Chapter Seven

The entire night was no more peaceful for Adea than the previous. The nightmare from before was the most horrible she had ever experienced, and she hoped it would never happen again. This night, however, was no better. Adea's sleep was plagued by fleeting dreams of voices whispering to her from the shadows. They came one after the other with very little reprieve in between. Most of the time, she just heard the voices as if they were all around her, whispering in her ears. She could not understand what they were saying, but there were many. Actually, it sounded more like the same voice but speaking to her from multiple angles, almost like it was conversing with itself.

The voices only sounded for a few minutes at a time, but in her lucid state of sleep, it felt like an eternity; an eternity of pure fear. Every time she heard them, Adea refused to allow her mind's eye to open and clenched her real eyes as tight as she could. She could feel their presence all around her and did not want to see who or what the voices belonged to. They became so incessant that Adea eventually pulled her pillow around the back of her head and held it firmly against her ears, but it did not stop the voices from clawing into her mind, as if they were angry that she was trying to resist.

This time, the whispering did not fade away after a few minutes. Her heart was racing as they continued to grow louder and more sporadic. She felt the uncontrollable urge to scream rising to the surface, and just before she could let one out, her eyes flew open.

The whispers ceased. Once again, it took her eyes a moment to adjust to the darkness, but she found herself lying on her back. Everything had gone silent. The only thing she could hear was her heavy breathing and the beating of her own heart. It was then that she noticed something peculiar and very frightening.

Adea realized she was not lying in her bed, but rather on the hard, wooden floor in the center of her room. Her head was pointed toward the bedroom door and she could see the open window on the opposite end of the room. She could sense that she had woken up and guessed that she had tossed and turned so much throughout the night that she ended up on the floor somehow. The worst part, however, was that she could not move a muscle.

She was frozen there upon the floor. She tried to command her limbs to move but they would not budge. Her next attempt was to cry out for help, but her mouth refused to move either. The only thing she could move was her eyes as she glanced anxiously around the room. It was almost as if her arms and legs were bound and someone had gagged her, but there was nothing binding her. She could feel an intense pressure upon her chest as if someone was pinning her down with a heavy foot. She was terrified beyond description.

Adea's heart stopped when she heard a muffled thump come from downstairs. She listened intently as another thump sounded, followed by another, and she began to panic. Someone was coming up the stairs. Adea struggled desperately against her paralysis but to no avail. Every part of her body persistently refused to move. The footsteps climbing the staircase were heavy and slow, and Adea was convinced that it was an intruder. She tried to muster as much will as she could to call out for her parents. Nothing would come out.

The footsteps were near. Adea's eyes rolled back toward the door when she heard it begin to creak open, much like the way it did in her dream the previous night.

"No," Adea uttered in her head. This time, the door slowly opened the entire way. An incredibly cold rush enveloped her. As much as she wanted to look away, her eyes were glued toward the top of her head so that she could just barely see below the top of the door frame. The hallway outside was darker than the bedroom, and as the door opened up, Adea heard what sounded like a cold, raspy moan flow inside.

The floorboards began to creak. Somebody was stepping through the doorway. A tear of horror leaked out of Adea's eye, and before long, she saw a pitch black figure come into view. From her angle, all she could make out was the head of the figure. It was towering over her and appeared to be staring down at her. Adea could not make out any distinctive features. The figure's head was darker than its surroundings. There were no eyes, no nose, mouth, or hair. Nothing.

The pressure in Adea's chest was stronger now than ever. It was excruciating. The figure knelt behind her, leering at her with its faceless, shadowy form. Adea could not take her eyes away from it, managing to let out a weak whimper as it got closer. Eventually, the figure's head floated no more than six inches away from her face. Her heart was pounding furiously. The pain it was causing her was very real, which meant that what she was seeing was real. This was not a dream. She had never been more scared and helpless in her life.

Suddenly, the figure manifested a pair of eyes. It was just like the nightmare from before when this monster had taken the form of her own sister. The eyes that appeared were large and glowed with a hellish, yellow hue. She regained just enough control of her body to let out rapid fits of terrified breathing through her nostrils. It was as if this thing was playing a sick game with her, allowing her only enough strength to display that she was afraid beyond description.

Then the worst happened.

The monster slowly opened its mouth. Adea's eyes were as wide as humanly possible as she was met by two rows of the most horrifying, unnatural-looking teeth, like thirty sharp, elongated knives. Just when its mouth reached the point of Human limitations, it continued to expand like the razor-sharp maw of a serpent. Adea whimpered and sobbed with the only bit of strength she had, but every instinct was urging her to scream in terror.

As the mouth opened twice as wide as any Human she had ever seen, Adea heard the raspy moaning come forth from the black hole that was its throat. The moaning escalated until the creature let forth a horrifying, guttural roar that sounded like an animal's distorted cry as if it was being slaughtered. Adea's eyes were forced shut, and just like that, every muscle in her body gradually began to come back to her. Her sobs became a screech, until at last, her mouth flew open to let out the horrific screams she had harbored ever since she had awoken.

She could barely catch her breath, the urge to scream was overwhelming, as was her fear. She opened her eyes as she cried out. The creature was still knelt above her, its mouth wide open as it continued to wail at her from above. It raised a black, spidery-fingered hand and began to lower it toward her face. Adea shut her eyes again, and just then, she immediately regained control of her entire body, but all she could do was throw her arms up as if to shield herself. A hand grabbed her firmly by the wrist. Adea screamed louder than ever, thrashing about on the floor as she waited for the demon to do something to her.