At the end of the hallway, fixtures of recessed lights embedded into the ceiling flickered with every passing second.

Kkrr!

Ren's heart raced at the sound, his eyes darted to the door.

Looking through the peephole, he found no one at his door. 

Grrrr!

His stomach grumbled. 

'A late-night snack wouldn't hurt!'

Shaking his head at the thought that crossed his mind, he looked through the peephole once more, skeptical about opening his door.

'Maybe just once!'

He pushed the door open as slowly as possible, wincing at the moment a creak from the rusty hinges made its way to his ears.

'A change of hinges, got that!' He made a mental note.

Whistling, he walked to the kitchen. Pulling the handle of the mini-refrigerator, he took out a bunch of berries, munching on them immediately.

After having a fill, he looked around, letting out a sigh at how quiet and lonely he felt living alone in a bungalow–the one thing willed to him upon his parents' death.

Walking back to the room, he paused as he stared at the dark hallways.

Looking behind him for a while, he took a deep breath, trying to convince himself that whatever had happened to the recess lightning was nothing more than a connection problem.

'It can't be happening again!' Ren hoped as he inhaled and exhaled. 

"I can do this!" He muttered to himself, shoving his hands in his pocket, he cursed at the fact he had forgotten his mobile.

~Did you miss me?

A smoky voice snickered in his head.

'Get out of my head!' He yelled in his thoughts.

Taking a few steps into the dark hallway, conversant with his way around the house, he walked towards the door–his only exit and escape from what was to appear.

Slam!

Click!

He gasped at the sound of the lock on the door trapping him in.

'You've got to be kidding me!' He put all he could to turn the lock, but couldn't without making much noise that could attract the horrid monster that had constantly made its presence only visible to him over the past few weeks.

Rrrrgh!

"Not now... Please!" He still tried on the lock. 

Rrrrgh!

His head stiffly turned towards the sound of a low growl from the monster down the corridor. 

The darkness proved no help to the situation that presented itself.

His hands trembled, as his body was piled up with terror.

~Do you want this nightmare to end?

He bobbed his head to the voice in his head, hoping to get rid of a lurking monster.

The lighting flickered back on, dimly lighting the hallways.

The house trembled under the bulk of the scaly black monster. Its position was in a crouch. 

Red glowing markings trailed from beneath its eyes to its hind and forelimbs. Two long, clawed fingers at the end of its forelimbs.

Its mouth opened slightly to show its yellow jagged teeth stained with blood.

Red saliva which looked a lot like the blood that had been on its teeth slid down its chin and dripped onto the furnished bamboo floor.

A hole bore into it, under the acid saliva. 

Its bloodshot glowing eyes searched for its target–Ren.

The paintings hung on the wall swayed before they were thrown off balance, crashing to the floor.

This was the very distraction Ren needed to dash towards his room and jump out the window safely.

Click!

His breath hitched at the thought of the monster listening to that. Slowly he looked back.

The deafening silence caused beads of sweat to form on his forehead, his heart beating hard.

Sprinting towards the window, he pulled on the handle.

'Why won't you open?!' He panicked, trying to push on the glass frame in a hurry. 

'First the door? Now the window?! Come on!' He pulled on his white hair in frustration.

His eyes locked on a wooden chair.

'That's it!' 

Not caring if the monster would hear the loud crash when he used the chair, he picked it up and threw it at the window. 

The chair bounced back aiming at him, reacting at just the right time, he ducked his head. Watching with wide eyes as it flew over his head and landed with a crash.

'I... I can't get out of here?!' He thought in horror at being trapped in his room.

He looked back and could see the door handle shake slightly under the hold of the monster. 

~You just caused a loud noise. It's out to get you now!

The smoky voice taunted.

With no way out, he was left with no choice but to dive under his bed, pulling the bed covers lower to his side.

Gulping ragged breaths, he inched his way to the edge, nearest the window.

Bam!

The door was ripped off its hinges by the monster and slammed onto the floor, open to the room.

'No... no...' his eyes followed the sound and the tremble caused by the monster's movements.

Rrrrrr!

Kenji knocked on the front door several times, after getting a call from the rehabilitation center, he knew he had to check up on Ren at his house, but there was no response.

Pulling on the handle, he was surprised at how easily he gained access.

Stepping in, he walked to the left and down the hallway, towards Ren's room.

–––––––––––

Using his hand to cover his mouth, Ren tried to breathe but couldn't. 

'Help me, someone please help!' He screamed in his thoughts. 

~No one's coming!

The thumping of his heart was a little too loud for him to hear, his eyes darted around the moment he couldn't hear a sound.

The deafening silence drove him to insanity. His hand held onto his hair and pulled on it.

He watched in horror as the bed was raised and thrown to the far end of the room.

'I am so screwed!' He concluded in his heart.

With his back against the wall, his hands searched for something he could use to stall time.

It made its advancement until it was a few inches away from his face. Its nostrils snort out putrid steam on his face.

Rrrrrr!!!!

It screeched loudly at him, against the monster, Ren was fed up and gave up when he closed his eyes.

