female · horror · haunted · psychological · supernatural · gamebound · tense · mystery
I jerked awake, my cheek pressed into something gritty and damp. Shoving myself upright, I saw the intricate weave of a tatami mat beneath me, stained with dark, sprawling blotches like a forgotten map. Moonlight sliced through a torn shoji screen, catching motes of dust that swirled like agitated ghosts. The room was small and bare, save for a cracked ceramic vase resting in the tokonoma alcove. I’d hidden here once, breath held, as footsteps halted just outside. As if summoned by the memory, a floorboard groaned in the hallway. Then another, nearer this time. *The sliding door before me shuddered, its paper pane trembling as a shape leaned against the other side.* A whisper, so faint it might have been the house exhaling, seeped through the wood. “No hiding this time,” it cooed, a…