A cold autumn wind whistled through the broken window pane, making Alex shudder. He glanced outside at the dark dead-looking trees swaying ominously in the night sky. Another dreary Saturday night alone trying futilely to study by the pale yellow light of the solitary desk lamp in his cramped bedroom.

Alex sighed, feeling the familiar heaviness in his chest as his gaze landed back on the open textbook. The words blurred together meaninglessly before his tired eyes. What was the point anymore? At 25, chronically unemployed and friendless, he knew he’d fail yet another professional exam just like he had failed at everything else in life...

Leaning back, Alex ran his hand over the rough stubble on his chin, feeling suddenly angry at himself. All the freedom, hopes and dreams he had sacrificed over the years trying to please his controlling parents - it had all been for nothing. No job he hated after earning a degree he never wanted. No shallow friendships from skipped college parties. No clingy girlfriend looking to “tie him down.”

And yet in many ways, Alex still felt chained down - trapped in this rundown, lonely house playing a role he never asked for: the perfect studious son. Ha! More like the family disappointment - an aimless loser staying locked away in his room every Saturday night all alone pretending to study while kids his age were out enjoying their 20s...

A heavy despair pressed down on Alex's slumped shoulders as his eyes drifted over to the small framed photo of his parents on the dresser collecting dust. The glass was cracked but he could still make out his mom’s pursed lips and his dad’s furrowed brows glaring back under the dim light, scornful and ashamed to have such a failure for a son.

Alex's hands balled up into fists so tight he could feel his nails biting painfully into his palms. Why had he let them bulldoze him all these years into being someone he wasn't? If only he'd found the courage to stand up for himself instead of just swallowing down all the mounting anger and resentment. But now what future did he have but more isolation and regret? It was all too late to…

A sudden deafening thud echoed from the front of the house, stirring Alex from his spiraling despair. He held his breath anxiously as an uncomfortable prickling sensation spread across his neck. Only his parents had keys to get inside and their car had left the driveway hours ago. No one ever came over here, especially on a late weekend night. Why would there be ominous noises now?

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Hesitantly, Alex rose and crept out of his bedroom, the flickering hallway light exaggerating all the familiar, strange shadows of the house. Nervously swallowing down the knot in his throat, Alex silently made his way down the narrow stairwell towards the foyer. His heart pounding aggressively as he steadied himself at the front door to peer out.

“Hello?” Alex hesitantly called out. Only eery silence echoed back from the dark empty foyer in a house where laughter and joy had never taken up residence. Alex clenched his fists, mustering the courage to reach out for the door handle despite the sickening hollow feeling in his gut.

As soon as the door creaked open, a hooded shadowy figure suddenly leapt at him through the darkness wielding a glinting ceremonial dagger. Before Alex could even process what was happening, he found himself pinned down, his attacker's knees crushing his chest.

The blade plunged rapidly into Alex's cheek, tearing through flesh and bone as dark blood poured from the deep expanding gashes now crossing his face. The pain was otherworldly, white hot lacerations spreading in quick succession over his convulsing body.

Alex's mouth desperately tried to form cries for help, but only garbled whimpers emerged amidst the endless waves of piercing agony swarming his nerves. This monster hacking away at him seemed impervious to the panicked pleas detectable in Alex's choked gurgling cries echoing faintly through the darkness...

Alex drifted in and out of consciousness, clinging to threads of life even as crimson pooled thicker around his mutilated, convulsing body. He could feel cold numbness spreading through each limb like slow creeping poison.

Summoning the last of his fleeting strength, Alex forced open his one eye. He wanted to etched into memory the face of the hooded demon who had entered his home just to savagely extinguish any flicker of potential left.

As Alex’s blurry gaze struggled to make out features of his killer leering above, the assailant drove the ceremonial dagger fully into his throat while relishing one last gurgling cry. Alex felt himself choking, drowning from within on thick hot blood.

His desperate lungs gasped violently for air that wouldn't come. As the room went black, Alex’s mind drifted somewhere far away - to a place he’d never dared travel within imagination. Faint echoes of laughter warmed him as the last hints of color and sound faded to empty silent darkness. His broken form stilled at last.

Alex was no more...This bleak house now only a tomb entombing his unrealized dreams.