Its long claws raised as it prepared to stab him with it.

Slap!

Ren's face was forced to the left. It took him a while to register what had just happened.

The tingling feeling he felt on his cheek, made him look upwards at the culprit.

"Fuck, man! What the hell?!" A familiar voice spoke, looking down at him with displeasure.

Ren had to blink a few times to be sure of who was standing in front of him.

"Kenji?!" He questioned, unable to believe his friend stood in front of him. 

Kenji had a reasonably long, rounded face and sizable, expressive, hazel eyes. His blonde hair was styled in a long undercut with bangs over his entire forehead.

"In the flesh," Kenji replied, offering his hand out to pull Ren up.

Skeptical about accepting such an offer, he merely stared at it, wondering if it was real and not one of those horrid monsters in the disguise of his friend.

Kenji looked at his palms, wondering if there was something wrong with them.

"Oh! I see," he chuckled, turning his back and showing Ren, "this here is what I would call a fresh new design I was trying out." He pointed to an anime tattoo on his hand.

Whispering, he placed the back of his hand to the side of his mouth, "it's our little secret, they aren't real, just a temporary one that could wash off later." He said with a wink.

'Kenji!' His mind settled at finally differentiating what was real.

Ren's eyes locked on the back of Kenji's palm. "And you chose a character with that thickness?" He deadpanned.

"You know how I like them." Kenji wiggled his brows, trying to lighten up the mood.

Ren nodded his head to the answer. Looking out the window and deep in thought.

He let out a sigh, the window was opened and the full moon brightened the night.

Kenji's mood immediately dropped as he cast a sad look at his friend who still sat on the floor in a dazed state of mind.

"I got a call from rehab that you had gone missing, again!" He bellowed, not pleased he had run away from rehab once again.

"It was at that moment that I knew that I had to check here if it was true, why did you come back here?" Kenji questioned.

~He wants this house to himself.

Ren frowned at the perspective the voice presented but chose to ignore it.

"It happened again, didn't it?" Ren's voice broke the silence, a sad smile on his lips.

"The sixty-seventh time in just seventeen days. Let's not even count the ones I wouldn't be available to help." Kenji replied. 

'Sixty-seventh?!' Ren sweat dripped onto his black cargo joggers. "I thought I had it under control."

"I must have looked crazy again, right?" He turned towards Kenji.

"I can handle crazy." He shrugged, walking over to a chair that had been knocked over and pulling it back up.

Sitting, he crossed one leg over the other and leaned forward to place his clasped fingers on it.

"Now onto the real question," he deepened his voice, staring down at Ren. "What the heck is going on? Tell me nothing but the truth!"

Ren had a sad smile, this wasn't the first time he had asked such a question and his answer had always been the same.

"Have you ever heard voices in your head that almost sound real?" Ren began.

"You always ask this question, and for the umpteenth time, yes I have." Kenji rolled his eyes.

"Even a monster only you can see?" He persisted.

"We've been childhood friends since five, and it's been seventeen years since then, surely you don't believe in peekaboo monsters." Kenji countered.

"You don't understand, it appears and attacks me and it's driving me crazy." He hit his chest in frustration. 

"Let me guess it tried to attack you before I had come in here to check on you." Kenji folded his arms.

"That's correct!" Ren replied enthusiastically.

"I get it, I understand how you feel," Kenji nodded his head. "I also have visions of imaginary monsters attacking me when I encounter darkness."

Ren's face fell upon hearing those mocking words, "are you mocking me now?!

This conversation had always caused a rift in their friendship, it was almost driving Kenji crazy, having to come a time again to rescue him from something even he couldn't get the right answers to from Ren.

Kenji's hand combed through his hair, pushing it back to hold out his frustration. 

A deafening silence followed. None speak to the other.

The wind blew the curtains. Kujo fabric billowed. Unable to contain it anymore, Kenji blurted out, "do you know why I'm the only one who has stuck by you all this while?"

He paused, hoping–waiting for some sort of response from Ren.

All he got was a look that he knew too well, "you're blanking out again, aren't you?!" He hissed in irritation.

Rrrrrr!!!!

Ren's eyes widened as he saw the monster come up from behind Kenji. Miniscule saliva began to trail slowly down its teeth.

'Acid saliva... Kenji!' 

~Let's watch him die!

"How did the heat suddenly turn up in here?" Kenji pulled on his collar.

Ren switched glances between the bloodshot glowing eyes of the monster and Kenji.

He began to question how the monster didn't choose to attack him anymore, instead, it chose a different target–Kenji.

"Kenji," he hissed in desperation, "step away from the chair."

Kenji raised a brow to his words, feeling no need to move from where he sat.

If he could sit on a chair and still feel the heat, the floor on which Ren still sat was a much worse option. The bed is not an option either.

"I'd rather sit here," Kenji objected, unbuttoning his shirt.

'It's not real, it's not real!' He chanted in his thoughts until he believed it. If Kenji couldn't see it, it couldn't affect him in any sense.

~Is it?!

Kenji hissed in pain as he felt his shoulder blade burn slightly and bleed. 

