The room was silent.
Too silent to be safe.
Y/N slept on her side, one hand curled near her face, breathing slow—peaceful in a way that felt undeserved.
The digital clock blinked 3:17 AM.
She didn't hear the door unlock.
Didn't hear the soft click as it opened just enough for someone to slip inside.
A shadow stood near the wall.
Not close.
Never close.
The shadow didn't move like a thief.
It moved like someone who had been here before.
A gloved hand lifted slightly.
Stopped.
Lowered again.
"She still sleeps like that," a man whispered into the darkness.
His voice was calm. Familiar in the wrong way.
As if it belonged to a memory her mind had buried alive.
He tilted his head, watching her chest rise and fall.
"So trusting," he murmured. "Just like her mother."
Y/N shifted in her sleep, her brows pulling together as if she sensed something.
The man smiled.
A thin, amused curve of lips.
"Don't wake yet," he said softly.
"Not tonight."
He reached into his coat and placed something on the table beside her bed.
A silver "pendant"?.
Old.
Scratched.
Its surface engraved with a symbol she had seen before—but never remembered where.
Her fingers twitched.
The man stepped back instantly, melting into the shadows again.
The door closed without a sound.
The clock blinked.
3:18 AM.
Y/N stirred.
She dreamed of laughter.
Not warm laughter.
Not happy.
The kind that echoes.
When morning came, she would find the pendant and feel a strange fear she couldn't explain.
And somewhere far away, a phone would ring.
A man would answer it.
And laugh.....