The flicker of the television was the only source of light in Sarah’s otherwise darkened apartment. She sat curled up on the worn couch, a blanket draped over her legs, trying to drown out the memories with mindless reruns. Outside, the night was quiet, save for the occasional hum of a passing car or the soft whistle of wind through the gaps in her windows.

She had learned to live with the quiet. It was the silence that unnerved her, the way it crept in and brought with it memories she would rather forget—memories that clawed at her from the corners of her mind. The cemetery. The fog. The Crawler.

A decade ago, Sarah had been sick. She had been blind, frail, a girl whose parents had done anything to save her, even when modern medicine had failed. That was how he had come into her life. They’d never spoken of it directly afterward, but she remembered the day they had taken her to that old woman, the one who promised healing. The one who spoke of other places, of worlds that bled into ours, of nightmares that could be bargained with for a price.

And the price had been her sight.

Or so she had thought. But the moment she could see again, she had seen him—the Crawler. The figure that haunted her dreams and, later, her waking life. She didn’t know what her parents had traded to bring him into their world, but she had been bound to him ever since, haunted by his twisted smile, his cold whispers. And no matter how much time passed, he always seemed to find his way back to her.

Sarah sighed and pulled the blanket tighter around her shoulders, trying to focus on the dull glow of the TV. She had spent the past ten years pretending that her life was normal, that the faces in the fog, the whispers in the wind, and the things hiding in the shadows were all just the remnants of a childhood trauma. But it wasn’t that simple. It never was.

The TV flickered. Just for a second. The screen went black and then returned to the rerun she had been watching. Sarah’s hand froze halfway to the remote, her pulse quickening. Maybe it’s just the signal, she thought, trying to shake the unease that prickled along her skin.

And then it happened again.

The screen cut to black for a longer moment this time, a split second of silence filling the room before the low hum of static filled the air. White noise buzzed through the speakers, and the screen filled with swirling static. Sarah frowned, reaching for the remote to turn it off, but her hand froze again as the static began to shift.

At first, it was just random shapes, flickering in and out like any normal interference. But then the patterns became more distinct, more deliberate. Slowly, the chaotic static began to form… a face.

The outline was rough, broken by the fuzz of the screen, but the features were unmistakable. Hollow eyes. A jagged, too-wide smile.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

The Crawler.

Sarah’s blood ran cold as she stared at the screen, her breath caught in her throat. It wasn’t possible. The TV shouldn’t have been able to show that. But there he was, his face staring back at her from the static, the grin that had haunted her for years stretching impossibly wide.

Her hands trembled, the remote slipping from her grip and falling to the floor with a soft thud. The sound seemed distant, muted, as though she were underwater. All she could focus on was the face in the static, the hollow eyes that seemed to bore into her soul, as if they could see every fear, every doubt, every secret she had tried to bury.

The speakers crackled, and then his voice came—low, distorted, as if it were being pulled through layers of static.

“Sarah…” The voice dragged out her name, cold and mocking, the sound of it crawling under her skin. “You can’t hide from me.”

Her heart raced, the memories flooding back in sharp, painful bursts. The nightmares. The whispers. The day she had first seen him, when her parents had begged for a miracle and gotten something far worse. Something they hadn’t understood.

She stumbled off the couch, her legs shaky beneath her as she backed away from the TV, her eyes wide with fear. She wanted to scream, but the sound was caught in her throat, trapped by the growing terror that paralyzed her.

The static flickered again, and the face shifted, its hollow eyes narrowing. “I’m coming for you,” the Crawler whispered, his voice filled with a cruel promise. “You knew this day would come.”

Sarah’s back hit the wall, her breath ragged as she slid down to the floor, her eyes still locked on the screen. She couldn’t tear her gaze away, even as every instinct screamed at her to run, to leave, to get as far away from the TV as possible. But she knew it wouldn’t matter. It never had.

She had been ten years old when she first encountered the Crawler, a scared little girl who thought she had been saved by a miracle. She hadn’t understood then what had been unleashed into her world, into her life. Her parents had traded something—something they had never told her—and in return, the Crawler had taken up residence in the shadows of her existence. Always watching. Always waiting.

And now, after ten long years, he was coming for her.

The face in the static twisted, the grin widening, stretching into something grotesque, something inhuman. The TV screen buzzed louder, the static crackling with intensity as the figure seemed to push closer, as if trying to break through the glass and pull her into whatever darkness waited on the other side.

“I’ve waited so long, Sarah,” the voice rasped, each word dripping with malice. “It’s time.”

Sarah’s vision blurred, her pulse pounding in her ears as panic clawed at her chest. She reached blindly for the remote, her fingers scrambling across the floor until she found it. Her hand shook violently as she pointed it at the screen and pressed the power button.

The screen went black.

The room was plunged into darkness, the only sound her labored breathing and the distant hum of the wind outside. For a moment, everything was still. Silent. But the feeling of dread didn’t leave her. The air in the room felt too heavy, too thick, like the very walls were closing in on her.

And then she heard it.

A soft whisper. Not from the TV, but from behind her.

“Sarah…”

Her blood turned to ice as she slowly turned her head, her eyes scanning the darkness of the room behind her. But there was nothing there. Just shadows. Empty, shifting shadows.

But she knew better.

He was here.

The Crawler had finally come.

And there was nowhere left to run.