It was 3 am in the morning. Clarice woke up, all sweaty and feeling a little under the weather.
She always had trouble sleeping, even as a child she would always wake up early and be restless for the rest of the night.
She walks to the bedroom window of her small apartment and looked outside at the moonlit concrete and glass buildings that tried to touch the stars. Suddenly there's a loud click, originating from her Zippo lighter while she puts a cigarette in her mouth. She always had a pack of smokes in her nightstand. The smell of cigarette smoke calmed her, the nicotine helped her relax and could help her to find her sleep again.
After her smoke she lays down in her bed, and after 30 minutes of staring at the ceiling, she finally slumbers.
It's 4:30 am now... the sound of glass smashing tore Clarice out of her sleep. It sounded like it came from downstairs. Could it be a stray cat knocking over the trashcans again? Clarice rolled her eyes and put a t-shirt on. She had no more plans to sleep tonight. She'll just have an extremely long breakfast. Even though she suspected it to be some animal that knocked over something, she felt unnerved. She lights up another cigarette and opens the door slowly. Barefooted she started walking towards the small staircase. The floor felt colder than it used to, and for just a moment she could feel a shiver crawling up her spine. Was she getting a fever?
Slowly walking down the staircase, she entered the kitchen and she flicked on the light. She doused her cigarette in the ashtray that was on the kitchen table. She was going to check outside, to see if the ruckus originated from outside her door. As she stepped towards the door, she felt a painful sting in her left foot followed by gristling cracks. She immediately awoke from her drowsy state and looked at her foot. It was bleeding.
She had glass fragments sticking in her foot. It was an agonizing and burning feeling. She sat down on a chair at the kitchen table, cleaning her foot and disinfecting the wound. A cooking pot fell on the ground... it startled her and she looked at the source of the sound. After a few minutes of uncomfortable silence and staring at the cooking fire where the cooking pot stood on, she decided to pick up the cooking pot and put it back.
When she put the cooking pot back on its original place she could hear a faint murmur coming from the kitchen wall to which the cooking fire was attached to. Being both unnerved and curious she listened more carefully. The murmurs were still incomprehensible but they got louder. She put her ear against the wall and she could finally hear the whispers.
"Why did you come down? You should have stayed in bed. Now... we can't let you go..."
"You must become... one of us now..."
Quickly withdrawing her ear from the wall, she backed away a little.
Was she so exhausted she was hearing things? She didn't really feel that tired.
The light in the kitchen started to flicker on and off. The intervals between light and darkness growing bigger.
Until the light stayed on for a few seconds and then the bulb bursted.
During the bright but short flash of light, Clarice saw a boney black claw coming out the wall, the wall was devoid of all color and she could only see numerous mouths gritting their teeth and snarling at her, the wall had a flesh like structure. It seemed to be built of out flesh and bones and teeth. Maws filled with teeth. She only caught a short glimpse but she could see they were human teeth.
Clarice tried to scream but she felt a cold grasp taking hold of her face and drag her towards the wall..
" One of us now..."
Then it got dark; all she heard was the sound of meat being torn and lips smacking followed by slurping..
And that same burning, agonizing feeling all over her body...
Clarice woke up all sweaty and feeling a bit under the weather... It was only a dream. As a child, she would wake up early due to such dreams. She decide to have a smoke to calm down a bit. After taking a deep drag she looked at her alarm clock to see what time it was.
It was 3 am.
She heard glass shattering....
The sound came from downstairs.