“I have a secret…” whispered Nina, her voice barely audible, but the darkness around her seemed to listen intently. Her friend, Mira, leaned closer, a curious smile on her face as they sat under the eerie glow of a single streetlight on the empty road.
“Don’t joke, Nina. What secret could possibly be so frightening?” Mira said, laughing it off.
Nina’s expression didn’t change, her face stone-cold serious. She took a deep breath, glancing around as if she feared someone—or something—might be listening. “There’s something living in my house… in the walls.”
The laughter faded from Mira’s face. “What do you mean, something?”
Nina shivered, her eyes filled with a mixture of fear and despair. “It started a few months ago. At night, when everything’s silent, I’d hear scratching. It sounded like someone was running their nails along the inside of my walls.”
Mira’s eyes widened, a chill running down her spine. “Did you tell your parents?”
“They didn’t believe me. They said it was just the pipes or maybe a rat. But I knew it was something else… something alive.”
Over the next few nights, Nina told Mira, the scratching had turned into soft whispers, almost like voices muffled behind a thin veil. She couldn’t understand the words, but the voices grew louder each night, as if they were creeping closer, inching toward her.
One night, when she couldn’t take it anymore, Nina decided to confront whatever lurked within her walls. Armed with a flashlight, she stood in her room, alone, in the dead of night. Her fingers trembled as she tapped on the wall, whispering, “Who are you?”
To her horror, the tapping was answered… from the other side.
“And then,” Nina whispered, her voice barely audible, “a faint, raspy voice answered, ‘I’m waiting for you, Nina.’”
Mira gasped, goosebumps crawling up her arms. “That’s impossible! What did you do?”
“I ran,” Nina replied, shuddering. “But every night since then, the voice keeps calling my name… and each night, it sounds closer.”
At that moment, a shadow moved in the corner of their vision, and both girls turned, their hearts pounding. But the street was empty.
“Do you still hear it?” Mira asked, her voice barely above a whisper.
Nina nodded, her eyes distant. “Yes. Even now… I think it followed me here.”
Suddenly, they both heard a faint, raspy whisper: “Nina…”
Their screams echoed down the empty street as they ran, the darkness closing in around them.
As Nina and Mira ran down the dark street, the whisper grew louder, echoing in their ears like a sinister lullaby that wrapped around them, chilling them to the bone. They didn’t stop until they reached Mira’s house, slamming the door behind them as if that could keep the thing at bay. They huddled together in Mira’s room, catching their breath, both of them trembling.
Mira grabbed her phone and insisted on calling Nina’s parents, but Nina stopped her. “They won’t believe us,” she whispered. “They’ll think I’m making it up again.”
“But something’s really after you, Nina!” Mira said, her voice shaking.
Just as Mira was about to dial the number anyway, a loud thud came from the window. They both froze. Slowly, they turned to see a shadowy figure standing just outside, its eyes glowing faintly in the dark. It was pressed so close to the glass that they could make out its thin, skeletal face, grinning with hollow, empty eyes that seemed to stare right into their souls.
Nina backed away, horrified. “How did it find me here?”
The creature tapped on the glass, each tap slow and deliberate. Then, in that same raspy voice, it whispered, “You can’t hide, Nina… I’m already inside.”
With a shudder, Nina realized what it meant. The creature hadn’t followed her to Mira’s house—she had brought it with her. It was in her mind, her soul, something that had attached itself to her.
In a final act of desperation, Mira grabbed a flashlight and aimed it at the window, but the light revealed nothing. The figure had vanished, as if it had never been there.
They spent the night wide awake, praying for daylight. But as dawn broke, Nina knew that it was only a matter of time. Whatever had found her would always be there, lurking just out of sight, waiting.
In the days that followed, Mira checked on Nina constantly, but Nina’s eyes grew more haunted, the shadows deeper. Sometimes, Mira would catch her staring off into the distance, as if listening to something only she could hear.
And then, one day, Nina disappeared. Her parents thought she had run away, but Mira knew better. Somewhere, deep within the silence of her own walls, she could swear she still heard faint, raspy whispers calling out her friend’s name.
No one ever saw Nina again… but every now and then, when the night was especially quiet, Mira thought she could hear that terrible voice, whispering her name this time, as if it was seeking a new host.