Prologue
It was a night like any other until Mina dangled her foot over the edge of the bed. An unconscious and benign mistake.
Shadows began shifting under the bed, forming into a black clawed hand. The hand reached up, playfully stroking Mina's ankle to test the waters. A human's energy was laid bare when sleeping, prime for inducing. The entity felt her energy seeping through, a delicious essence of life. Something he never had yet always hungered for.
His fingers glided down the arch before resting his thumb on the sole of her foot, pressing in. Sharp nail pricking into the skin, a vicious smile appeared in the dark.
Alor's deep voice slithered around the room. "It is done, you are mine."
Mina remained motionless. Chest slowly rising and falling under the oversized t-shirt. She wasn't going to rise to the bait, how boring. Time to play with his food instead.
Alor's lethal fingers curled around Mina's ankle, charged with such power he could taste it on his tongue. In one tug, he threw her entire body out from under the sheets onto the hardwood floor. He erupted into menacing laughter and dissipated into thin air.
Rudely awoken and dishevelled, Mina slowly hauled herself up onto her knees. "Fuck."
Children were taught to fear the monsters under their bed. But Mina had grown up with them, and she was too dazed to deal with this now so she padded back to her bed.
***
MINA
"Are there haunted items in this apartment by any chance?"
As if on queue, the light above the table flickered with a dilated hum. Seated at the living room table, my land lady decided to drop by for a visit. But it was prime time for an interrogation, and I needed answers. There was something dark in this place. I could feel it.
"You ask that like it's a normal question." Janet laughed into her tea before setting it down. She was a kindly 60 year old lady. Her lips pressed into a pensive line, eyes drifting around in thought. "From what I can recall, the mattress might be haunted?"
A long stretch of silence passed. The joke never came.
"You've got to be kidding me." I said flatly. No wonder the apartment was so cheap. I got scammed!
Janet's eyes flashed voraciously, baring her teeth in a wicked chuckle. This was nothing but fun and games to her. "The last tenant had no trouble." Janet waved a hand. "You're a seer right? This is nothing you can't handle." On one hand she was right. I was suited to this sort of thing, seeing things others cannot see. But on the other, it made me more vulnerable to those in the Spirit Realm. My knuckles turned white on the mug nestled in my hands.
I didn't hide the urgency in my tone. "What if the entire building becomes haunted?"
Janet gave a careless wave before getting up off her seat. "I respect the dead, if they want to haunt let them be. They don't concern me."
This thing isn't dead, it's never been alive
.
It was 9pm by the time Janet left. I pressed by back against the front door and watched the overhead light shutter again. Entities were like college kids at house parties, they become untamed under the moon. Bad things happen in the dark, so they said. And that was true--but it depended on what kind of entity you were dealing with.
I did everything I could to ignore the flickering light. Since my apartment was an open floor plan, in one fluid motion I snatched some ice cream from the kitchen and leapt onto the couch to turn on the tv. The screen emitted white static, and as I was about to dig into my cookies and cream all the lights in the room cut out. Pitch black except for the illumination from under my bedroom door.
Fuck
. I slammed my ice cream on the coffee table. "You're being an attention whore!" Clearly, this thing's fun was just beginning. It was a power move but I had no choice and needed to confront it now. Get on friendly terms at the very least.
