THREE

As the first light of dawn pierced the darkness of the night, a new day has begun. Sasha woke up feeling groggy, she had a hard time falling asleep because of the strange little noises coming from outside of her window. The sounds of birds croaking in the middle of the night kept waking her up.

She sat up on her bed, wondering if everything that had happened was connected with the Runia. Sasha's first thought was of the creepy pictures she had seen. She got up and quickly sat down at her laptop and began searching for them, but to her surprise, they were nowhere to be found. Instead, she stumbled upon a symbol of the Runia that appeared to offer some sort of protection against the evil.

Out of curiosity, she traced the star-like sign, hoping it will protect her from whatever that was going on. But as she scrolled down to the comment section, she saw a warning instead : "I am a Runian, please don't do the symbol. It will only attract them to you because they saw the barrier around you."

Sasha was dumbfounded. Was she so desperate to stop this fear that she didn't carefully read everything taking an action.

She couldn't ignore the warning this time. Though she was tempted to continue her research, she ultimately decided to quit for fear of what might happen if she continued down this dangerous path.

Through out the day, Sasha resisted her temptation of learn more about the Runia. Although she had been experiencing some creepy situations, deep down she still wanted to know what exactly was going on with her.

She tried her best to distract herself from thinking of the Runia, instead she did some house chores and went on a movie marathon instead.

Without realizing it, the night had already crept in. Sasha felt an eerie sense of sleepiness, despite not doing much. As she lay down on her bed, she quickly drifted off into a deep slumber.

The next morning, she woke up to find her phone filled with notifications from her sister at the haunting hour of 1 a.m.

The first text informed her that Sasha had left her phone charger in her sister's room. The second text was asking if she was still awake, followed by a missed call. Sasha double-checked if she had really left her charger in her sister's room, and indeed she had. She reluctantly got up and went to her sister's room.

"Where's my charger?" Sasha asked. Her sister pointed at her desk and Sasha retrieved it back.

"By the way, Sam, why did you text me at 1 am asking if I was awake?" Sasha inquired.

Samantha looked at her with a bewildered expression. "I thought you were awake at the time," she replied.

Sasha shook her head. "No, I fell asleep pretty early yesterday."

Samantha's eyes widened. "You're already asleep?" She stared at Sasha in disbelief.

"I heard you talking and giggling just outside my room. At 1 a.m.," Samantha whispered nervously.

The room fell silent.

"I'm serious, I already was asleep before 1 a.m. That was not me," Sasha protested.

"But I really heard you, Sash. You were talking, like talking on a call with someone, and then you were giggling," Samantha said, imitating Sasha's giggle.

Sasha accidentally let out a laugh despite the creepiness. "Okay, that giggle was funny. But seriously though, I wasn't awake at 1 a.m."

Samantha shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know, Sash. If it's not you, then who?"

"Yesterday," Sasha hesitated for a moment, "I actually did something I shouldn't have."

"What did you do?"

Sasha took a deep breath, "There was this symbol, okay?" she runs her fingers through her hair, "It was supposed to protect me, but a believer warned me that nobody should do it because it would attract 'them'."

"Them who?"

"I don't know, but I already did the symbol."

"That's foolish, you should've listened."

"Well, I didn't know it would lead to this, and I only found out after doing it" Sasha retorted , "And now you told me you heard me giggling and talking at 1 am when I was already asleep. I think I have messed up."

"Sasha, stop it, you're scaring me!"

"Imagine how I feel, it's happening to me!" Sasha throw her hands up in exasperation.

"You have to sleep in my room tonight. I don't want to be alone." Sam said with a stern expression.

Sasha cocked an eyebrow as if Sam was joking, "Are you kidding me?"

"Freaking serious, Sash! You scared me."

"Okay, chill." Sasha burst out laughing, Sam seemed to be more spooked than her.

Sasha went to get her breakfast at the kitchen, and her sister Sarah was there as well. Sarah is highly attuned to her spiritual energy, she had a fondness of tarot reading. Sometimes, Sasha sought after her for a guidance. She spoke to Sarah about what had happened, and Sarah sighed as if Sasha had done a grave mistake.

"Whenever I do tarot readings, I can feel a shadow-like spirit spiraling around me. It can exudes a harmless presence, but other times, I can feel the sinister malevolence. I think you should stop researching about Runia for now."

Sasha nodded understood, "Yeah, I think I really stop before it gets uncontrollable. It's like dealing with something we cannot see physically, right?"

"Yes, it's like the angels in religions, but instead of an angel, it's an unknown spirit. The Runia faith that you research about, they have their own as well. Just be careful next time."

After having breakfast, Sasha made her own plans for the day to distract herself from the faith and what had happened to her. But as the night crept in, Sasha's nerves began to fray. She slept in Sam's room, but her mind refused to let her rest.

In the middle of the night, she heard something that made her blood run cold. Softly at first, but then growing louder, the sound of someone giggling just outside the door. Then she heard as if that person was speaking in another language. It was somewhat familiar, but the tone was menacing, and it sent shiver down to her spine.

Sasha's heart raced as she realized that she was not alone. The only thing that separates them was the door and the wall. The room somehow gets colder, and the air was thick with dread. She could feel the presence of a malevolence being, something that was not of this world.