Part Three: Scratch

My rest had been short that night.

I woke up with a start, my eyes shooting open. The room was nearly pitch black, the only source of light coming from the window behind me. The shadows were long, lengthening like snaking tendrils. I was still under my blankets, though their once comforting embrace was now strangling me.

I knew exactly what had woke me.

My eyes darted around the room looking for anything that hadn't been there earlier. All I could see was the barely visible outline of packed boxes. Everything else was either behind me, or hidden in protective darkness. My heartbeat sped.

There had been a noise. Inside the room.

I didn't want to move. I couldn't. There was something behind me, watching me, just waiting for me to flinch. I was frozen, paralysed. My eyes, widened and darting, were only beginning to adjust to the pitch black. Still, I saw nothing.

I needed to move. I couldn't just lie there. That was what it wanted. Whatever 'it' was, I did not know, and did not want to find out. But it was there. I could feel its gaze on me, boring into my soul, preparing itself. I had to run. I had to move. I had to fight. Anything.

I unravelled myself from my sarcophagus of blankets, and stood.

Nothing but boxes. Boxes and shadows. I held my breath, clenching my sweaty hands into fists. Then, slowly, I spun myself around.

Nothing.

I surveyed the other side of the room closely, studying anything unobstructed by darkness. The only thing I could clearly see was the opened window that lead to the foggy forest, white curtains lifting gently in the slight breeze.

I was... alone?

I thought for sure that there was something – no, someone – in my bedroom. I could sense it. I could practically feel the other person's breath on my exposed neck. I spun myself around once again, gathering a full view of the room. Nothing but black. I was in the company of only myself. Nobody else. Whatever I had thought I heard did not exist.

It must have been those raccoons again, I reasoned, making a ruckus outside my window. How selfish of them. Didn't they know that I'm incredibly paranoid right now? I let out a heavy sigh, my body now relaxing, and walked over to the window to investigate.

Glancing outdoors, I saw nothing moving in the faint shrouded moonlight. I bent over the opened window, sticking my head outside with new-found confidence, but still nothing. But, as I brought my head back inside, the light seemed to hit in either the right or wrong angle as a minute detail caught my eye.

On the window sill were claw marks, long and deep, and alarmingly fresh. My body tensed again, my heart quickening. I shuddered, both from fear and the slight chill that came from the wind outdoors.

That was how I made my second realization.

When I went to bed, the window had been shut.

My mind began to seize as the terror rushed back into my consciousness. "...Wha-"

Then, as if waiting for this very moment, a loud burst of pain bloomed from the back of my skull. My vision turned red, then white, as a sudden ringing enveloped my ears. I gasped, I think, though I could no longer hear. All I knew was that the sharp, stinging sensation at the back of my head was leaking, warm and damp on my damaged flesh.

I did not realize that I fell until I could feel the cold hardwood pressing against me. No, me against it. Something was pinning me down to the floor, constricting my breathing greatly. My heart was beating loudly. I could feel, just barely, something on top of me, tearing at my clothes, then my flesh. New bursts of pain emerged from my back, and spilled onto the floor.

I tried calling out my brother's name, but all I managed was a pathetic little gurgle. I squirmed, trying desperately to get away, but my body would not listen.

As my vision slowly return, I noticed something foreign right in front of my face. A hand. A human hand, I thought, though clearly not my own. But the one thing that truly stood out were the edged, bloodied claws that stood in place of fingernails. That hand belonged to a monster.

I stared, eyes slowly closing again, still gurgling attempted screams, as the creature on top of me attacked my ribcage. I hardly noticed as another, stronger blow struck my head, and the world finally faded away from me.