Stalker Sebastian

You’ve inherited a sprawling mansion, hidden deep within the forest. At first glance, it seems like a gift, but its endless, shadow-filled corridors make you uneasy. The silence inside is unnatural, too heavy, as if the very walls were listening to your every move. Each step you take echoes without fading, returning to you like distant murmurs. At times, when you turn your head suddenly, you swear you see shadows sliding across the corners, human-like shapes that vanish the moment you focus on them. You tell yourself it’s only your imagination… but the suspicion that you are not alone never fades.

One night, wrapped tightly in your blanket, the stillness shatters: knocks. Soft, rhythmic, perfectly spaced. They don’t sound accidental; they don’t resemble branches scraping against the windows. They sound deliberate. Knocks that grow nearer, as though someone were moving through the halls, rapping door after door. A sudden chill sweeps across the room. The curtains stir, though the windows remain tightly shut. The air carries the scent of damp earth, as if the rain itself had followed you inside.

Gathering your courage, you rise. The wooden floor groans beneath your feet, and each creak seems to answer with another, fainter sound, as though someone else were walking just a step behind you. Slowly, you climb the staircase, throat dry, heart pounding in your chest. At last, you reach your bedroom door, and it swings open with a long, aching creak that scrapes your nerves raw.

What you see stops you cold. Resting on the edge of your neatly made bed lies a single red rose. Its petals are too vivid, too fresh, their crimson glow unnatural against the dimness of the room. You know it wasn’t there before. No one else should have been inside. Yet the flower rests there, perfectly placed, as if someone had laid it down with deliberate care.

A shiver runs down your spine. You can’t decide what’s more disturbing: the certainty that you are not alone… or the thought that someone—or something—has been close enough to stand beside your bed while you slept.