Will backed away, eyes no longer on the dark hair in the bed but on the camera. A sound drifted to him, and it wasn’t

drip drip

but the creak of a floorboard. He had no time to turn. Something hard cracked across the back of his head, and pain exploded in his skull. He fell to the floor. And pictures came to his mind.

Pictures of red lights. In the entranceway, in the living room under construction, in the kitchen, in the upstairs hallway.

And he saw now the black hair on the pillow slither, and the lump rise.

THE END

He had to do something. He had to walk to her. He had to see if he could rouse her.

He had to move.

He stepped forward, heart pounding over the

drip drip

from the bathroom. He took another step, eyes on the limp black hair lying over the pillow. In the corner of his eye he saw an unnatural red light, so like the red light in the hall. So like something he had seen in another corner of the house.

He glanced up. A camera sat on a tripod by the windows, little red light signaling a recording.

Will rounded the corner of the doorway. He could barely see in the fading sunlight that crept through the windows. But he saw a shape in the bed, a mound beneath the blankets. He stepped closer, until he could see dark hair on the pillow. Eva’s hair.

She wasn’t moving.

He couldn’t even tell if she was breathing.

He should have said her name, but the word stuck in his throat, and he didn’t want to call out to her. He had called earlier and she hadn’t answered. She only laid there, a lump like a tumor on the mattress.

Rustle rustle

came a sound from behind him. He spun around, nearly tripping over his feet. But nothing was there. He listened closely and heard again

Rustle

from the bedroom. He left behind the still-dark

drip drip

bathroom and stepped further into the hallway. An unnatural light in the corner of his eye sought his attention – a small red light near the ceiling at the end of the hall – but he was focused on the doorway to the bedroom. He strained to hear any further sound, but he could only hear the

drip drip

fading away behind him.

Will turned at the smeared painting, and looked down the hallway. Save for a dim light that spilled from the bedroom, the space was black as pitch.

He would just check the rooms, quickly and quietly, and leave. The bathroom on the left, bedroom on the right, closet straight ahead. Then out the door.

He stepped forward, and noticed

drip drip

A dripping from the bathroom. As he drew closer he heard

drip drip

it louder and clearer. But when Will got to the doorway the bathroom was in shadows. He reached in, hand shaking, to feel for the lightswitch.