The house had grown colder overnight. Emily awoke to the sound of faint whispers threading through the air, their source unseen. The digital clock on her nightstand blinked 3:13 AM in erratic, flickering red light.
She sat up, her breath misting in the dim glow. The whispers slithered through the cracks in the walls, just beneath the surface, like voices trapped in the very structure of the house.
"Mom?" Emily's voice was hoarse.
No answer. Only the murmurs, shifting in tone, urgent yet unintelligible.
Summoning her courage, she stepped out of bed. The wooden floor groaned beneath her feet, the sound swallowed immediately by the oppressive silence that followed. The air carried a damp, rotting scent, something sickly that didn't belong.
She reached for the hallway light switch. Click. Nothing.
A sharp breath escaped her lips as the whispers coalesced into something resembling a gasp, then a distant, ragged sob. The shadows at the end of the hall thickened. And then—
A single knock on her bedroom door.
Emily's heart stilled. The door had been open when she got up. Slowly, she turned. The door stood ajar, the darkness beyond it too deep.
Then, from inside her own room—
A voice whispered her name.