As the final bell of the college day rings, the students file out of the campus, chatter filling the air as they head to their respective homes. Elara's mind is still reeling from the horrifying events in the library. Her warning, her scream, all for nothing. Damien and Raven had dismissed her, and the other students had written her off as crazy.
The world around her felt different now, distorted, as if the very fabric of reality had shifted. She tries to shake off the unease, walking through the familiar streets toward home. But no matter how much she tries to focus on the normality of her day, something gnaws at her, an insistent feeling that something is terribly wrong.
When Elara finally reaches her house, she steps inside, expecting the usual warmth of family and home. The front door creaks shut behind her, and the quiet of the house settles in. It feels...empty.
"Mom? Dad?"
Elara calls out hesitantly, her voice echoing in the silence. The house is eerily still, almost as if no one is home.
She walks through the hallway, glancing into the living room, but there's no sign of anyone. It feels strange, like something's out of place. She moves toward the kitchen, where she sees her mother standing, humming softly as she moves around the stove, preparing dinner. Her mother's back is turned, and she doesn't seem to notice Elara entering.
Elara takes a slow breath, trying to push down the lingering sense of dread that has been following her all day.
"Mom?"
she asks quietly.
Her mother turns around with a smile, her face warm and familiar.
"Oh, there you are, dear. Dinner will be ready in a bit. How was school today?"
She says it in such a normal, casual way, like everything is fine. But Elara can't shake the feeling that something is off.
"It was... fine,"
Elara replies, her voice hollow, unsure.
As she glances around, Elara's eyes fall on the table where her father sits, reading the newspaper. His brow is furrowed as he scans the pages, oblivious to her presence. His usual stern expression is absent today, replaced by a blank, emotionless stare. Elara blinks, her pulse quickening. Why is he so still? Why isn't he acknowledging her?
She feels an uneasy knot in her stomach as she glances further into the house.
"Dad?"
she calls, but her father doesn't look up, doesn't even flinch. His fingers slowly turn the pages of the newspaper, mechanically, without any sign of recognition. Elara's eyes narrow. Something doesn't feel right, but she can't quite put her finger on it.
With a sudden jolt, Elara hears music playing from upstairs. Her younger brother, Leo, must be in his room. She heads upstairs quickly, almost instinctively, hoping to find some comfort in the normalcy of his presence. When she reaches his door, she peeks inside. Leo is sitting on his bed, listening to his headphones, his eyes shut, oblivious to the world around him. His music is loud, the bass thumping in the room, but there's no sign of life in his expression. He's there, physically, but somehow distant, as though he's not entirely... himself.
Her breath catches in her throat, the knot in her stomach tightening even further.
Finally, Elara moves toward her younger sister's room. Her sister, Ava, is sleeping peacefully in her bed. The soft rise and fall of her chest is the only sign of life in the room. But the silence feels oppressive, suffocating. Elara watches her for a moment, feeling a strange, almost magnetic pull toward her. Ava's face is calm, serene, but the stillness of the room... it feels unnatural.
Elara stands there, frozen in place for what feels like an eternity. Something is wrong..deeply wrong.
She's alone in the house, yet it feels like there are eyes on her, an invisible presence watching her every move. The silence is too thick, the air too heavy.
It's as if everything in this house, her family included, is just a shell, a lifeless imitation of what it used to be.
Elara turns her gaze back to the kitchen, where her mother is still humming and stirring the pot as if nothing unusual is happening.
"Mom?"
Elara whispers again, but this time, there's a tremor in her voice. The word feels foreign, like it no longer belongs in this place.
Her mother doesn't respond.Elara's eyes flicker to her father, still sitting at the table with the newspaper, and then back to Leo, still lost in his music. They're all here, but they're not really here. They're nothing more than hollow versions of the people she loves.
With a shaking breath, Elara steps back from the doorway, her heart hammering in her chest.
She suddenly feels like she's drowning, like she can't breathe.
The walls are closing in on her, and she can't escape the crushing feeling of wrongness.
She stumbles backward, her mind racing with questions, but no answers. What happened to her family? Why do they seem... empty? Are they under Damien and Raven's control, too? Or is it something even darker than that?
And then, in the midst of her panic, Elara hears something. It's faint at first, but it grows louder...whisper, soft and chilling, coming from behind her.
"Elara..."
Her body freezes, and she slowly turns around, her blood turning to ice as she realizes the voice isn't coming from her family.It's coming from the shadows of the hallway.
