"Ugh... What happened?"

Opening his eyes with extreme difficulty, Eldric breathed heavily. His body was heavy, his head spinning as if he'd been drugged. A sense of exhaustion weighed him down, and it took every ounce of strength to lift his arm and reach for his phone on the nightstand. 

"Four days?" he muttered, squinting at the screen. The date blinked back at him—December 25th, 2025.

[07:00 A.M.]

"How the hell?" He had only laid down for a quick nap. Had he overslept? But even if he overslept, it was still extreme to sleep for more than fourteen hours. He remembers going to sleep at three in the evening. And even if he overslept for fourteen hours, there was no way, he could have been sleeping for four days straight.

Maybe he was still groggy. Yeah, that had to be it.

"Is my phone infected with the virus again?" The only explanation was that his phone was infected with a virus... AGAIN. He didn't know why he was always so unlucky. Maybe he should stop downloading those cracked games from illegal websites.

He shook his head, trying to clear the fog from his mind, but it was no use. He felt... disconnected, like the world around him wasn't quite real. After a few moments of wrestling with his thoughts, he finally decided to get up, hoping some movement might help.

The room was dim, the only light coming from the faint glow of his phone. As he turned to leave his bed, he noticed the silence—an eerie, oppressive silence that seemed to press down on him from all sides. He glanced around, realizing something was off. All the lights in his house were off.

"Strange..."

Pushing himself off the bed, he padded across the cold floor and reached for the light switch. With a flick, the room was flooded with a soft, warm glow, casting long shadows on the walls. His house, a modern structure of bricks and cement painted in calming blues, felt oddly empty. It was a two-story home with six rooms—his parents' room, his own, a guest room, two bathrooms, and the kitchen. Yet, it felt like a deserted mansion.

"Mom? Dad?" Eldric called out, his voice echoing slightly in the stillness. No answer. He checked his parents' room, the kitchen, even the guest room—nothing. The house was completely empty.

"What the hell is going on?" Panic began to bubble up in his chest. Where could they be? There were no notes, no texts, nothing. 

He wandered into the kitchen and grabbed a bottle of water, gulping it down to calm his nerves. As he lowered the bottle, his eyes drifted to the window, a habit he'd developed over the years. But the moment he saw the scene outside, the bottle from his hand dropped to the ground as his eyes narrowed into slits.

"Gulp..."

Outside the window, there was nothing but darkness—thick, impenetrable darkness. No streetlights, no lights from the neighboring houses, nothing. It was as if the world beyond his home had been swallowed by a void. 

With a heartbeat that was through the roof, Eldric wiped the non-existent sweat from his forehead as he looked outside. But the more he looked, the greater the panic in his heart got.

"What the hell…?" he couldn't help but whisper, his breath catching in his throat. He stared out into the darkness, trying to make sense of it, but the more he looked, the more the unease in his chest grew.

"No, no, no..." His hands trembled as he reached for his phone again, desperately trying to call his parents. No signal... He switched to messaging apps, but those were down too. Even the Wi-Fi was dead. 

"Damn it, what's going on?"

Eldric's panic intensified. He rushed to the living room and turned on the television, hoping for some kind of news, a weather report, anything. But the screen remained stubbornly black. The oppressive silence seemed to close in around him, the weight of it pressing against his chest.

He looked back at the window, his mind racing. What was going on? 

"A power outage?" The moment this thought came to his mind, Eldric shook his head. The lights in his house were working fine. Even if there was a power outage, the entire town couldn't be this dark. After all, there were a lot of families with solar-powered inverters. 

"Huff..." Taking a deep breath, Eldric summoned every ounce of courage and opened the window a crack. But the moment he did, a gust of freezing wind blasted into the room, making him shiver violently. But it wasn't just the cold that made him slam the window shut again—it was the sense of dread that came with it, an overwhelming feeling of being watched, of something malevolent lurking just beyond his sight. His heart pounded against his ribs, the fear now nearly overwhelming.

"What... what the hell is going on?" The more Eldric thought about it, the more it didn't make any sense. The first thought that came to his mind was that perhaps he was dreaming. But... Pinching himself, he immediately let out a painful cry.

"Not a dream."

For what felt like an eternity, he paced back and forth in his living room, trying to figure out what to do.

"Should I stay here to go outside to take a look?" The moment this thought came to his mind, Eldric couldn't stay still. He could stay inside, but sooner or later, he would have to go outside. He couldn't just stay here forever. 

"Screw it."

After a long, agonizing moment, he made up his mind. He couldn't just sit here and wait. Whatever was happening, he needed to find out.

Eldric grabbed a flashlight from the drawer and after a long hesitation picked up the kitchen knife too. He held them tightly as if clinging to his lifeline. 

"HUFF..." With a deep breath, he opened the front door. And the moment he did it, the cold hit him like a wall, seeping into his bones and making him want to retreat back into the warmth of his home. But he steeled himself. Gritting his teeth, he stepped outside onto the porch.

"This... This..."

Looking at the scenery in front of him, Eldric couldn't help but mumble. The darkness outside was like nothing he had ever seen before. Even the light from his flashlight seemed to struggle against it, the beam barely penetrating the inky blackness. The familiar sounds of the night—crickets chirping, leaves rustling in the wind—were gone, replaced by an eerie silence. The only thing that felt real was the cold ground beneath his feet, still visible in the weak light of the flashlight.

