Rohan's father took another step forward.
The wooden floor groaned beneath his weight.
"Dad… stop," Rohan said, his voice barely a whisper.
But his father didn't stop.
His eyes were still empty.
Cold.
Like something was looking out through them.
Behind him, the darkness inside the small wooden room shifted again.
Something moved.
Slow.
Careful.
Like it was watching… waiting.
Rohan forced himself to step back.
"Dad… come away from that door."
For a moment, his father didn't respond.
Then he blinked.
Just once.
And his face twitched slightly.
"Rohan…?" he said weakly.
Hope flickered inside Rohan.
"Dad! It's me. Come down the stairs."
But the moment didn't last.
His father's head jerked suddenly to the side.
Too fast.
Like a puppet whose strings had been pulled.
The smile returned.
Wider this time.
Behind him, something long and pale slid across the floor of the dark room.
Rohan saw it clearly now.
A hand.
But it wasn't human.
The fingers were far too long.
Thin like sticks.
They bent in ways fingers shouldn't bend.
Slowly… it dragged itself forward across the floorboards.
Rohan's heart slammed against his chest.
"Dad… something's behind you."
His father didn't turn.
Instead, he spoke again.
But now two voices came out at once.
One was his father's.
The other was deep and hollow.
"…he opened the door…"
The pale hand reached the doorway.
Then another appeared.
And another.
Three long arms pulling a thin body out of the darkness.
It unfolded slowly, like a spider stretching after a long sleep.
Its head scraped softly against the doorframe as it rose.
It was too tall for the room.
Its skin looked grey and stretched tight across sharp bones.
And its face—
Rohan wished he hadn't looked.
There were no eyes.
Only two deep black holes.
And a mouth that was far too wide.
The thing tilted its head.
Listening.
Then it smiled.
The same smile his father was wearing.
Downstairs, Rohan's grandmother began chanting softly under her breath.
Words Rohan didn't understand.
The creature's head twitched.
It had heard her.
Suddenly his father grabbed Rohan's wrist.
Hard.
"Dad—!"
His father's grip tightened painfully.
"Too late," the two voices whispered together.
The creature took one slow step out of the room.
Its long arms scraping across the wall.
The hallway seemed to grow darker around it.
Like the light itself was afraid.
Rohan tried to pull away, but his father held him firmly.
"Let go!" Rohan shouted.
For a second, his father's eyes flickered again.
Struggling.
Fighting.
"Run…" he whispered weakly.
But the creature was already reaching for them.
Its long fingers stretching toward Rohan's face.
The air turned freezing cold.
And somewhere in the darkness behind it—
Something else moved.
Something bigger. 👁️