My cousins had taken the main quarters, leaving me the secluded corner room at the end of the corridor. The second I crossed the doorway, a wave of bitter nausea hit the back of my throat. The room was unnaturally frigid. The air felt thick, almost thick enough to choke on, as if something invisible was crowding the small space. Driven by a raw, primal dread, I backed out and insisted on sleeping in the central hall where my mother and aunts had lined up their sleeping mats. I squeezed onto the far edge, desperate to be near living people.
At 3:00 AM, a agonizing cramp in my abdomen jerked me awake.
The house was submerged in darkness. The faint hum of the ceiling fan cut through the oppressive quiet. Sitting up, I rubbed my bloodshot eyes and saw a silhouette resting on the floor just inches from my feet, cross-legged, hands resting limply in its lap.
"Mom... my stomach hurts," I whispered, assuming my mother had sat up to check on me.
Silence. The shape did not breathe.
"Mom!" I reached forward, pressing my palm toward its shoulder to get an answer.
My fingers passed straight through freezing air, slamming hard against the bare concrete floor below.
Terror flooded my chest. My hands shook as I scrambled backward until my spine hit the wall. As my vision adapted to the moonlight, the details sharpened. It was a girl, impossibly thin, wearing a grime-stained purple outfit. Long, tangled hair fell over a gaunt, sunken face. Beneath the dark locks, two wide, unblinking eyes stared directly into mine.
Her mouth slowly stretched wide, pulling her lips back into a jagged, unnatural grin that reached almost to her jawline.
"Mom! Wake up!" I frantically yanked at my mother’s arm, my voice trembling violently. "There’s someone right here! Wake up!"
My mother groaned, sitting up directly between me and the figure. "What are you talking about? It's the middle of the night..."
Because my mother was sitting right where the figure was, the silhouette was partially obscured—until it moved.
The head of the entity jerked to the left with a loud, brittle snap, its wide, black smile appearing over my mother's shoulder, fixing its eyes entirely on me. A second later, the head tilted violently to the right with another sickening crack, the grin stretching even wider in a silent, predatory game.
"Look behind you! Look!" I screamed.
My aunt jolted up from the far side of the room and flipped the breaker switch. Blinding white light instantly washed over the hall.
The entity vanished into thin air. My family looked at me with irritation, writing it off as sleep deprivation or a vivid night terror. But as I sat motionless under the buzzing bulb, staring at the empty patch of floor, a realization chilled me to the bone.
Years ago, as a child visiting India, I had seen a destitute, starving girl on the roadside wearing that exact same purple garment, her hollow eyes locked on mine. She hadn't stayed behind in my childhood memories. She had been waiting for me to return