Elena had barely slept. She had spent most of the night lying on her back, eyes open in the darkness of her bedroom, unable to pull her attention away from the pendant resting on her nightstand. Every time she closed her eyes, she saw again the creature that had stood in her living room, its disproportionate limbs, its red eyes, and that distorted voice whispering that it wanted her blood. She also saw the man from her dream, the one who knew her name and had told her he would come for her. The most disturbing part was that she no longer knew where the nightmare ended and reality began.
Her phone had remained beside her pillow. The screen had gone dark long ago, but Elena couldn't stop thinking about the message she'd received a few hours earlier.
Now he knows you're awake.
She had tried calling the number back, but without success. An automated voice had simply informed her that the number was not in service. She had then tried sending a message, but received no response. Around four in the morning, she had finally given up and turned on airplane mode, as if cutting off all communication could also sever the link to whatever was happening to her.
At six thirty, her alarm went off.
Elena reached one hand out from under the covers and shut it off without even looking at the time. She remained motionless for a few moments before slowly turning her head toward the nightstand.
The pendant was still there.
She had hesitated to leave it in that spot. The day before, after the creature disappeared, she had tried to understand what had happened. She had inspected every corner of her apartment, checked the windows, the locks, and even the hallway of the building. She hadn't found any sign of the intruder. Nothing proved that a creature had actually entered her home, except for the pendant.
The small silver chain lay on the nightstand's dark wood. The medallion was perfectly clean.
Elena frowned.
She remembered it clearly. When she had woken up, it had been covered in blood. She had even seen a dark drop slowly slide across the symbol engraved in the center. She had been so terrified that she hadn't dared touch it.
She had eventually fallen asleep. Now, not the slightest trace of blood remained.
She sat up and approached the nightstand. For several seconds, she studied the pendant without touching it. She had the absurd feeling that it might start moving if she looked away.
This is impossible, she thought.
At last, she reached out. Her fingers stopped just short of the metal. She remembered the sensation of heat she'd felt the day before, when the creature had appeared. She saw again the red light that had passed through her hands and hurled the thing against the wall. Most of all, she saw the creature's expression when it realized what was happening.
It had been afraid of her. That thought was probably the hardest thing to accept. Elena pulled back her hand and shook her head slightly.
“I'm just tired.”
She said the words aloud, as if hearing them could make them feel more real.
She finally got up and headed to the bathroom. She took a cold shower, got dressed quickly, and tied her hair back in front of the mirror. Her reflection showed her an exhausted young woman, with pale skin and dark circles under her eyes.
She felt as though she had aged several years in a single night.
When she returned to the bedroom, her gaze fell on the pendant again.
This time, she didn't think for long. She took a small box where she usually kept her jewelry and placed the medallion inside. She carefully closed the lid, then put the box at the back of her drawer.
She closed the drawer.
“There.”
She drew a deep breath.
“I'm not wearing it anymore.”
She grabbed her bag and headed for the door. Yet after taking a few steps, she stopped. A strange uneasiness had just risen inside her. She went back to the bedroom, opened the drawer, and took out the box. She lifted the lid. The pendant was still inside. She didn't know why that reassured her.
Maybe because some part of her had genuinely feared it would be gone.
She closed the box, put it away again, and finally left the apartment.
On the stairs, she slowed involuntarily when she reached the second floor. The day before, she had thought she'd glimpsed a figure at the end of this same hallway. She knew it could have been her imagination, but her body didn't seem to share that opinion. She went down to the ground floor without encountering anyone.
When she pushed open the building's door, the cool morning air made her feel better.
The city was already awake. Cars moved through the streets, cafés opened their doors, and the first workers hurried along the sidewalks. A woman walked her dog while a group of students laughed in front of a bus stop.
Everything seemed perfectly normal.
That normality brought her an almost painful sense of relief.
For a few seconds, Elena wondered if she hadn't simply experienced a series of especially realistic nightmares. Maybe the old woman had recognized the pendant for an entirely ordinary reason. Maybe the man who had been following her had really just happened to take the same route. Maybe the figure in her apartment had been nothing more than a hallucination brought on by exhaustion.
As for the creature…
She preferred not to think about it.
She reached the bus stop and checked her phone. No new messages. She checked a second time, then slipped the device into her pocket.
The bus arrived a few minutes later.
Elena got on, tapped her transit pass, and took a seat by the window. She watched the streets slide past as the vehicle moved slowly through traffic.
She was almost beginning to relax when her phone vibrated.
Her heart clenched immediately.
She pulled the device from her pocket.
A new message had arrived.
The number was unknown.
Elena stared at the screen for several seconds before opening the message.
There were only four words.
Don't wear the pendant anymore.
Her breath caught.
She reread the sentence several times, as if hoping the words would change.
They didn't.
She slowly raised her eyes.
The passengers around her seemed not to notice anything. A man was reading a newspaper, a teenage girl was listening to music, and a woman was looking out the window. No one seemed interested in her.
And yet Elena felt a presence behind her.
She turned her head slightly.
An empty seat.
She looked at the window's reflection.
For a fraction of a second, she saw a dark figure sitting behind her.
She spun around. The seat was still empty. Her heart began beating faster. She looked at the reflection again. No one was there.
Elena clenched her phone in her hand and tried to breathe normally. She wanted to get off the bus, go home, and never leave again. But she knew she couldn't go on like this.
Someone knew her name.
Someone knew about her pendant.
Someone knew what was happening to her.
And above all, someone seemed to know the truth about her mother.
She locked her phone and stared straight ahead.
She still didn't know who this man everyone seemed to be talking about was, or why he was looking for her. But one thing was certain now: if she wanted to get her normal life back, she had to understand what was happening to her.
Without knowing that, at that very moment, somewhere in the city, two red eyes were watching the bus disappear into the distance.