There was a knock on the door. I tried to ignore it and focus on the new game grandma had bought me for my twelfth birthday.

There was a knock again, louder this time. I grunted, annoyed by the interruption. I paused my game and dragged myself to the door to answer it. No one was there when I opened it. It was raining cats and dogs out there. The wind nearly blew me away.

With some effort I closed the door again, murmuring about the extremely irritating pranksters who lived in our neighbourhood. Just as I restarted my game there was another knock. I didn’t bother to get up this time. I wasn’t going to amuse those children by acknowledging their presence.

As if aware of my motive, they tapped on the window. I paused the game once more and marched outside with my raincoat. Those kids were going to be taught a lesson they would never forget.

As expected, there wasn’t anyone outside. They had all probably hid when they heard me coming. I yelled for them to come out over the hundreds of raindrops colliding noisily with the pavement. When no one came out, I grew even more angry and stomped out into the rain. There was no way I was letting a bunch of kids get away with interrupting my game. I was just about to shout again when a shady figure jumped out of nowhere. I screamed at the top of my voice when I saw it.

Bloody fangs, pale eyes, furry lugs, skinny arms: all of these features were nothing compared to the one that stood out most, its sharp yellow teeth that were made apparent through its horrific growl. Those were what caught my eye at first, but then I saw its hands. Instead of five fingers on each hand, it had four, long, thin ones.

I screamed again. It stared at me for a moment before turning on its heel and running. It disappeared into the storm before I could stop it.

I stood frozen for an entire minute before I managed to process what had just happened. I was too scared to even move. I breathed deeply and turned around, making my way hurriedly back to the house.

I locked all the doors and windows and I drew the curtain before resuming my game, trying to forget what I had just witnessed. I reached a new level, and I was just starting to finally forget the monster I had seen, when I saw the obstacle I had to recover in this level. It was the same beast I had seen tonight!

I turned off the game and ran to my bedroom, covering myself with the sheets and screwing my eyes shut tightly. A loud noise made me jump out of bed and I saw a light from behind the curtains. I drew them apart and saw the sun shining. The loud noise had been my alarm clock.

Published in Dawn, Young World, May 30th, 2020