///Image is a very bad sketch of the creature.

Kitty crept down the steps with a reasonable semblance of stealth, given the traitorously creaky stairs, and wove her way silently through the gloom. The creature glided circuitously through the maze of forgotten belongings, and Kitty did her best to follow while she racked her brain for a way to lure the thing back through the tear. She supposed she could use herself as bait and lure it through the hole, but then what? The beast was unnaturally fast, there was no way she could escape back to her side before it caught her. And besides, how would she seal the tear?

Kitty still had no idea why or how it had opened, and, she realized, unless she could figure it out fast, sooner or later the thing would spot her. Kitty didn't know what would happen then, but she had no intention of finding out!

I'll start at the source, she decided, breaking off her pursuit and tiptoeing toward the tear. As she drew closer, Kitty could hear bestial noises; screams and laughter and what may have been speech. The air became cold and hot all at once, and Kitty glimpsed a land straight out of her nightmares.

The ragged edges of the tear rippled softly in the acrid breeze. Dead trees wandered aimlessly across a barren landscape scattered with bonfires, around which shadowy, monstrous figures waltzed in and out of sight. Creatures lurked in the darkness, prowling in rabid packs. Kitty shuddered, and dragged her eyes from the scene with difficulty, instead searching her side for anything out of the ordinary. In just seconds, she found it.

The silver leaves she had found earlier were touching, and where they met, waves of darkness were rolling off the red-hot metal!

Thump. Thump. Thump.

Kitty turned to see her intruder had changed course, and was moving rapidly toward the tear— and her!

She lunged underneath her workstation, and watched in fascination as the thing slipped through the tear and disappeared into the blackness. Kitty leapt up, almost whacking her head on the table above her, and ripped the leaves apart, heedless of the nearly molten metal. Instantly, the darkness began to retreat.

Kitty stared in fascination as the hole wove itself back together, and was gone. Suddenly, she was more tired than she ever remembered being in her entire life. She grabbed one of the leaves, this time with more caution. If they could create a portal like that just by touching, she didn't want them anywhere near each other!

Trudging back up the stairs, Kitty took a closer look at the single leaf in her palm. It sat there innocently, glinting softly in the moonlight. She bolted the basement door behind her, and quickly made her way up to her bedroom. She set the leaf on her windowsill, and slid into bed. Despite her exhaustion, she could not sleep. She just sat, hugging her knees and thinking. She had never been so creeped out in her life!

I could have died! She realized. That thing could have killed me, and no one would ever have known what happened! And what was that place? Why did the leaf take me to a perfect world earlier, and send a nightmare into my house now!?!

There must some pattern to it. But what? The time of day? The parts of the leaves that touch? Kitty tossed and turned, but didn't drift off. She kept on hearing things that weren't there, seeing things that didn't really exist. Eventually, just as the sky was beginning to lighten and the stars were winking out, she fell into an uneasy slumber.

///Aaand... scary chapter over. The next one will be a lot lighter! Also, I need a permanent name for the creature's species. If anyone has an idea, please feel free to comment it! I hope you enjoyed!