Complete and utter Blackness. The nothingness about her seems to pulse with every step she takes further into the room. The last step on the staircase lets loose a deafening creak, akin to a scream in the the darkness. She jolts, in a fleeting moment of panic, at the unexpected sound and then all returns to that maddening silence.

She freezes for a moment. Green eyes scanning what she can barely see, objects warped by the shadows.

The whole house seems to be glaring at her. That all too familiar feeling of icy cold eyes boring holes into you until you banish them with a flick of the light-switch.

Light pours into the room from the bulbs upon the ceiling accompanied by deep brown fan blades beginning to spin. A tan couch stands proudly, pressed against the white wall. A red blanket, sparsely patterned save for a deeper shade of red, blood swirling amidst the vermilion cotton weave. The fireplace remains unlit, but filled with the charred remains of wooden logs, their grim purpose fulfilled.

A single chair sits closest to the cold, unused fireplace. Not elegant or even drab but laying somewhere in-between the two. The soft recliner's fabrics and design had a simple beauty that drew your eye more than the opulent couch or magnificently crafted stone fireplace.

Strawberry blonde hair hanging just below her shoulder blades swayed with her swift movements as she scanned the room. The carpet lay, delicately soft, beneath her bared feet. Deep blue pajama shorts reached just above her knees and rose to meet with a tye dyed T-shirt. The same deep blue of the shorts swirling and dancing with another blue, the color of a clear day-lit sky.

Hissing breaths emerging through her teeth she looked around the house again with wide, wary eyes. She was, once again, greeted with the vast emptiness of her new abode and, once assured of her solitude, let loose a relaxed sigh.

The lights she had turned on in her moment of fear were quickly turned off as she made her way to her bedroom, stepping away from the occasional box that had yet to be unpacked. She reached her destination and gave another quick glance at her surroundings. She grew tense for a second time as the reason for her sudden search of the house, that odd and frightening sound, surfaced from her memory. She shook her head, wavy curls sluggishly following, to rid herself of that sound and casually flicked off the switch and plunged herself back into darkness.

As she crawled into her bed a weariness suddenly overcame her, and she desired nothing more than to bury herself in the warmth those cotton sheets. As her head sank into the pillow and her body into the sheets she began to drift. Sleep overtaking her quickly.

But before she could truly fade into the realm of dreams a sound registered in her ears, that sound. Sleep had too great a hold on her for her to pull herself away from its grasp and she drifted further. Her eyes sliding shut as the sound continued. A crackling and amidst that a faint, agonized moan. A moan so distant it was nearly a whisper. Before her eyes could shut completely she jut barely noticed a faint light coming from down the hall. A Faint flickering light like that a fire.

Her eyes slid shut against her will and sleep claimed as the light grew brighter and sound, louder.