Paulo felt his entire body freeze with fear as he forced himself to look outside again. His breathing was heavy, his heartbeat so loud that he could barely hear anything other than the pounding in his chest, which he was certain everyone else could hear too.

From the window, he could see the building's entrance, the flickering candlelight still faintly illuminating the inside of the guard booth. However, it was impossible to tell if the silhouette moving inside was Davi or not.

Before he could process what he was seeing, the screams came back—this time closer, almost beside him. The street, wrapped in dense, oppressive darkness, revealed a figure moving quickly, darker than the night itself, running toward the building's gate. Paulo had no time to react, just watching, frozen, as the thing launched itself toward the booth.

Davi's screams cut through the air—it was him—intense and shrill, the sound of pure terror and agony. Paulo heard something that sounded like paper being torn, followed by the dry sound of bones breaking, like thick, dry branches snapping in the forest, mixed with the cries of pain that seemed to last forever, though in reality, they had ended in just a few seconds.

The silence that followed was even more terrifying than the screams. The pounding started almost immediately after, a heavy and irregular sound, like something large and brutal trying to force its way through the building's main door. Paulo’s heart raced even faster. If he had agreed to do the guard shift with Davi, he’d be dead now. Shredded by whatever was outside.

The pounding continued for a few more moments, each hit echoing through the building, until a crash resonated through the walls. The sound of the lobby door being smashed and falling to the ground. Paulo barely had time to react. Panic took over, and he ran to the bedroom, grabbing any furniture he could to block the living room door. Desperation was evident in his movements. He knew the makeshift barrier might not hold, but it was his only chance.

As he dragged the furniture, the silence in the building was broken by growing chaos. Screams, hurried footsteps, the sound of doors being broken down—everything mixed into a horrifying noise.

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Paulo, in a panic, rushed to the living room door and pressed his eye against the peephole. The hallway was plunged into darkness, but he could make out figures moving. A dark, indistinct shape glided through the corridor, while the sound of doors being kicked in grew louder. Whatever had entered wasn’t alone.

That’s when he saw something that made his blood run cold.

His neighbor’s door opened slowly, revealing a woman, someone Paulo had only exchanged brief good mornings and good evenings with. She stepped into the hallway with a candle in her hand, her face illuminated by the trembling light, wearing an expression of someone who hadn’t yet grasped the horror she was about to face. She stood in the doorway for a few seconds, as if trying to understand what was happening around her.

Suddenly, the sound of heavy footsteps echoed through Paulo’s floor. Still peering through the peephole, he saw the dark figure at the end of the corridor. It was moving toward the stairs, but the movement was unnatural, too fast, too fluid, like it wasn’t entirely human. The weak light from the neighbor’s candle barely illuminated the figure, but enough for Paulo to make out something that would haunt his nightmares for the rest of his—likely short—life.

The creature stopped at the top of the stairs, its form still shrouded in shadows, but there was something in its posture, in the way it moved, that was predatory. Briefly, its glowing orange eyes flickered in the wavering light, staring directly at the neighbor.

She froze. What Paulo saw next was worse than any imagined terror: the creature moved with calm speed, as if sure its prey wouldn’t escape, crossing the corridor in seconds and grabbing the woman before she could make a sound. The candle dropped from her hand, extinguishing as it hit the floor, but not before showing in detail what the creature did to the poor neighbor, while her screams echoed throughout the building.

Paulo instinctively backed away from the peephole, panting, trembling. The sound of flesh being torn apart, the crack of bones breaking, was all he could hear now. The woman’s pain and terror were palpable, and Paulo knew there was nothing he could do. That thing... whatever it was, wasn’t from this world.

He threw himself against the furniture he had placed at the door, reinforcing the makeshift barricade with whatever strength he had left. Outside, the massacre continued. Doors shattered, muffled screams, and the eerie sounds of creatures moving through the building.

Paulo knew that sooner or later, it would be his turn. All he could do now was wait. The terror consumed him, but he knew he wouldn’t survive if he tried to flee from whatever was out there. The only thing left to do was to hide and hope that, somehow, the night would pass, and he would be left alone.

But deep down, he knew the night wouldn’t end anytime soon.