Darkness swallowed the house instantly, thick and heavy like a curtain dropping over the world.
For a second, no one moved.
No one breathed.
"Dad?" Rohan whispered.
Upstairs, the wooden floor creaked softly.
His father's voice came through the darkness, strained now.
"Rohan… don't come up."
A chill ran through Rohan's spine.
"What's wrong?" his mother called, fear creeping into her voice.
There was a pause.
Then his father answered quietly.
"There's… someone here."
The words fell into the darkness like stones.
Rohan's grandmother gripped the arm of her chair. "I told you," she murmured. "Something came in."
Another creak echoed from above.
Slow.
Careful.
Not like footsteps.
More like something dragging across the floor.
Rohan felt his chest tighten.
"Dad, come down," he said quickly. "Just come down."
But his father didn't answer.
Instead, there was the sound of the small wooden door opening wider.
The hinges groaned softly.
Then—
A whisper.
Too faint for the others to hear.
But Rohan heard it clearly.
"...Rohan..."
He spun around.
"Did you hear that?" he asked.
"Hear what?" his mother said nervously.
The whisper came again.
Closer.
"...Rohan…"
It wasn't upstairs anymore.
It was in the hallway.
Right outside the kitchen.
A shadow moved under the crack of the kitchen door.
Something passed slowly in front of it.
Rohan's breath caught in his throat.
"Mom," he whispered.
But before he could say anything else—
THUD.
Something heavy fell upstairs.
His mother gasped.
"Rajesh!" she shouted.
Silence followed.
No reply.
Rohan couldn't stand it anymore. He rushed toward the stairs.
"Rohan, stop!" his grandmother called.
But he was already climbing.
The staircase creaked loudly under his feet.
Halfway up, the air felt colder.
Much colder.
Like stepping into winter.
"Dad?" he called.
No answer.
He reached the top step and froze.
The hallway door—the small wooden one—was wide open.
Pitch-black inside.
His father stood a few feet away from it.
Perfectly still.
"Dad?" Rohan said cautiously.
Slowly… his father turned around.
But something was wrong.
Very wrong.
His face looked pale in the faint grey light from the window.
And his eyes…
They looked empty.
"Dad?" Rohan said again.
His father tilted his head strangely.
Too slowly.
Too stiff.
Then he smiled.
But it wasn't his father's smile.
Behind him, inside the dark doorway, something shifted.
A shape.
Tall.
Thin.
And far too long for a human body.
It moved like smoke trying to take form.
Rohan's father stepped aside slightly.
As if making room.
The thing inside the room leaned forward.
Two faint white shapes opened in the darkness.
Eyes.
Watching him.
Rohan's legs refused to move.
Downstairs, his grandmother suddenly screamed.
"ROHAN! GET AWAY FROM HIM!"
The figure inside the room whispered again.
Closer now.
Right inside his head.
"...you came back…"
His father took one slow step toward him.
"Rohan," he said softly.
But the voice underneath it was different.
Deeper.
Hungry.
And from the darkness behind him, something else began to crawl out of the room.