Elara's heart pounded in her chest, her breath coming in ragged gasps as the voice from the shadows still echoed in her mind. She could feel the fear coursing through her veins, a cold chill wrapping around her spine. Her knees felt weak, and the oppressive silence of the house suffocated her. With every passing second, the sense of dread grew stronger, as if something was closing in on her.
She couldn't breathe. The fear was overwhelming, suffocating.
"No... no... this isn't real…
she whispered to herself, her hands trembling as she backed away from the door. Suddenly, she screamed, a desperate, raw sound ripping from her throat. It was the only way she could try to expel the terror that had gripped her.
Her scream echoed through the empty house, but there was no response.
Her parents didn't stir; they remained as still as statues. Their faces were warm and familiar, yet their expressions were vacant, devoid of concern.
Elara's gaze darted between them.
"Mom? Dad?"
she pleaded softly, her voice shaking. But they sat there, unresponsive, as if they were puppets controlled by an unseen force.
Then, she heard the unmistakable sound of a door clicking shut behind her..a lock turning. Her breath caught in her throat, and her body froze. Had someone been in the house all along?
Her heart hammered as she moved toward the door. Hesitant yet driven by a desperate need to know what was happening, she reached out with trembling hands and turned the handle.
The door creaked open, revealing a familiar face standing in the hallway.
"Are you okay?"
he asked softly, his voice full of genuine worry.
Elara tried to steady her breath and forced a weak smile, though her heart was still racing.
"Yes… I'm fine… Why are you here?"
she managed to reply, her voice trembling as she struggled to mask the terror lurking beneath.
"I just came to check on you. See you later."
Without waiting for her reply, he turned and walked away, his footsteps fading into the quiet of the house.
Alone again, Elara's unease deepened. Something about Jian's words, the way he had looked at her, made her feel that he was hiding a secret. She closed the door behind him and returned to the living area, where the normal routine of dinner beckoned.
Soon, her mother's voice called from the kitchen,
"Elara, come for dinner, and don't forget to call Eva and Leo for supper."
Reluctantly, Elara gathered her composure and went to join them.
At the dining table, her family sat together as usual, laughing, chatting, and sharing stories. Her parents appeared as caring and loving as ever, her father reading the newspaper at the table and her mother offering warm smiles between bites.
Eva, her six-year-old sister, sat quietly with a smile that seemed a bit too knowing, while her 15-year-old brother, Leo, joked around and laughed.
Throughout the meal, Elara kept looking around at everyone, her mind still adrift in the lingering terror of the day's events. Her father, with a gentle tone, finally asked,
"Are you okay, my daughter?"
Startled by the question, Elara met his gaze but couldn't bring herself to respond. The surprise in his eyes was met with her unsettling silence.
"You look tired and stressed, Elara. Why don't you take a bath and rest a bit?"
Her voice was soft, almost tender, but it carried the weight of routine rather than genuine concern.
Leo couldn't help but laugh, teasing,
"She's always so stressed and tired, what's up with that, anyway?"
Then, Elara's gaze drifted to Eva.
Her younger sister was giving her a smile that sent an inexplicable shiver down her spine, creepy and oddly out of place.
For what felt like an eternity, Eva just sat there, her smile fixed and unnervingly serene.
Finally, her mother broke the silence again,
"You're really not okay, are you? Did something happen at school today?"
The table fell quiet as all eyes turned to Elara, waiting for an explanation. But the weight of exhaustion and fear was too much. With no energy left to fight the encroaching dread, Elara simply murmured.
"I'm really tired…"
and, unable to muster any more words, she excused herself from the table.
Elara dragged herself away from the table, leaving behind the laughter and hollow concern that had filled the dining room. Every step toward her room felt heavy, burdened by the endless questions and the suffocating terror of the day.
As she pushed open the door to her room, she shut out the oppressive sounds of normalcy, seeking refuge in the quiet darkness.
Exhaustion overtook her almost immediately. The events of the day, her piercing scream in the library, the unsettling stares, Jian's mysterious departure, and the disturbing, almost alien smiles of her family, swirled in her mind.
With a heavy sigh, she collapsed onto her bed, her limbs trembling with fatigue, her mind too overwhelmed to keep fighting the dread that had built up inside her.The stress and terror finally began to ebb as her eyes grew heavier, until the soft, inevitable pull of sleep enveloped her. In that fragile moment between consciousness and dreams, Elara left everything behind .