WARNING(S): Sleep paralysis, supernatural activity/haunting

A/N: Nothing quite like a good ol' "I see dead people" fic.

There it was.

Sakura grumbled in her process of rousing from sleep, eyelids fluttering open as she heard a rhythmic banging from the first floor. Squinting at the alarm clock on the bedside table, she muttered a swear. Midnight.

"What in the hell are those guys doing…" she groaned to herself, swinging her legs over the side of the bed and grabbing her phone.

Once her flashlight was on, she left the master bedroom and looked up and down the hall. It was still dark and quiet, save for the racket below. Her nightlight was ominously out, though she figured that was the ghosts' doing.

Rolling her eyes, she traversed the hall for the stairs, aging wood creaking under her feet. As soon as her foot hit the first stair, a chill raced up and down her spine.

"Excuse me," she called downstairs irritably, "I have work in the morning. Can you please keep it down until six?"

The banging stopped. The resulting silence made her take pause, counting silently in her head.

After ten seconds of quiet, she turned and headed back to her bedroom. As she passed the extra bedrooms, the chill came back, more pronounced. Sakura shivered, but ignored the sinking feeling in the pit of her gut and returned to the master bedroom.

For a house that was only a hundred years old, it sure kept up well enough, she supposed. Especially considering it had been abandoned for much of that century.

"If Dad had known it was haunted, he might've burned it down himself," she mused with a laugh. "At least they aren't murderous ghosts, I guess."

Settling into bed again, she glanced at her phone. No messages, and her alarm was still set for six.

Closing her eyes, her head nestled into the pillow and she was fast asleep.

…

…

…

… there was a weight at the end of the bed.

An icy finger trailed down the side of her face, causing a violent shiver to go up her back and making her eyes fly open.

The ghostly figure above her didn't so much as flinch, lifeless eyes boring back into hers as he took his hand back.

Try as she might to say something, the words stuck in her throat. Her mouth refused to move.

"Ah, hell," she thought, "sleep paralysis."

The ghost of a young man, around nineteen or so, shaggy black hair falling against his shoulders, leaned in. This one, whose name she still didn't know, seemed to have a particular interest in her. The other ghosts in this house left well enough alone as long as she didn't anger them, but this one… what was his deal? She still couldn't puzzle that one out. He only showed himself to her in the dead of night, when her body was frozen still in sleep yet her mind was wide awake. Usually he stood at the side of her bed, just watching her, yet tonight he seemed brave enough to actually touch her.

Her brain raced as he studied her face. What would he do tonight? Try as she might to get used to this, she became numb with fear every time this happened. She could already feel a blind panic bubbling up in her chest despite her deep breaths and insistence on remaining calm.

His lips parted, as if to say something. He didn't. Or, at least, no sound reached her ears. His hand went to the side of her face again, going for her hair this time. The baby-pink strands lifted as he slipped his fingers through them, fascinated.

She longed for the ability to speak, to ask about his past, about him, yet her eyes could only follow his as they darted around her face. She longed to be able to catch his supernatural hand in hers, yet hers remained stubbornly weighty.

His hand retreated from her form, and he considered her for a moment more. His lips parted again, undoubtedly saying something this time, yet it was silent amid the high-pitched buzzing in her ears.

Her mind was swimming with too many thoughts, too much noise. It was getting hard to breathe.

Her chest quivered with the struggle to take in deep, even breaths as panic set in, the young man frowning down at her and leaning in.

"What are you?" she wanted to ask. "Why are you here?"

But the only thing she could do was succumb to her mounting exhaustion as her eyes rolled into the back of her head and she passed out.