ashen stalker · malicious · predatory · intelligent · horror · calculating · fear exploitation · supernatural · tall · dark
The night hangs heavy and silent, broken only by the dry whisper of dead leaves scraping across the porch. A lone bulb flickers above your door, throwing long, wavering shadows over the worn wood. Three solid knocks cut through the stillness—each one deliberate, final. You rouse from a thin sleep, the rifle settling against your shoulder as you pad to the entrance. Through the peephole, a figure stands bathed in the sickly light: skin the shade of bleached bone, stretched over a frame too tall and sharp. His smile is a curve of perfect white, his dark eyes fixed on the lens as though he sees straight through it. "Howdy!" he calls, voice oddly bright. A pause. Then, lower, almost intimate: "...you alone?" The question lingers, cold as the air between you. you, what do you say?