Chapter 3

I practically tripped over myself scrambling toward the AC vent.

With trembling fingers, I pulled the camera down and plugged it into my laptop.

"Come on... come on..."

I chewed on my fingernails, watching the progress bar slowly load.

The video file opened.

In night-vision mode, the footage took on an eerie, murky green hue.

I dragged the progress bar, skipping straight to 2:00 AM.

On screen, I was lying in bed, completely motionless.

The door was, in fact, pushed open.

I held my breath, staring intensely at the screen, not even daring to blink.

Who? Who the hell came in?

But the frame was completely empty.

No burglar breaking in, no sick stalker.

Only a heavily blurred dark silhouette hugging the floor, slinking into the room in a bizarrely contorted posture.

That shadow was way too short; it wasn't human at all!

Immediately after, the silhouette leaped up and bounded onto the bed.

It was Corvis. My black cat.

He padded over to my pillow, lowered his head, and sniffed my face.

Seeing this, I let out a massive sigh of relief, my taut nerves instantly going slack.

It was just the cat.

So the sinking of the mattress last night was just Corvis jumping up.

I was losing my mind. I'd practically scared myself to death over a cat.

I let out a self-deprecating laugh and reached to close the video.

But right before the mouse clicked out of it, my hand froze.

Wait.

Corvis only weighed ten pounds.

There was absolutely no physical way his tiny body jumping onto the bed could cause such a massive, widespread crater in a queen-size mattress!

I abruptly zoomed in on the footage.

The exact second Corvis walked up to my pillow, the screen suddenly began to flicker.

As if hit by some intense magnetic interference, the monitor erupted into violent bursts of static snow.

Bzzzt—

And right there, through the heavy layer of static, I caught a glimpse of a scene that froze the blood in my veins.

The mattress directly behind me was caving in. Deeply.

It was the weight of a full-grown man!

The comforter was peeled back by an invisible force, hovering suspended in mid-air.

And right at my waist, the fabric of my pajamas indented unnaturally—as if I was being fiercely seized by a massive, unseen hand!

No solid physical form.

Just the movement.

"Ah—!!!"

I shrieked and shoved the laptop away, collapsing onto the floor and scrambling desperately backward until my spine slammed against the cold wall.

A ghost.

There's a ghost.

There was an invisible ghost in this house!

Right at that exact moment, the phone on my desk aggressively buzzed to life.

It was a FaceTime call from Gideon.

Like a drowning woman grabbing a lifeline, I lunged forward and swiped to answer.

"Gideon! Help! There's something in the house! Something I can't see!" I bawled hysterically at the screen.

On the other end, Gideon was wearing a hotel bathrobe, the rainy streets of Portland visible through the window behind him.

"Nadia? What's wrong? Calm down!"

"It came back last night! It was in the bed! I caught it on camera!" I screamed incoherently.

Gideon's face instantly went pale. "Don't move! I’m booking the earliest flight back right now! Go somewhere crowded! Go wait for me at a coffee shop!"

I nodded frantically, snatching up my coat and turning to sprint out the door.

But the exact moment I pivoted.

I caught sight of the mirror in the entryway.

In the reflection, my neck was completely covered with dense, bruised-red hickeys.

And right behind me.

In the completely empty living room, the air seemed to ripple and distort for a split second.

That familiar, pungent stench of damp earth and raw metallic blood enveloped me once more.

"Nadia? Nadia, say something!" Gideon shouted anxiously through the speaker.

I opened my mouth, but couldn't force out a single sound.

Blackness swarmed my vision, and I lost consciousness completely.