"What the hell?" Kenji touched the affected area, bringing his palm to see, he stared at his blood in confusion.

~Do you think it isn't real? 

The voice snickered, the trailing voice lingering.

Looking around the room, Kenji found nothing other than the rolling fan above them, even that couldn't justify what had happened, unless...

"Ren," he narrowed his eyes. "Did you just prank me with something placed on the fan that could be this damaging? Is that why you kept pressuring me to get up?"

"Kenji, listen to me," Ren got up, slowly trying to buy time on how he could convince him otherwise.

"Listen to you?! What do you say about injuring your friend in some game!" He bellowed. 

Springing to his feet and fuming, he pulled his shirt back in place. For a brief second, he hissed to the pain from doing that.

'Yes, step away from the chair.' Ren was satisfied with the first step that was accomplished.

Rrrrrr!

"The monster is behind you, you can't see it, just believe me that it's there; and step away, please!" He stretched out his hand.

Unlike what had happened to him previously, the window was wide open, enough for them both to jump out safely and away from the monster.

~He's never going to believe a crazy person! Haha!

"Shut the hell up!" He muttered, in hopes of getting through to the voice.

Kenji frowned, having heard that,  thinking it was directed at him.

"You need help." Kenji spat, boiling in rage.

Ren was left stunned by his words and for a second blanked out.

Shaking his head, he needed to focus on saving his friend. 

The monster let out an ear-piercing shriek to the hearing of Ren.

"Nnnn!" Ren gritted his teeth, not wanting to scream in pain in front of Kenji.

Raising its claws, it spirals like a drill, ready to pierce through Kenji.

There was no denying this anymore, this was as real as it could be.

"Nooo!" He leaped forward, pushing Kenji away just in time for the monster to miss its target momentarily.

Thud!

"What the hell, man?!" Kenji hissed, pushing back and away from Ren. His heart raced at the suddenness of that action.

Whoosh!

Ren hyperventilated, the monster had disappeared which made him unsettled.

Searching through his bedside table in a hurry, he pulled on the drawer handle, the boxes slid out of their slides and onto the floor.

Kenji slowly got up from where he sat, his eyes darted about, wondering what had happened in just a few minutes.

Instant regret set in, he wished he had stayed back in his apartment and refused the call that had prompted him to search for Ren in his house. All this crazy would have not presented itself.

"Found it," Ren said out of breath, holding onto a taser as if his life depended on it.

Kenji wondered what he could want to do with a taser while pointing it towards the door and all around in a wild frenzy.

"Ren!" He yelled, "look at me, there's no monster!" He pointed to himself.

Ren looked around for the sign of the monster, armed and ready to act if it appeared again. This had happened too many times on this day to be considered unreal.

That brief display of acid burning into Kenji's shoulder was the conviction he needed to believe that the tables had turned.

~No one wants you, not even the friend you are trying to protect.

Hesitant on that statement, he looked behind him to get a glimpse of Kenji.

There it was the look he had seen on others–disdain, pity, and confusion.

Bringing his hand down, he turned towards Kenji. "You believe me, right? I would never do anything to hurt you." 

Kenji took a step back, wary of Ren's approach. "I don't even think I know you anymore."

"Remember when I said I could handle crazy?" Kenji let out a laugh at how foolish those words sounded to him.

"This sort of madness needs help, you need help!" He spat.

"I can't be a part of this anymore, if you can't stay where I had left you to get help, then screw whatever things you make up!" His vocal cords vibrated with every word he screamed at Ren. 

He had finally said the words that he had so desperately wanted out of his system since all the craziness had started, and a calmness followed right after.

Ren froze, lowering his head in despair. 

He had remembered being taken to rehabilitation centers several times over the past weeks. There the horrors had increased.

The random reports of mysterious deaths of nurses, therapists, psychologists, psychiatrists, and social workers who had been involved in his case, drove him to insanity. So much so that he had to escape from that hellish environment and back to the only place he thought he could find solace–his home.

Even though the horrors continued wherever he was, it was much more contained than when in that dark and cold room while in rehab.

His lips opened and closed as he tried to respond positively to Kenji's words, but the negativity in his heart was getting the better part of his thoughts and soon-to-be action.

~I told you, no one wants you! 

~He was never your friend, he had always stuck by you for selfish gains.

~Watch as he pays for casting you out.

Slowly raising his head, his lips raised in a devilish smirk. He had seen the shadow of the monster and deduced its location. His mood and thoughts immediately switched dark.

There it was behind Kenji, aiming to attack him once more. He burst out in a peal of crazed laughter at what was to befall Kenji soon.

"You had never understood how I felt, but you will!" Ren snickered, watching the monster plunge its claw into Kenji.

Kenji's blood splattered on Ren's face, closing his eyes to prevent any from getting in them.

"R... Ren..." Kenji's last words woke Ren from his deranged state.

With wide eyes, he locked gazes with Kenji before he dropped to the floor in his pool of blood.

The corner of Ren's eyes darkened, his vision blurring, he slumped and succumbed to the darkness that followed–unconscious.