I stepped back to admire my work. Black mountains against a blue and red background. The white moon hanging above the landscape pulled the entire painting together.

Usually, I would sell my works and make a good amount of money off them, but I decided to hold back on that one. It'd been a while since I actually kept one of my pieces.

Taking the painting off the easel, I brought it to my bedroom, placing it against the wall to hang later. The room was definitely not what one would expect from an artist. Plain white walls and boring solid colors thrown about the room, it looked like a teenager couldn't decide on a specific theme for their personal space, so they just went with all of them. I had planned on actually decorating my house, but putting the time and supplies into painting my walls wasn't really worth it, especially if I would end up moving away for some reason. The most colorful that I'd get was that landscape painting.

A thud from behind me caught my attention. I turned around, but nothing seemed to have changed. Nothing was knocked over or shifted, so I assumed it to be pipes, or the house settling.

~~~

Putting on my pajamas, I climbed into bed. Rain pounded against my windows, lightning illuminating the room for seconds at a time. Something about those moment sent me back to my childhood. Back in the day when I would hug a stuffed animal and will the ghosts away; when it was reasonable to be afraid of the dark because my imagination was way out of control.

Just as those memories arose, I felt an unbearable dread fall on my shoulders, as if the monsters under my bed could hear my thoughts and were growing stronger as I remembered more.

Just for the hell of it, or maybe to calm my nerves, I leaned over to glance beneath my bed.

Nothing. Of course.

However, sitting straight up again, lightning struck, causing my room to brighten for a few moments. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw something hunched over in the shadows. Thin and bony, almost human-like. I saw it for only a moment, but the sight had been burned into my mind.

Holy - no. What are you, a child? Get over yourself. It was just a shadow.

With a deep breath in, I laid down.

~~~

The storm didn't calm for the next few hours, and though I reassured myself that I had no reason to be nervous, something in the back of my mind kept reminding me of that hallucination. As if I was trying to convince myself to leave and go somewhere safe. As if I wasn't safe in the first place.

I knew that I wouldn't get to any sleep that night. Forcing myself out of bed, I made my way back to my paint supplies in my art room. With everything set up already, I began to paint what I saw before bed. Every little detail was so vivid, I barely had to stop and think about it. I didn't want to.

Red eyes, leathery skin, bones protruding, long, taloned fingers that could slice off one of my limbs with ease. The background was simply black with red splotches.

By the time I finished, light poured into the room, but I wasn't even tired.

I need some coffee.