After she had dropped Billy off, she found herself waiting for her grandmother to meet her. She rang her up, telling her to meet at this specific diner and so, having no choice, Mia accepted. It seemed urgent.

So she came. As quickly as she could. She didn't think too much about the wait initially, chalking it up to her being early. But then twenty minutes went by, then thirty, then an hour...

And by hour two Mia felt like she had been stood up.

At some point the waiter had brought her a drink, she didn't even order it and clearly the man had taken pity on her by bringing it of his own accord. So, she drank it without any fanfare and begrudgingly her way back home. On the drive back she began to feel lethargic, struggling to keep her eyes open as she drove. As soon as she opened the door she crashed on her couch, sleeping before she hit the plush fabric. She hadn't felt that tired all day, not sure where her bone tired feeling came from. It's not even like she had too long to dwell on it before she fell asleep...

"Don't be afraid. It'll all be over soon," Billy whispered. "Just stay very still." He leant back, letting the monster do what it had to do with the terrified woman lying on the floor.

Mia felt like she was in limbo, watching the events play out infront of her as if she was watching TV. Everything felt real, the look of pure terror in the other woman's eyes couldn't have been fabricated by her imagination. Hearing the distant groan and grumble of the monster was enough to send knives of fear into Mia's system. She couldn't do anything but watch as the unknown woman was possessed, the monster sinking it's claws into her and changing her. Mia wasn't sure if the monster could see her or not so she stood incredibly still not even daring to breathe too heavy for fears that she might alert the beast to her presence.

By the time the monster had finished with the woman, Mia was transported to another scene. Here, Billy was alone. He was just sitting in his car, drenched in sweat as he stared unseeingly out of the windscreen. Rain lightly tapped the glass, filling the car with a gentle tip tap as Mia watched him. She found herself somehow stuck in the backseat, coming to the realisation that she was tied down. Her arms were bound together by tape, hair slick and clinging to her face as she began to breathe heavily.

She couldn't make sense of it. Everything felt too real. It didn't feel like a dream. It felt like she had been transported, forced to watch something she didn't want any part in. The pressure on her hands felt too real, the strain across her back as her hands were sitting awkwardly together too much for her. She shifted involuntarily, the leather beneath her groaning as she moved. She had never been in a dream before where she could feel everything, even smelling her damp clothes as she lay. Real fear coursed through her veins, trying her best not to fly into a full blown panic as she continued to watch Billy.

She didn't want to be here anymore. Whatever this was, she wanted to be away from it. She wanted to wake up. She couldn't be here anymore. Not able to pinch herself, she screwed her eyes shut. She had never tried to wake herself up before from inside a dream before... She had no idea how it would work. Steadying her breath, she kept her eyes shut as she tried to imagine waking up.

The tip tap of rain faded away. She couldn't smell her clothes anymore and the pressure of her hands seemed to lessen. She felt like she was back home, her body still sunk deep into her cheap couch. She felt like she could finally take a deep breath, no longer feeling as those her chest was going to cave in at any given second.

She couldn't hear anything for minutes, well, at least she assumed it was minutes. She hadn't opened her eyes yet to check, arbitrarily counting in her head to five hundred. Once she had reached it, only having to restart a few times, she finally dared to open her eyes and be greeted with her living room...

Only it wasn't her living room. It was her sofa, that much was true, but everything else was just black. The floor underneath her was simply nothing but what looked to be water lapping gently against the leg of the sofa. She stared at the water, leaning over the side of the sofa to get a closer look at it all. She let her fingers gently dance across the surface, finding the water was indeed real and extremely cold. She sucked in a breath at the contact, snatching her hand back as she looked out at the abyss infront of her.

She had literally no idea how to get out of this... Nightmare? Dream? At this point she wasn't even sure there was a difference.

She let her eyes close again. She hoped that if she copied what she did before that this time she would finally wake up. Not wanting to jinx anything, she counted up to five hundred again as she lay flat on her back, still letting the sofa support her. As the sofa was her own and not Billy's car, this time she had no way of knowing if her method worked. She just had to hope, to pray, that she would be awake and this would all just a be a dream...

She opened them. Staring down at her, leaning over the arm of the sofa, was Billy. But not a normal Billy...

His entire face and body was covered in black veins, his white tank top torn and bloodied. His hair was matted and soaked through with a mixture of blood and water. This should have been jarring enough... But the giant hole in his stomach was what got her attention. She could see through it...

Her eyes widened, chest heaving as she tried desperately to sit up. But, no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't move anymore. She couldn't even crane her head like she had done before, an invisible weight forcing her down into the familiar coffin like sofa. She had no choice but to stare at Billy, who was leaning over with both of his hands on the sofa arm, craining his head to look down at her. His hair hung down infront of his face, small droplets of blood dripping onto her face. Neither spoke. Neither moved. She barely blinked as he stared her down.

A cruel smirk stretched across his face. "Gotcha." Billy's voice seemed darker than normal, as if it was filled with pure anger.

"Billy... What is this?"

"This is a warning. I'll finally get what I want."

"What you want? Billy, I have no idea what this is." Her throat felt dry, struggling to get her words out as more of his blood dripped onto her cheek.

"You think you can hide from me? You can't. I've found you now. This will never end... I'll have my day once again."

"Billy..."

"I don't want to hurt you. So don't make me." Billy shifted, walking around the side of the sofa to crouch down at the edge of the cushions. Mia still couldn't move, forced to look at the man out of the corner of her eye. "Make this easy for me."

"What do you want me to do? I have no idea what's going on."

As if Billy couldn't hear her, he continued on. "They've finally let you loose. I've been waiting, watching... I always knew you would be one of the strongest. I just need a new host and then..." Billy leaned in close, his nose touching her ear as he whispered. "Then I can do whatever I want."

She could literally feel his breath on her face as he didn't move for a moment, simply enjoying invading her personal space. A clap of thunder echoed in the distance as Billy suddenly stepped back, standing up tall and putting his back to her as he looked out into the abyss. She finally had the ability back to turn her head, realising just in time to see a flash of lightning brighten up the space and illuminating a gigantic monster...

She screamed, not even realising that the void she had been in had faded away to her own living room. It took her minutes to realise that she was awake... That she was finally out of the nightmare she had been in...

She knew she wouldn't be able to sleep after that. She needed answers... So she rushed up, not bothering to change her clothes as she sprinted outside to her car. She didn't lock the door, not caring enough about it all. She felt stressed, every sensation dulling as her mind and senses heightened. She kept telling herself that it was just a dream, that it wasn't real. That when she got to Billy's house he would tell her she was being silly. That none of it was real and he had never had a literal hole in his stomach... Because that didn't make sense. Monsters don't exist. They couldn't.

Her hands trembled. She tried desperately to still them as she drove. If she had of paid more attention, she would have instantly been able to make her mantra useless...

Because his blood still stained her face.