silk of a spider's web. She felt an unholy mixture of foreboding and an inexplicable bond, an urge to open the window and let him in.

But she couldn’t. Something deep within her screamed that this was wrong. “Drake, why are you here?” Her voice quaked, raw with emotion, as she struggled between longing and fear. She swayed on her feet, teetering on the brink of some unforgivable decision.

“I’m here for you, Sara, always for you.” His voice wrapped around her, seductive and sinister. It echoed the words she had yearned to hear, yet a shroud of darkness veiled the sincerity.

Sara’s mind raced. Memories flooded in—laughs shared, dreams whispered in the dark, and now… now a shadow stood waiting, its shape unsettling and wrong. She felt a knot in her stomach, a feeling she couldn’t quite shake.