I did everything I could to stay inside.
Locked the doors.
Closed every curtain.
Even dragged a chair across the front door like something out of a bad movie.
I needed to feel in control.
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Needed to believe I had a choice.
By 11:47 p.m., I was sitting on my bed, staring at my phone, pretending to scroll through messages I wasn’t even reading.
The air felt heavy again.
Just like the night before.
At exactly midnight—
The lights went out.
All of them.
Instantly.
No flicker.
No warning.
Just darkness.
My breath caught.
“Not again…”
The silence returned.
That deep, unnatural silence that presses against your ears until you start hearing things that aren’t there.
Then—
A faint glow.
Seeping through the edges of my curtains.
I shook my head, backing away from the window.
“No. No, I’m not looking.”
But the glow grew stronger.
Brighter.
Until it painted the walls of my room in a pale, sickly white.
And then—
Tap.
I froze.
Tap.
My heart began to pound.
Tap.
Slowly, against every instinct screaming at me to stop—I turned toward the window.
My hands trembled as I reached out.
Pulled the curtain aside.
And saw—
Myself.
Standing under the streetlight.
Perfectly still.
Looking straight at me.
My chest tightened.
“That’s not me…”
But it was.
Every detail.
Every feature.
Even the way I stood.
Then it smiled.
A slow, unnatural smile that stretched just a little too far.
My breath hitched.
It lifted its hand.
And waved.
I stumbled backward.
“No… no, no—”
Then it spoke.
In my voice.
Clear.
Cold.
“Your turn to stay outside.”
The world seemed to tilt.
The room spun.
The last thing I saw—
Was it stepping forward.
Out of the light.
Toward my house.
Toward me.
And then—
Darkness.
To be continued!
