I woke up with a start, breathing heavily.

Feeling somewhat distressed, I looked around, taking in the familiar sight of my small bedroom. The little part of my life that I could call my own. Everything is undisturbed. All my clothes are where I left them, my desk still cluttered as ever, and my walls just as full of game posters. The monkey sleeping like normal. The pale walls of Providence a silent audience to my breathing.

I sighed and closed my eyes.

When I close my eyes it almost feels like I'm outside these walls. That none of this exits. That this nightmare I'm living is just a dream.

It's just a dream.

Please be just a dream.

And then I opened my eyes again.

Darkness.

It was dark. Well, of course it was dark. It was two in the morning.

But there was something else. The absence of light darkness wasn't the only thing that I noticed as I opened my eyes. It was like the darkness that was around me was trying to press in from all sides.

What I suddenly felt now was absolute, heavy, deeply unsettling, and invading everything from seemingly no source I could easily pinpoint. It was like the darkness itself was my enemy. That it had decided to carry out the deed of determining whether I lived or not.

This darkness was new to me. It was unlike anything I had ever perceived before. And I've perceived many a things.

With a shiver, I sat up in my bed and ran a bare hand through my haphazard black hair. My bed was one of the only places I could get away with not wearing my gloves. Usually nothing bad happened here.

Usually.

This was bad. The more alert I became, the more strongly I began to feel whatever was in here with me. I considered the wisdom of lying back down and letting the good doctor look me over when the sun arose. By that time I might get a better handle on myself, and find there was nothing to be afraid of.

As things stood, my body was tense. The knot of dread in my stomach, growing larger by the minute. And with a note of how close I probably was to a heart attack; I couldn't see my self control staying for much longer.

Fear. Yeah, that ship had definitely come in and set up shop.

As I struggled to contain the rising surge of negative emotions, the darkness around me shifted, like a cloud of poisonous ink in water. For all its murky and unclear nature, it was finally forming into a single, simple word in my mind. I finally had a name for what I was perceiving, and it made the hairs on the back of my neck rise.

Evil. Pure evil.

I stood up and wandered down the quiet hallway to the bathroom, looking to splash some water on my face to wake myself up. Vague memories of the dream no, nightmare buzzed about in my mind. As per usual, I couldn't remember anything specific.

Who was it this time? Cain? Van Kleiss? No. This time I couldn't remember. Well, more like I didn't know want to remember. And my mind wouldn't stop running away every time I tried to focus on the person.

Annie. She was there too.

Splashing some cool water on my face, I finally managed to calm my nerves somewhat. Seeing my own face reflected in the mirror relaxed me. At least for a second. Then for a single, brief moment the droplets of water still clinging to my face turned a bright and deep red hue. Blood. My blood.

I stumbled back into my room again, taking care to avoid more mirrors. A glance at the clock on the stand next to my bed revealed the time. Nearly five already.

I quickly stuck my head under the covers, my body going numb with a cold that had nothing to do with the room temperature. Which was fine, if you were asking.

There was evil in my room. It hung in the air, it crawled across the walls, it leeched the oxygen from my very lungs as it gleefully raked its horrific hands across my mind.

Wham! With a startled gasp, I found myself on the floor. It felt like an icy dagger had been stabbed into my very brain vault, leaving behind a mind-numbing panic that I barely managed to contain in time. Images, no more distinct than the room around me, began swimming before my eyes. Each familiar, but not staying long enough to be thought over or recognized.

Another icy stab in the brain made me wince. Both my hands were numb now, despite the fact that the room was usually kept so warm for Bobo's sake.

As I struggled back to my feet, I suddenly felt a mental lash that was almost like a physical shove.

Danger.

Danger.

DANGER!

Danger. That was the solitary word in my mind, and I knew I had to get out of there. The darkness seemed intangible, but that didn't necessarily make it harmless.

Hurriedly, I reached over and snatched up my gloves. Grunting, I tugged them on while running for the door. In my haste, I stumbled slightly, the lack of light in the room compromising my balance. The few steps it took to get to the door seemed to waste such precious time. And I reached for the unlock button.

"Rex, where are you going?"

I never heard anyone move, not a single rustle or footstep. In fact, no one did move, I was sure of that. Because, I was the only one awake in this room.

But there was suddenly someone by the door, leaning casually on one elbow against the wall.

My arm froze. There was another thing. The voice that had spoken. The person looking at me through the pitch black. It...

"I…need some air" I said breathlessly, my hand reaching for the unlock button again. It didn't work.

Great.

"I don't think so."

The panic began to rise again.

The body shifted—not moved; he did not so much as move even the smallest of physical space. One second, mystery person. The next, nothing.

And then I started to scream.

I was enveloped in the darkness. It was wrapping around my body and smothering me, crawling thick and icy through my veins.

And then I realized it wasn't evil darkness creating that cold sensation. It was my own hands, slowly wrapping tighter around my neck. And I was suffocating.