I wasn't sure if I was awake. But I wasn't in the forest anymore.

My chest still heaved with the remnants of fear, my pulse racing, but those monstrous flames and grotesque figures were gone. It was replaced by the smothering stillness of a dimly lit room.

I stood in the middle of my room, and yet it felt unfamiliar. The window near the corner was partially boarded up, light slipping through in thin, jagged slices. My pulse quickened.

I was in Mona's old apartment, watching the crack on the wall. The tall, hooded figure, with its skeletal hands and claws, was coming for me, but now... I blinked, rubbing my temples, struggling to push away the disorienting fog in my mind. My head spun, trying to make sense of it.

The vision of the ritual—the forest, the fire—lingered in my memory like a fading nightmare. But as I glanced around the room, something was wrong.

The walls seemed to breathe, the space around me pulsating like it was alive, waiting. A low hum settled in my bones, making my skin crawl. I looked down at my watch, and my heart sank—It was 1:00 PM. How could time slip like that? Had I blacked out? My mind raced with questions, but no answers surfaced, only a growing dread.

How did I get here? Was it real? Or was I still dreaming?

As I stepped out of my room, the apartment felt different. The familiar surroundings of my apartment were there—at least, at first glance. The couch, the coffee table, the faint hum of the refrigerator in the kitchen. But something wasn't right. What was happening?

As I walked toward the kitchen, I noticed something that stopped me dead in my tracks.

I took a shaky step forward, and that's when I heard it. The coffee table... it wasn't where it should be.

It had been shifted, just slightly. Nothing drastic, but enough that it stood out. I could have sworn I had left a book on the corner of the table earlier, but now it was in the center, open to a random page. A cup of tea was there, but the tea had gone cold, a ring of condensation staining the surface beneath it. I didn't remember leaving it there.

A chill prickled the back of my neck. I turned to the window in the hall, half-expecting to see something—someone—outside, watching. But there was nothing, just the same gray cloudy sky and the quiet street below. I shook my head, trying to snap myself out of it. You're just imagining things, I told myself. But it didn't feel that simple.

I moved toward the bathroom, splashing cold water on my face to shake the growing unease. My reflection stared back at me, hollow-eyed and pale, like I hadn't slept in days. As I leaned closer to the mirror, something flickered in the corner of my vision.

Behind me, just beyond the doorway—a shadow.

I spun around, heart hammering in my chest, but the hallway was empty. Just the silent apartment. I let out a shaky breath, leaning against the sink for support. What is happening to me?

My mind was racing, but no matter how I tried to rationalize it, I couldn't shake the sensation that something had been there. Something had... touched my world while I wasn't looking. The vision, the hours lost, the subtle changes around the apartment—everything felt too connected, too deliberate.

I forced myself to focus. There had to be a logical explanation. Maybe I did come home and had just dozed off for longer than I thought. Maybe I had moved the coffee table myself in a haze of exhaustion. But that didn't explain the creeping dread in my chest or the sense that I wasn't alone.

I grabbed my phone again, checking the time. I needed to stay on track—the meeting with Mr. Thompson. That was the next step, the only step I could control right now. Maybe he had answers or at least some connection to the unsettling events happening around me.

But deep down, I couldn't shake the feeling that whatever was happening, whatever dark force had been watching me in the fire... it had followed me back into the waking world.

I took a shaky step forward, and that's when I heard it.

A voice. A woman's voice.

It came from down the hall, muffled but distinct. Mona's room. My breath caught in my throat. Was the sinister figure here, waiting for me?

I heard the voice again. It sounded a lot like Mona's. But it was softer, more mature, but somehow eerily familiar.

As I neared the hallway, the voice grew clearer, drifting out from Mona's bedroom. I froze just outside the door, straining to listen.

"...I know what I saw," the woman's voice said, a nervous tremor underlying her words. "No, it's not just my dreams... it's real. I know it's real. Something's here... something bad."

There was a long pause as if she was listening to someone on the other end of a phone call.

"It's going to do something terrible. I'm scared for our daughter."

Our daughter? My mind raced, piecing together fragments that didn't make sense. Who was this woman? And what was she doing in Mona's room, talking about a daughter? My heart pounded in my chest, each beat a dull thud in my ears. I couldn't wait any longer—I had to confront her.

With trembling hands, I pushed the door open, half-expecting to find the woman sitting there, phone in hand. But the room was empty.

The voice had vanished.

I stepped inside, my breath hitching, feeling the silence close in around me. I scanned the room—nothing. Only the lingering sense that someone had been there, speaking of things I wasn't supposed to hear.

A rush of panic surged through me, an almost primal fear as if the very air in the room had changed. My head snapped toward the window. Shadows seemed to shift unnaturally, stretching along the walls like long, bony fingers.

Then came the voice again. Only this time... it was closer.

"I know it's here... watching us."

The sound slithered around me, making my skin crawl. My breath quickened. A scream clawed at my throat. It felt like the walls were closing in. I had to get out—now.

The door slammed shut behind me!

I spun around, bolting toward the front door. But something was wrong—terribly wrong.

The door... it wasn't where it should have been.

I ran, my hands outstretched, desperate to reach it, but the more I moved, the further away it seemed to drift.

"No... no!" I cried, pushing harder, my hand reaching for the handle, but every step forward made it disappear further into the distance. My legs felt leaden like I was running through quicksand.

A low, sinister whisper filled the space around me. The same voice, now closer, like it was breathing down my neck. 

"You can't escape it. It's too late."

I screamed, clawing at the air, at the walls. My heart pounded against my ribs, and terror gripped me, choking every breath. My hand finally brushed the cold metal of the door handle, and I yanked it open with every ounce of strength I had left.

As I stumbled out into the hallway, the door slammed shut behind me with a deafening bang, echoing through the empty apartment.

My heart pounded in my chest as I fled down the hallway, my footsteps echoing through the darkness. I didn't dare look back. Whatever had been in that room... whatever had whispered those words... I couldn't face it.

Not yet.

I had to do whatever I could to get out of the apartment. Alive!

I ran for the main door but it seemed out of reach. My vision blurred, the apartment seemed to warp around me, shifting in ways that defied logic. The air grew colder, the shadows thicker, and I could feel it now—something dark, something hungry, waiting just beyond the edge of my consciousnes.

I didn't think. I just ran. My feet pounded against the old floorboards as I bolted out of the apartment. My heartbeat thundered in my ears, deafening everything around me. Something was still following. I could feel it, creeping just behind me, whispering in the darkness—silent but so horribly present.

I reached a stairwell and practically tripped over the steps as I tore down them. "Get out. Get out. Get out!" I muttered under my breath, like a desperate chant to keep my sanity. My legs screamed in protest, muscles burning, but I couldn't stop. I wouldn't stop. I had to get away—away from whatever was lurking in that cursed apartment, away from the voice I couldn't explain.

Bursting through the entrance area, I stumbled into the street, my chest heaving, my vision blurry from the tears and the panic. For a split second, I felt relief.

Then my heart stopped.

I wasn't home. I wasn't anywhere near home.

I was still at Mona's old apartment.

"What...?" I spun around, breath hitching, eyes darting wildly across the lane. How was this possible? I had left. I had—no, this wasn't real, couldn't be real.

But it was.

The night pressed down on me, darker than anything I'd ever seen. It wasn't just nightfall; it was as if the sky itself had been sucked into some black void. Not even the moon broke through the gloom, and the faint, sickly glow that did exist seemed to cling to the ground like a fog.

I checked my watch. It was 10:00 PM.