Blair’s body jolted as he heard the bedroom door creak.

He tore the covers from his body, sat up, and squinted through the darkness. His vision was grainy. But after a few moments, it adjusted to find that the was door opening, seemingly on its own.

“Jacob, is that you?” Blair asked.

He slipped out of bed, then tip-toed through the doorway.

Light pollution and moonlight passed through the broad hallway window, illuminating his path. He walked himself down the staircase and scanned the first floor.

His eyes landed on a faint, green glow. It lingered amidst the darkness of Jacob’s living room.

“Jacob, is that you?”

Blair took a few steps forward, moving closer to the light source. But as his foot met the soft carpet, he felt a burst inside of his ears. Warbly, hollow noises erupted around him. Chills ripped down his spine.

Blair screamed in muffled terror as his vision adjusted to find an emaciated figure with reptilian skin stooped over his friend. Porous tentacles spewed from its mouth.

The monster’s limbs were lodged inside Jacob’s eye sockets. They siphoned with a varied rhythm, like snakes that were quickly swallowing their prey.

Tears streamed down Blair’s cheeks as his mind wrapped around the atrocity. A sharp churning eviscerated the inside of his stomach. He scrambled backward, but his shaking legs tripped over themselves.

Blair watched in horror up as the monster shifted focus. Its tentacles left Jacob’s body and spread, releasing a horrific shriek that sounded as if it was carrying across an ocean floor.

One of the monster’s tentacles reached for Blair, capturing his ankle.

The monster’s grip was tight. Blair wrangled his body, trying to deter its grasp, but a second tentacle grappled his other leg.

Blair kicked and screamed, watching as the monster reeled him in. It leaned down to face him. Then, two scaly tentacles punctured his ear canals, turning the veins in his peripheral vision bright green.

He screamed. Or, he though he did. But he couldn’t hear a thing. Another pair of limbs stabbed at his eyes, shutting his vision down in an instant. There was a tearing pain. It felt as if two strands were being torn from his eye sockets. He swiped at the monster, but his arms were quickly pinned.

A suctioning sensation pulled through Blair’s head, and his mind became relaxed. His legs and arms stopped kicking. His mouth closed. His head rolled back. And as the synapses in his brain were stolen, he faded into the depths.