Chapter 1 The Knock
Rosaline was lying on her bed, facing the ceiling and thinking about her life. She was just a night owl and an overthinker. She had long brown hair with subtle highlights and striking hazel eyes.
It was around 12 a.m. She was in her room, the door was locked, and her air conditioner wasn’t working.
Everyone in the house was asleep, but she just couldn’t bring herself to sleep. Everything was completely quiet—she could literally hear the breeze outside. She was lost in thought when she heard a light, gentle knock at her door
.She wondered, “Who could it be at this hour? Isn’t everyone asleep? Did someone wake up or something?”
Before she could think more, the person on the other side of the door knocked again. She decided to get up and ask, but then she noticed something strange—she couldn’t speak or move her body, not even a little.
She started feeling restless. Normally, she was a fairly brave person, but something about this situation creeped her out.
The knocking continued, followed by a voice:
"Honey, open the door. What are you doing this late at night?"It was... her mom?
But something seemed off. The voice was indeed her mother’s, but there was something peculiar about it—it sounded too calm, too composed.
The knocking repeated for a while, and then everything went silent. For a minute, it felt normal again.
Suddenly, the knocking started once more—this time aggressive, almost like banging.
"Open the door!!
"The voice didn’t even sound like her mom’s anymore. It was as if some creature was trying to mimic a human voice, but failing miserably.
Her heart started racing; a shiver ran down her spine as the banging continued. She tried to move again, but nothing—she couldn’t even lift a finger.
Then came silence. A heavy, dreadful silence, like the calm before a storm.
The door burst open."Got you!!" said the voice.
Rosaline felt her soul leaving her body. Before the creature could lunge at her—or before she could see its face—something happened.
She opened her eyes. She was in her mother’s room.She was sweating, even though the air conditioner was on. Her breathing was ragged.She couldn’t remember how she got there.
She tried and tried, and then it came back to her—tomorrow she had a test at school, and since her own AC wasn’t working, she had decided to sleep in her mother’s room.
But everything in that “dream” had felt way too real. Even in the dream, her room’s AC wasn’t working.
She picked up her phone to check the time. It was 12:05—the exact same time as in her dream.
Her head started to ache. To clear her mind, she decided to study again. After a while, she went to her room to put her things back and then get some rest.As she reached her room and was about to open the door, she heard a voice
."So you’re finally out and back?"It was the same voice as before. The same as that creature.Her heart pounded violently, sweat trickled down her forehead.She felt cold despite the heat in the room. Slowly, she turned around to look behind her, and then—
