A high pitched scream pierced through the night, ringing throughout the Riddle household. It was two in the morning and nine-year-old Nicole Riddle's screams ceased as Mr. and Mrs. Riddle rushed in.

"What? What is it?" Mrs. Riddle asked frantically.

"What's the matter?" Mr. Riddle asked, still half asleep.

"It's over there," Nicole hissed with tears streaming down her frightened face, pointing to the corner of her room. Mr. Riddle walked over to where she had pointed.

"There's nothing there," Nicole's father said, having thoroughly inspected the spot next to her closet under the window. The moon was casting patches of lights onto the floor, lighting up the spot, as if it was trying to show that Mr. Riddle was right. He pulled the curtains shut, and turned to his daughter.

"It must have been a nightmare," Mrs. Riddle concluded, sitting on the bed dedghtmare,"ddle was right. He pulled the curtains shutpatting Nicole's back.

"What a relief," Mr. Riddle sighed, sitting on the other side of his daughter.

"But it was standing right there…it's eyes…" Nicole whispered, her eyes wide, staring off into the darkness of the room.

"Ohh, honey…" Mrs. Riddle began to dry the tears off of Nicole's face, "Oh my God…" she said, suddenly pulling her daughter's face sharply towards her, her own eyes growing wide.

"What?" Mr. Riddle asked.

"Her eyes! Look at them!" Mrs. Riddle replied, her voice rising as she turned Nicole's confused face to Mr. Riddle.

"What the hell?" he practically yelled as he examined his daughter's eyes which were completely scarlet. He could faintly make out the faint lines of where the irises met the whites of her eyes, but other than that it was hard to tell that those eyes belonged to a nine-year-old girl rather than a demon from hell. Now it was Mrs. Riddle's turn to scream. She shrieked pulling away from her bewildered daughter as if she was an animal that almost bit her. Four-year-old Tommy Riddle sleepily toddled into the room, rubbing his eyes.

"What wrong mommy?" he asked, pulling on his mother's hand who was bracing herself against the wall, her mouth gaping and her stare transfixed on Nicole.

"Get him out of here," Mr. Riddle demanded, snapping her out of it. He was fully awake now, and ready to take charge of the situation. Mrs. Riddle quickly snatched up Tommy and ran out of the room.

"Mommy!" Nicole called, the red slowly flushing out of her eyes as they returned to normal. Her mother, however, continued to run down the hallway until they heard the door of her bedroom slam shut. Mr. Riddle kneeled down at the bedside, grabbing Nicole gently by the shoulders and turning her to face him.

"What is the matter with you!"

"I, I don't know," Nicole replied. Her bottom lip quavered slightly, but she bit back hard knowing that she couldn't hold her sobs in for much longer. Her father wasn't someone she wanted to cry in front of.

"Well you better figure it out," he snapped, "Now what exactly did you see?" Nicole choked back her tears and with a voice that grew stronger with every word she began to explain to her father whose face paled. The dim light in the room made his face appear gaunt.

"It can't be…" he mumbled, his gaze shifting from the shadows the window cast to Nicole. When she finished Mr. Riddle looked as if he had actually seen…

"No! You're lying!" he yelled. Nicole was shocked by her father's reaction.

"But it was…"

"Shut up!" Mr. Riddle interrupted, "It can't be true! You must have been seeing things!" Nicole's temper flared at her father's words and her eyes flushed crimson as she stared furiously at the shadows on the floor. Suddenly, the shadows began to change, jittering around like they were alive, and they stirred together as if ingredients in a pot rather than shadows cast on the floor. Mr. Riddle heard a hissing sound and stared on in complete horror while the shadows mingled together until they were up off the floor. A huge, rippling, black mass that stayed rooted to the ground as it grew taller and taller until it transformed into a hideous, gnarled, almost human-like figure that towered at least a foot taller than Mr. Riddle. He gasped as a face formed on the gangly creature, a face as black and transparent as the shadows although it appeared solid. The haunting face was hardly human, the only thing on it was a pair of eyes. Red eyes. As the shadow turned to Mr. Riddle, a mouth appeared on the twisted face. The mouth opened and a bone chilling laugh poured from it. Nicole knew this was coming and wasn't frightened at all. In fact, she was laughing too, a laugh that matched the shadow demon's exactly, even though she was on the opposite side of the room. Mr. Riddle's body hit the floor with a loud thump when he fainted.