00:00I woke up hours later, disoriented and dead tired.
00:04The digital clock on my nightstand bled a harsh green glow through the dark.
00:082 a.m.
00:10I was half asleep, paralyzed by that heavy liminal fatigue where your limbs feel like lead.
00:17But then, cutting through the silence of the night, I heard the distinctive heavy clack of the front door unlocking,
00:25followed by the soft swing of the door and the solid click of it shutting.
00:30My dad was home.
00:32Relief washed over me, and I closed my heavy eyes, trying to sink back into sleep.
00:38Downstairs, I listened to his familiar footsteps pacing across the hardwood floor, slow, measured, deliberate.
00:47Then came the creak of the bottom stair and the heavy thud of his shoes ascending to the second floor.
00:53He walked right down the hallway, stopping dead outside my bedroom.
00:59A moment later, the door slowly groaned open, spilling a sliver of hallway darkness into my room.
01:07I was too tired to move, too tired to speak.
01:10I assumed he was just doing his usual routine, checking to make sure I was still breathing, still alive under
01:17the covers.
01:19Except the silence dragged on.
01:22Seconds ticked by.
01:245, 10, 15.
01:28The heavy stillness in the doorway felt suffocating.
01:32Driven by a sudden, uneasy itch at the back of my neck, I tiredly cracked one eye open.
01:39Standing in my doorway was a tall, unnaturally rigid silhouette.
01:44Because the house was pitch black, I couldn't make out a face.
01:48Only a towering, broad-shouldered outline cutting off the ambient light.
01:53He wasn't moving.
01:55He was just peering in, staring down at me with an intense, unblinking stillness that made my skin crawl.
02:03My dad never lingered like this.
02:05It felt predatory, like an animal studying its prey in the dead of night.
02:11Before my foggy brain could process the wrongness of it, the shadow shifted.
02:16He turned away, walking down the hall toward the master bedroom.
02:21But as he left, he didn't pull my bedroom door shut.
02:25He left it wide open, a gaping black mouth facing my bed.
02:30That single detail, the open door, shocked me completely awake.
02:35My heart did a violent, sickening somersault against my ribs.
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