Story 1235: They Watch You Sleep

Mara had learned to sleep with one eye open.

You had to, in Black Hollow Orphanage—the derelict mansion that once cared for war orphans, now barely holding back the rot of time. The survivors had turned it into a makeshift shelter, claiming its thick stone walls could keep the infected out. But Mara knew better.

It wasn’t the outside she feared. It was what lived inside.

Each night, when the candles burned low and the group slipped into restless sleep, the whispers would start. Not from mouths. From the walls. From the vents. From under the floorboards.

And always, the same phrase:

"We see you."

Tonight, she pretended again. Curled in her sleeping bag between the decaying bunk beds, she kept her breath slow, shallow, like a child faking sleep to avoid a nightmare.

Only this time, the nightmare wasn’t waiting.

It was watching.

The dormitory door creaked open.

Her heart pounded.