I sat up in bed with a start; a loud bang had sounded downstairs.

I reached for the switch on the bedside table beside me. The room suddenly lit up with a dim, half-yellowish light.

I looked at my alarm clock; it read "03:00AM" with the characteristic red color of digital clocks.

I stood up, walking very carefully to the door. Stepping out into the dark hallway, I blinked several times quickly to get my eyesight used to the darkness.

I started walking down the hallway, feeling the wall with my hands, so I would know when I reached the stairs.

When I stopped feeling the wall, I guessed I was already at the stairs. That meant the hallway switch was there. When I turned on the lights, the whole hallway lit up, blinding me for an instant.

When my eyes got used to the light again, I looked toward the stairs, where it was pure darkness.

“Mom, is that you?” I asked, although it couldn't possibly be her, since she works until morning at Redford Hills Hospital.

I looked to my left, from across the hallway I could feel someone watching me, which was impossible, I could clearly see how there, was no one there.

“D-Dad, is that you?” Another idiotic question, I could hear him snoring from the room next to my room.

I sighed and plucked up the courage to go down the stairs, very slowly to avoid falling and making noise, in case it was a burglar, although it was also something idiotic, since I already made noise twice when calling my parents and turning on the light, if it was a burglar, he already knows of my presence.

Arriving in the foyer of my house, which was a rather small room, I flipped the light switch, turning on the light with a flicker.

As I turned to the door leading to the living room, I could see the cause of the clatter: my parents' wedding photo was lying on the floor, with the frame and glass broken. Next to it, the window was wide open.

                                                                                                 «A burglar?»

I said inside my mind, since I was paralyzed for some reason. When I sharpened my sight outside the house, I could see the cause.

Outside was a dark figure, very thin, only the eyes could be seen, two white dots in the darkness. When our eyes collided, he ran to the back of the house.

“What... was that?”

I ran upstairs to my father's room, but when I opened the door, he was gone; there were only a few scratches on the wall near the window, which was wide open, and a trail of scratches leading from the bed to the window.

As I approached and looked out the window, which overlooked the courtyard, I could see the limp body of my father, lying on the lawn. He was rigid, with a face of terror and a large pool of blood under him.

I knew immediately what to do: call the police. I ran to the living room, which was where the phone was located.

When I got there, I quickly picked it up, realizing that there was no line.

I was paralyzed, even with the phone in my ear, not knowing what to do, I couldn't leave, since that thing might still be outside, and I couldn't call anyone.

Suddenly, I came up with a solution: run to the house across the street, where my best friend lived. His father is a policeman, he could help me.

Determined I ran into the hallway, dropped the phone and leaving it hung up.

I left the house, running in a straight line, feeling something behind me.

When I got to the door, I knocked on it a couple of times, startled, but it opened immediately. Without thinking, I went in, closing it behind me.

When I locked the door with the latch, I realized that the house was empty, and also that my friend's father's car was not there.

Sensing the worst, I ran to his room, which was upstairs, and for some reason all the lights in the house were on.

When I got to my best friend's room, it was empty. That thing had come here first.

I cursed in a whisper, until I remembered that Max, my friend, had a radio with which he communicated with his father in case any emergency occurred.

I walked over to Max's desk, where his computer was turned on, revealing the desktop as Windows 98.

Not knowing how to use it, I started fiddling around until I could hear a voice.

“What's wrong Max?” Max's father's voice was heard.

“I-it's Mike, there's a...thing lurking around here...”

“Hey, slow down. Where's Max?”

“I-I don't know, when I got here the house was empty with all the lights on.”

“And what thing are you talking about?”

“I didn't get a good look at that thing, but it killed my father and I think Max too...”

“Was it thin with big fingernails and shiny eyes?”

“Y-yes.”

“I'm on my way. Hide and don't listen to any noise unless it's sirens. That thing can..." but the communication was cut off.

                                                                          «That thing can...? What can it do?»

I looked behind me, where the closet was. I ran to it and hid inside, praying it wouldn't take too long.

Suddenly, my hand touched something hard, a flashlight. I decided to take it, it might come in handy.

I turned it on to test if it worked, making a beam of light hit my eyes, blinding me again for a few seconds, turning it off instantly. Although, for a few seconds I thought I saw something, so I turned it on again, being able to observe Max's inert body.

I remained static, not knowing what to do. When I reacted, I went out of the closet, clearly not a safe place.

