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It’s 3 am and I saw it again, clawing at the wall across the street. Its screech drew me from sleep, ringing in my ears as if it screamed inside my head. It’s been ten nights and I am breaking at the seams! I cannot take this any longer. Why is it singling me out? No one else sees, let alone hears it. I asked. All I got were empty stares. I can tell they think I’m nuts. And maybe I am.

What is wrong with me?

I need to sleep! But each time I try, it shrieks in my ear again. It wants me awake. To torment me. To drive me mad. I will not let it win. I can not.

Tonight it ends, one way or another.

I took a meat cleaver from the kitchen and ran down the stairs, bursting into the street with a wild gleam in my eyes. Or so I assumed from the frightened looks I got from the few late-nighters who crossed my path. I must have made quite a sight with my red pajamas and unkempt hair, cursing and yelling at the creature on the wall as I wielded my butcher’s knife like a madman.

But I cared not. Let them think as they would.

I rushed to the building across the street and looked up at the black shape. It stared down at me and I could have sworn it laughed. Was it mocking me?

“Are you alright, sir?”

It was a man’s voice, from somewhere behind me.

Without looking back, I waved the cleaver above my head, pointing with it at the monster.

“Can you see it?” I screamed. “Can you see that thing? It won’t let me sleep. And it laughs at me now! I can’t stand this any longer. I will cut it to ribbons if it’s the last thing I do!”

The creature slithered across the brick wall, blotting out windows as it passed, never taking its yellow eyes off me.

“There is nothing there,” I heard the man’s voice claim.

Of course he would say that.

Liar!

I could see it. It was right there. With a grunt, I placed the blade between my teeth so my hands were free, then started climbing the wall.

“Sir! What are you doing?”

The voice had grown alarmed, but I ignored it as I made my way toward my nemesis.

It watched me for a moment, then hissed and dove through an open window on the third floor.

Oh no! It would not escape so easily. Not this time! I would hunt it down to the ends of the earth if I had to.

Not thinking of my own safety, I climbed from hold to hold—jutting brick to jutting brick—hurrying toward the offending window. Why was it open? Who had been so careless as to let the creature in?

I slipped through the opening into a dark room and found it standing there, waiting for me with its mocking smile. It had blood-tainted fangs that could rip a throat open in one bite. Its sickly gray skin was covered in scales and oozing slime that dripped to the floor. It had long and sharp nails that could pierce through stone as easily as if it were butter.

“What do you want from me?” I asked, only now noticing from the shape of its chest that the creature was female.

It opened its mouth, but all that came out of it was a blood-curdling screech... and then it leaped at me.

I slashed at the air and felt the blade dig into skin. Green ooze splattered all over me and the walls and the floor and the ceiling... I screamed as I slashed again and again and again.

Exhausted, I fell to the ground and closed my eyes.

I felt a hand caressing my cheek and lips pressing against my ear.

“Thank you.”

It was a woman’s voice, and it was filled with sorrow.

Then the hand slipped away and I was alone.

When I woke, I found myself covered in blood. A woman in a nightgown lay dead on the floor, guts spilling out of her ripped-open chest. My cleaver was there, next to her, soaked in red.

I heard sirens in the distance as I got to my feet and stumbled out of the room. A door was left ajar, heading into the hall. I went for it and hurried to the staircase.

My thoughts were fuzzy as I made my way down, though I no longer heard the screech in my head and was thankful for it.

Hearing footsteps ahead of me, I froze. A young boy appeared, climbing the steps two by two. He merrily went past me as if he couldn’t see me.

I frowned and looked down at my hands. They were bloody and covered with thick black crusts. The things were all over my skin, I realized with a start. I scratched my chest and some of it came off. Green slime oozed from the wound.

No, no, no, no...

This was a nightmare! It had to be.

I ran down into the streets. The police had arrived and a crowd had gathered around the building, but no one saw me.

What was going on?

Desperate, I rushed back to my apartment and looked into a mirror. My hair had fallen off, and the crusts had turned to black scales that covered my now ash-gray skin. My teeth were now fangs and my nails had sharpened like razors.

I had become my nightmare.

And, deep inside, I knew what I needed to do. The only thing I could do to shed this monstrous new skin.

I needed to feed.

Again and again.

Until someone did the right thing.

It sickened me to think of what I must do.

And yet, at the same time...

I felt a hunger like I’d never felt before.

A hunger for flesh.

Human flesh.

I climbed out my window and screamed at the top of my lungs.

But my scream came out as a screech.

Somewhere nearby, my prey woke in terror.

If you like my writing, please consider buying a copy of my novel, upgrading to a paid subscription, or making a Paypal or Ko-fi donation. As an independent author, any of these would help a lot!

I don’t often write dark fantasy—let alone horror—but if you want to see some other stuff I’ve released in these genres, here are a few leads:

• ​Within These Walls (a couple takes refuge in a creepy old house)
• ​The Bank of Bones (black humor about a haunted house)
• ​The Creature in the Cabin (a professional tries to ‘cure’ a nightmare)

If you enjoyed this story, please feel free to forward it to your friends or to share it on social media.

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Thank you!

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Text (c) 2025 by Alex S. Garcia.

Header: royalty-free stock images, edited by me.

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[LIKE] - [COMMENT] - [SHARE] NOTE: these links point to Substack!