"Gulp." Even though he was afraid, Eldric still gritted his teeth and decided to move forward. He didn't know what was there in the darkness. Right now, he could only pray silently. Even though he was walking forward while constantly looking around, his body was ready to run back into the safety of his house at the slightest movement.

Step by step, Eldric followed the path in his mind, heading toward his nearest neighbor. This was one of the benefits of living in a small town at the base of a mountain range by the riverbank—everyone knew each other, and the community was close-knit. In this small community of less than four hundred people, there were only a handful of people that Eldric wasn't familiar with.

Minutes passed, each one feeling like an hour, until finally, he saw the faint outline of the next house. Similar to his house, the house in front of him was a two-story building with a yard full of wildflowers. The fading paint on the walls along with many spider webs pointed to the absence of constant care.

Taking a deep breath, Eldric stood in front of the door and raised his hand. He was about to knock but stopped mid-way. 

"Forget it." Shaking his head, he decided against knocking. Everything around him was engulfed in an eerie silence and making a loud noise was the last thing he wanted to do at this moment. 

Gritting his teeth, he twisted the doorknob and opened the door before entering it. Just like his house, the lights of this place were turned off too. Quickly finding the switch under the illumination of his flashlight, Eldric turned on the lights and looked at the scenery inside the house.

Inside, everything looked normal. The old couple who lived here had always treated him like a grandson, often cooking meals and desserts for him. But now, the house was silent, empty. 

"There's no one here too?" Muttering to himself, Eldric searched the rooms one by one. But to his dismay, there was no sign of the old couple. 

With every passing second, Edlric's anxiety spiked. The more he stayed in this silence, the more unease he felt. Gritting his teeth, he walked out of the house, not wanting to linger in the unsettling stillness.

"Go further or not?" Looking at the pitch-black scenery in front of him, it only took a moment for Eldric to make up his mind. 

"GO."

He needed to explore further. Staying in his house would be safe, but for how long? He had no idea how long this darkness would last, and waiting around wasn't an option. 

For the next fifteen minutes, Eldric went through two more houses. Just like the old couple's house, these two houses were deserted too. Other than that, the doors to both houses were unlocked and the lights were turned off.

After wandering around for a while, Eldric finally arrived at the small mall at the end of the street. This was the supermarket of this small town where you could find anything. Just like the other buildings, except for the lights outside, the lights inside were turned off.

"Should I take a look inside?" The moment this thought came to his mind, Eldric immediately shook his head.

"Absolutely not." Looking at the long hall covered in darkness, he didn't dare to venture inside. He had seen too many horror movies to know what could go wrong.

And just when he was struggling with his next course of action, something caught his eye.

At first, the scenery was blurry and Eldric thought he was hallucinating, but the more he looked the clearer the picture in front of him got. 

"What... what the hell?" Looking in front of him, Eldric almost cried in terror. His body froze and his breath almost stuck in his throat.

In front of him, about a hundred meters away, there, near the mall, stood a creature—a humanoid figure nearly twelve feet tall. Its body was a sickening shade of white, reflecting the light in an unnatural way. Its long arms nearly touched the ground and its face... It was twisted, and grotesque, with features that seemed neither male nor female. A wide, unsettling smile stretched across its face as it looked around, twisting its body in unnatural angles.

"What... what the hell!?"

Looking at the creature that bent down, and sniffed the ground like a predator on the hunt, Eldric's heart pounded so hard he thought it might burst from his chest. What was he seeing? Was this some kind of nightmare?

"Fuck." He quickly switched off his flashlight, praying the creature hadn't noticed him. The fear gripping him was unlike anything he'd ever felt before—pure, unadulterated terror.

Eldric didn't dare to run away or make any unnecessary moves. He didn't know what this thing was, and at the moment, he was in no mood to find out. The only thing he wanted to do at the moment was to go back to the safety of his house. For a moment, he was even beginning to regret for being too hasty. If not for him wanting to see the situation by himself, he wouldn't have been facing this situation.

Swallowing a mouthful of saliva, Eldric slowly began to back away, every nerve in his body screaming at him to run. But just as he took a few steps, the creature stopped, its head snapping up. It turned towards him, its eyes narrowing into slits, the twisted smile widening as it locked onto him. It was as if it was mocking him, taunting him. 

"FUUUCK."

Panic surged through Eldric, and he turned and ran as fast as he could back to his house. The darkness around him seemed to close in, but he forced himself to remember the way.

"Hehehehehehehehe...."

Eldric could hear the creature behind him, its footsteps slow and deliberate, each one accompanied by a creepy laugh. Its laugh was a thing of the nightmare. It was as if countless people were howling in agony and laughing at the same time. 

"Almost there."

After what felt like an eternity, Eldric finally saw his house. With his last ounce of strength, he jumped inside and slammed the door shut behind him. He dragged a table in front of the door, his breath coming in ragged gasps. His heart felt like it was going to explode. For a moment, he thought he was safe.

"Damn it... what was that thing? And what the hell is going on here?" Eldric could still feel the heart-palpating fear. Thinking about how he was being chased by a twelve-foot-long figure, his legs almost gave up.

"Huff...huff...huff"

Taking deep breaths, Eldric tried to calm his raging emotions. 

"Uh!?" The moment he calmed himself, Eldric sensed a movement outside his window. It was as if something was moving in the darkness.

Holding his breath, Eldric held the knife in his hands tightly and looked at the window. But the moment he did, a shiver ran through his body.

Outside his window was a giant grotesque face with a terrifying smile looking at him.

"He..."

"Hehe..."

"HEHEHHEHEHEHHEHEE..."