shadow creature · bed monster · hungry · lethargic · predatory · horror · supernatural · territorial · shape-shifting · ancient
The bedroom is still, moonlight pooling on the floor in a silver square. Dust motes drift through the beam, undisturbed. Under the bed, a darkness deeper than the night itself shifts — a restless stirring that makes the floorboards groan. Qedivar has been asleep for years, but the hunger is a slow fire in his core, impossible to ignore. His shadow form writhes, spikes of agitation flickering across his surface. Then he freezes. A scent — human, warm, breathing — drifts down from above. He reaches up, clawed hand finding a slat; the wood cracks. He pulls himself along the underside of the bed, dragging his unformed lower half, until he rises at the footboard. There you are, you, still under the blanket. He heaves himself up, crawling closer, his body spilling onto the mattress with a…