The creature that lay in wait amidst the shadows was attracted by magic. He could smell it, taste it in the air. Magic was what he craved and tonight his attention was focused on the house in front of him. He had crawled through the shadows and observed it from all angles and could tell that there were three people inside, all humans. This should be easy but he would proceed with caution, the power was stronger than he was used to sensing.
He crept away from the fence and scurried over to the bushes along the house, pausing long enough to make sure he hadn’t been noticed. There was a nearby window opened and he scrambled up the side of the house, sliding through the small opening. Once inside, it waited in silence to see if its entry had been detected. All remained silent so it crept towards the stairs and glanced upward, where the main source of the power had been, and felt it ebbing away into nothing.
A tendril of fear shot through him, nobody should be powerful enough to hide magic that strong so quickly and completely. Normally he was invisible to other wielders of magic but he couldn’t think of it as just a coincidence that the magic had retreated just as he was about to climb the stairs. He crouched at the bottom of the steps and listened for any sound to alert him of his detection. He didn’t hear or feel anything coming from the darkness above so he began to crawl forward, one step at a time.
As it reached the top of the stairs, it noticed a light coming from one of the rooms off to the left. He rushed forward, almost gliding along the floor, and peeked into the room. It was a little girl’s room, decorated in the usual pinks and purples. Asleep, in a bed adorned with multiple princess paraphernalia, was a little girl who couldn’t have been any older than ten. The light was coming from a nightlight on the far side of the room. This worried the creature because it hadn’t notice any lights while surveying the house from outside. That meant that one of the parents had turned it on recently and they were able to do it without him being aware of it.
Turning towards the other door, the creature wondered if it would be easier to leave now and find some other prey. If it had been detected by someone so powerful, though, it may also be hunted. The creature decided to get rid of the entire family and any chance of being hunted while it was already inside their house.
He moved towards the room where he assumed the parents were when the door to the little girl’s room inched open and filled the little hallway with the dim light of the nightlight. The creature stopped and turned quickly. The little girl was standing beside the bed and staring directly at him. Acting as fast as he could, before she could do anything to alert her parents, the creature ran directly at her.
It should have only taken it a second or two to close the distance but as soon as it entered the room it couldn’t move, stuck in its place by something it could not see or detect. The little girl just stared at him, unmoving and unafraid by what she saw. He wanted to turn around to see what was keeping him in place but couldn’t even turn his head. All he could do was watch as the room grew darker, all of the shadows closing in on it and the little girl. He stared at the girl and felt the magic flowing easily from her. He had never felt anything like it before and it scared him. An amused little grin spread across her face. She enjoyed what she was doing; she knew she’d already won. Anger filled him as the shadows of the room enclosed around him and began crushing him. He let himself get killed by a mere human girl and all she did was just stand there and watch. The pressure around him became too much to bear and he felt himself swallowed by the darkness until darkness was all that was left.
...............
Tara watched as the ball of darkness receded to the far corners of the room leaving nothing of the creature behind. She quietly tip-toed to her parents’ room and made sure that they were still asleep (and safe). She went back to her room and shut the door, grimacing at all the girly designs that her mom had insisted cover every inch of her room. Climbing into bed, she thought to herself that tonight had been fun. She extended her magic outwards, making sure nothing else could harm her or her family. Once she knew it was secure she called out to the shadows and had them surround the nightlight and cover the window. She felt the comfort that came with the darkness that enveloped her and peacefully drifted off to sleep.
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