Elena remained motionless in front of the door for several minutes, too afraid to move. Her gaze stayed fixed on the lock, as if she expected to see someone trying to open it from the other side, but nothing happened. The silence of the building suddenly seemed much more unsettling than it ever had before. At last, she moved away from the door.
“Calm down...”
Her voice trembled. She needed to find something normal, something familiar, so she turned on the television. Some random show started, voices immediately filling the room. Elena turned up the volume slightly. She forced herself to breathe. Everything was fine. She was home. The door was locked. She had probably imagined the silhouette. The fatigue, the nightmare, the old woman, the man in the street... it was all starting to pile up. Her brain was looking for connections where there weren’t any. That had to be it.
She went into the kitchen and opened the refrigerator. She stood there for a few seconds, staring at its contents without knowing what she was looking for. Finally, she took out a bottle of water. When she closed the refrigerator door, she heard a sound—a faint creak. Elena froze. The sound had come from the living room. She slowly set the bottle on the counter.
“Is someone there?”
There was no answer. She grabbed her phone. The screen read 8:14 p.m. She hesitated to call the police, then felt ridiculous. What could she tell them? That she had seen a silhouette in a hallway? That a stranger had followed her? That an old woman had told her about a pendant? She could already imagine the agent’s reaction on the phone. Elena took a deep breath, drank a large swallow of water, and returned to the living room.
The television was still on, but something had changed. The window was open. Elena stopped.
She was certain she had closed it before leaving that morning. A cold draft entered the room, stirring the curtains. She closed the window. Her gaze fell to the floor. A small black leaf had fallen onto the hardwood floor. Elena picked it up. It was damp and strangely cold.
Suddenly, the living room lights went out. Elena jumped.
“Shit!”
She looked around. The television had gone out too, plunging her apartment into darkness. For a few seconds, she didn’t move. The lights came back on for a few seconds, then went out again. This time, Elena felt real fear take hold of her. She backed up until she reached the couch.
The lights came back on and went out again, several times. Each time, the interval seemed shorter. Elena grabbed her phone and turned on the flashlight, illuminating the living room.
“It’s just a power outage.”
She repeated the sentence several times, but she knew it wasn’t a power outage. The television was working now, the screen displaying static. A blurred image appeared. Elena frowned. She stepped closer. The screen changed, and for a fraction of a second, she saw a forest—the same one from her dream.
She recoiled violently, and the image disappeared. The television returned to the previous show. Elena was speechless as she stared at the screen. She had just seen that forest. She was certain of it. She walked over to the television and turned it off. Silence fell again. Then she heard a sound, something seeming to slide slowly along the wall of the hallway. Elena felt every muscle in her body tense. The pendant against her chest suddenly grew scorching hot. She raised a hand to her neck.
“No...”
The heat intensified. She pulled on the chain to tear it off, but it remained stuck. The metal seemed fused to her skin. Elena panicked. She pulled harder. A sharp pain shot through her chest, and the lights went out once again.
This time, they didn’t come back on. In the darkness, Elena heard something breathing slowly, deeply, a few feet away. She remained petrified.
Her phone’s flashlight illuminated part of the living room. The beam trembled so badly that it drew shifting shadows across the walls.
“Who’s there?”
There was no answer. Then came the sound of footsteps. Elena backed away. A silhouette appeared in the doorway of the hall. Elena slowly raised her phone. The light illuminated the creature.
It looked like a man, but only from a distance. Its arms were too long, its shoulders too broad, and its skin seemed dark, almost black, as if it had been burned. Its face was hidden by something that looked like a piece of torn fabric. Elena tried to scream, but no sound came out.
The creature advanced, its fingers clawing at the wall and leaving a long, dark mark behind it. Elena backed up until she hit the couch.
The creature tilted its head and spoke. Its voice was deep, distorted, and almost human.
“Finally...”
Elena felt her blood run cold.
“What do you want from me?”
The creature took one step, then another.
“Your blood.”
Elena shook her head.
“I don’t understand.”
The creature stopped. Its eyes appeared beneath the fabric. Two red eyes—the same ones from her nightmare. It let out a cry, and the pendant exploded with light. An invisible wave swept through the room. The creature was hurled against the wall, and Elena fell to her knees. She looked at her hands. A reddish light coursed beneath her skin, and she had no idea what was happening to her. The creature slowly got back up. For the first time, it seemed afraid. It looked at Elena and the pendant.
“She’s awake.”
Elena didn’t understand. The creature backed away and disappeared into the darkness of the hallway. A few seconds later, the lights came back on, the television began working normally, and silence returned.
Elena remained on her knees, her hands trembling. She looked around. The living room was intact, as if nothing had happened.
Finally, she looked at her pendant. The crack running through the symbol was now much wider, and at the center of the medallion, a tiny drop of red light pulsed softly. Elena understood then that she could no longer convince herself that any of this was just a dream.