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It was morning.

Not the kind of morning that drags in sluggish and gray, but one of those bright, piercing mornings where the world feels unnervingly sharp. The sun was high, its light pouring in through my window, warm and golden, pressing against every surface of the room like a spotlight.

Which is why I saw him.

A figure in the doorway.

He should not have been there.

He should not have existed.

A man—but not a man. A shape—but not a shadow. His form swallowed the light, not bending with it, not casting it, but devouring it. A void in the shape of a person, standing in stark contrast to the morning brightness around him.

For a split second, we stared at each other.

I could feel my mind rejecting what I was seeing. There was no place for this thing in a world so drenched in sunlight. He belonged to the places between, the unseen corners, the half-lit voids of night—not here. Not now.

Then—

The door slammed.

Hard. Violent. The frame shuddered, the sound cracking through the morning air like a splintering bone. I jolted upright, but before I could even process movement—

He ran.

The heavy thud of footsteps down the hall, the weight of something that should not have mass colliding with the floor. The hallway, so blindingly bright, swallowed him just as he had swallowed the light, his form twisting as he vanished beyond the corner.

I threw myself forward, hands grasping at the door handle, yanking it open—

But the hallway was empty.

Silent.

Nothing but the golden haze of morning sunlight streaming through the windows.

No shadow. No sign of the thing that had just been there.

But the air still hummed with something unnatural, something wrong.

And I knew, without a doubt—

He would be back.