• Fear was haunting her. It was back, but now no nightlights banished the shadows as they had when she was young. She closed her eyes, took a breath. She left her room and sanctuary, silently crossing the carpeted floor to the bathroom. She walked in, turned to face the door, and quietly started to shut it.
    The hairs rose on the back of her neck as she pushed the door to, sensing the presence behind her. Shivering, she flipped the light on and spun around. Nothing. It was just her imagination again.
    It stalked her. It hid in the closet, the bathroom, the basement. It lurked in the dark, festered in the shadows of her mind, waited to snatch her away.
    As she showered she could feel it crawling up the drain, fighting against the torrents to reach her. To sink its fangs into her ankles and let poison seep into her blood, slowly killing her with excruciating pain.
    She jumped from the shower onto the rug, tightly wrapping a towel around herself. Once again, nothing was clawing its way up out of her shower drain. Nothing was coming to get her.
    While drying her hair, she ignored the shadows and movements she glimpsed in the mirror and stopped jumping after the first few sightings. She was just tired; it was just her imagination running rampant yet again.
    As she returned to her room she felt it behind her. It had been waiting for her. Seeing her, it hurried down the hall, clawed fingers reaching, stretching out for her. So close, just a little farther and it would have her.
    She slammed the door shut, shaking. She normally wasn’t this bad. All the feelings and scenarios she had ever experienced, imagined, were repeating themselves tonight. The only one she hadn’t was the creepiest. If she walked downstairs she would sense it clinging to the rafters, saliva slowly dripping on her. It was crawling after her, and waiting to drop down onto her, pin her beneath its many legs, ram its stinger into her again and again with its maw closing in despite her screams and struggles-
    No! It wasn’t real. Imaginations. That was all. Taking a deep breath to steady herself, she hurried towards her bed, her haven, and the safety it provided. She paused beside the bed when her phone rang, her boyfriend.
    She answered, relaxed when she heard his voice. He gave her comfort, safety. Her haunts would not, could not, harm her when she was with him. He had promised.
    She didn’t notice the shadowy hands, fingers too long, too skinny, reaching slowly for her ankles from beneath her bed. A jerk, a startled scream, a thud as her phone it the floor.
    Finally, it had won.