"I hope these thoughts are dying." She forced her mind to quiet down by submerging herself in the bathtub. Letting the water wipe clean her sick mind which clung to her life as dark as the deepest ocean. It was just sharp two in the morning as the wall clock rang the bell. Whenever she closed her eyes, her eyelids were shuddering, too afraid to close it.

When her lung screamed for air, she lifted her head up and removed the stopper to let the water drained when the water was too cold for her liking. She stood up on the bathtub as careful as ever after her hand slipped off the rim of the bathtub. By turned on the shower faucet, she let the water from shower head hit her shoulder and glided down passing through the scars on her wrist before trickled down. She had lost count on the scars, but she was certain yesterday was not the last attempt to suicide. The heavy bag under the eyes was vividly clear under the reflection of the polished tiles on the wall. Wondering what worst yet to come. Until one of these days, she had used to it.

One thing she didn’t know, tonight was different. As she pushed her hair back using her fingers, the light flicked. Gazing up, her eyes blinked together with the flicked light. She thought by waiting, the light will fix by itself, or the life will fix as the time passed. But the light turned dark on her, and a loud pop made her flinched. The hands shrunk to the chest, the head sank under her shoulder, staring at the ceiling.

What is happening now?

Between the bathtub and the door, a tiny electric sparked in the air. The buzzed sound was loud in the soundless night. She reeled back while the water streamed down directly from the showerhead—hit the top of her head. When the electric current was as big as a basketball, the buzzed sound was louder like a misfired firecracker exploded just right beside her ears. The creeping feared wrapped her body in goose bump. She desperately wanted to scream for help, but the throat was too afraid to let out a single voice. She leaned against the wall and set her eyes to the electric orb.

In a split second, the electric orb sucked by darkness at the orb centre, or maybe it transformed into a black orb. And everything disappeared right after a loud Zap...It was silent for a moment, black, cold, and the scent of burnt rubber filling the room—it could be from a cable.

An electric struck, lit up the whole room, running down from the ceiling before pierced to the floor. The tiles definitely cracked, judged by the ear-piercing sound of clack. She looked at the tiles, wondering her expenses on this month, or perhaps, curious about what could have broken the tiles. But her attention was caught by a foot, black in color. She pushed her chin up, slowly, with the eyes scanned on the shadow, stood right in the middle of the bathroom. As soon as she met the eyes of the shadow, the crimson eyes of it shot a fit of anger to her. As in the rage wanted to devour her consciousness, alive. Because of the limited height in the bathroom, the shadow needed to bent on the shoulder and she felt it was nearer when the head stooped at her. Every time the shadow exhaled, she could feel the coldness ran down her face, as cold as an ice.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

"W...Who are you," she stuttered. "What do you want?"

But it never said a word and turned to the window, and she followed with the cheeks were trembling, turned to her left. The moon was round and shined brightly at the night sky. Like the old saying, when the moon is up, everyone needs to stay indoors to be safe. As it is the best time for the predator to hunt its prey when everyone is asleep. But not for her, she wasn’t safe wherever and whenever she went. The thick wall didn’t separate her from threats. And the door didn’t do its work, locked the danger away. As the shadow would hunt her like a skin-and-bone bear after the winter ended. She sidled a foot at a time, quietly and as slow as she could, tried to reach for her mobile on top of the granite countertop, she thought it never looked at her.

One more foot…

In the speed of light, the eyes shifted back to her, and the hand swung up, pointing at her. The electric current reacted together with the motion, fired and crawled all over its body. She was jerked by the swift movement, her legs caught by the bubble from the soap, and she fell down.

Bang, her eyes turned wide and white, her heart stopped pumping, and the edge of the bathtub cracked. The water from the showerhead hit her face, splashed her colorless face, and washed the blood down from the back of her head. The shadow put down the hand, and immediately, it swung the head to the right and set the eyes wide—in blood red. Swoosh, it was gone, and the bathroom turned black.

***

My eyes bugged out, jerked up from the bed and the throat was making some weird noise as I breathed hard and fast. My mind constantly warned me, you have to pump the heart quick to stay alive. With a hand pressed on the chest, my heartbeat slow down after a while.

Am I dreaming?

I took a glance at my room while gasping; everything was at it-designated place. Nothing stirred and the clock on the wall just showed fifteen past two in the morning. A droplet of water dripped from my chin to the thigh. I looked down, and my jaw dropped.

Water...

Why my pajamas were wet? Why my body was damp? I quickly jumped to the wooden floor, switched on the table light beside the bed, and turned to the bed. The bed was damped, I tossed the blanket to a side and took a step backwards upon stumbled on the whole bed was soaked with water. I knew it won’t be my sweat as it was impossible for human to sweat this much. The ticking sound from the water dripping down from my pajamas filled the silence as I stood still beside my bed. With the mind blank, I brushed a strand of wet hair back from my frowning forehead.

I'm not dreaming, am I?