Suddenly, the whole house was in darkness. I quickly turned on the flashlight, starting to look for somewhere safe.

I figured it can climb through the windows, so a place without windows is a good option: the bathroom.

I ran to it, entering and locking the door with my weight, sitting down on the floor.

I started praying again, which even though I'm not religious; it was the only thing I could do.

Suddenly, sirens began to wail, albeit for a few seconds, and intermittently, as if to get my attention: Nathan, Max's father.

I ran to the floor below, beginning to hear something running behind me, causing me to look back, pointing the flashlight straight at the creature's face, which was gray and skeletal.

As the beam of light hit the thing's eyes, I managed to blind it for an instant, enough time to unlock the front door and go outside, where there was a black and white Ford Crown Victoria, with red and blue sirens on the roof.

I ran to it, where Nathan got out of the car, pointing his gun at me.

“Get down!” he shouted, causing me to drop to the ground.

A burst of bullets began to come out of Nathan's gun, hitting the creature's entire body, and it fell to the ground as the gun's magazine was emptied.

“Are you all right?” he asked in alarm, running towards me.

“Y-yes, I'm fine” was all I managed to say, as I was still in shock from what happened just a few seconds ago.

“Don't worry, it's all over now" he said, trying to reassure me, "Get in the car, we're going to the hospital, you have a deep wound in your arm.”

I looked at my arm quickly, I could see a big bleeding scar, guessing that it must have done it before it blinded it, since it was too close.

As we got into the car, he half a rag for me to put over the wound, to stop so much blood from continuing to come out, and started driving straight to the hospital where my mom worked, being able to see the house driving away behind us in the rear view mirror.

                                                                                                                                                    END OF CHAPTER

When we arrived at the hospital with Nathan, we were met by a nurse.

“Could you find Dr. Sheila Jenkins?” Nathan asked the nurse when she had finished suturing my wound. “It's his mother," he added, pointing at me.

“Of course" she smiled, putting a bandage on my wound to prevent anything from happening to the suture, and went to look for my mother.

“Listen, let me talk to her" he said, whispering, sitting on the stretcher next to me, "the creature is not public knowledge, only the government and some policemen know about it, don't tell anything" he asked me kindly.

“All right" I agreed.

After a while, Sheila arrived.

“What happened to you, where is your father?”

“I'm sorry Sheila, but... they broke into your house" he said, lying, "Tyler fought him off, long enough until I could get there, but I

was too late" he said, hugging her as she started to cry.

“And what happened to Mike's arm?” She asked a while after she calmed down and stopped crying.

“He tried to help Tyler, but...”

He didn't need to finish the sentence, as she assumed everything, hugging me.

“It's okay, sweetie. It's going to be okay" she smiled, making me feel guilty for not telling her the truth.

After that, she went to change her clothes, since she was just leaving now of the work, since it's 06:00AM.

“I hate lying to my mother...”

“Relax, it's for a good cause" he smiled.

                                                                                                  …

Nathan drove us home, bidding us farewell, and went back to the police station.

The body of the creature was gone; I guess it had been taken away. Neither was Tyler's body.

"Honey, go to sleep, you've barely slept" she smiled.

I nodded and went to my room. I lay down on my bed and closed my eyes.

I wasn't sleepy, and even if I was, I kept getting images of what happened in the night.

It didn't make sense that this thing could exist. Although it clearly did exist, after all it murdered my father and my best friend.

Suddenly, I fell asleep.

                                                                                                                                                                              15 years later.

I was going to visit my father's grave as I did every weekend. I had a bouquet of blue roses in my hand, they were his favorites.

I was walking down the usual monotonous gravel road, until I came to a headstone.

                                                                          "Rest in peace Tyler Jenkins; 1961-2000."

Every time I see that year I get a rush of guilt, I should have gone to his room when I heard the rumble. I should never have gone downstairs.

Suddenly, a feeling of being watched appeared, just like that night. I looked ahead, no one was there. Then I looked to my left and right, nothing. But when I turned back I froze. I looked at the forest behind the cemetery gates, being able to notice a thin, grayish figure among the trees, with two glowing eyes.

“Are you still... alive?”

The thing went backwards very slowly, disappearing through the trees, and with it, my sense of security. I must definitely tell Nathan.

                                                                                                                                                                       END OF EPILOGUE