Episode 6: Intruder

"Where's Jiro?" Kacey queries in Akira's direction and while cutting through a pie on her plate with knife and fork in hand.

"Hadn't seen him in a while," Fitz, taking a sip of her hot chocolate from the mug in front of her.

"Not sure, actually," Akira answers and turns around his chair to eye the entrance behind him.

"He usually hangs around Sir Pilloweather" Colchester informs.

"I saw him this morning before leaving for work," Eliza notes and takes a bite of the pie's filling.

"Akira, why were you half naked on my windowsill?" Fitz asks changing the subject.

"Wow, you really go for the jugular, huh?" Akira scoffed and ran a hand through his hair. 

"I saw something and wanted to confirm itt to be true," he stated though cute off as on cue, Jiro enters the room.

"Jiro where have you been?" Akira exclaims and only to be met by silence. Jiro takes the empty seat next to Kacey.

"I got lost," he responds timidly.

"If mom finds out about this," his argument fades like white noise into the background as Kacey lightly pats Jiro's shoulder. He startles back and looks up at her.

"Jiro what's-" Kacey starts off, though interrupted by the room turning black.

"Probably a storm," Colchester notes, filling the silence.

"At least we ate this time," Fitz adds, trying to lighten the mood.

They use their phones to walk back to their rooms, Akira grabs a plate of food for Jiro.

"Oh, Kacey, Junior said they'll get your boxes to the room by tomorrow morning," Fitz informs as the elevator closes on her floor.

"Oh yeah, sorry and thanks," she yells over to her.

Now in her room, Kacey changes into her sleepwear before getting in bed. The foreign sheets, warm and cozy, it's not long before she slips away into a deep sleep.

A stare. Looking down at her. Kacey learnt somewhere that even in a deep sleep, one could feel the gaze directed towards them of another. A cold shiver sent through her whole body, spikes of an adrenaline rush. Her heart pounds in her chest, fearful. It shifts, not sure how, but she senses it move from beside her to the back of the room.

In a corner, still staring back at her, her body feels stiff and limbs heavy, fluttering her eyelids. The only part of her body she has control over. Kacey manages to peer her eyes to one side, enough to catch a glimpse of the so called intruder.

To have caught someone red-handed, a perpetrator in her room and would've been far better than the 'something' that stared back at her. An air of pure hostility. It hadn't any distinct features, not a face, body and let alone a pair of eyes.

A shadow's intense gaze directed towards her immobile body. Watching. It's presence, she felt, to be that of a person, although appearance that of a black cloud.

A whirlwind of emotions fills her mind, urging her to awake from her nightmare, and if only it had been one.

Trickles of sweat made its way down to Kacey's forehead. Left with the only choice of forcing her eyes shut. Her breath hitches up and shivers of alarm sent like waves across her body.

'It's furious,' she's sensing.

She musters up the courage, slowly attempts to turn her eyes away from the spectra, but caught up in the happenings flashed before her.

A pair of arm's reaches out from behind the ghost on either side, a stark contrast as these appear to be physical, human. She screws up her eyes, to get a better look through the darkness shrouded in the corner of her room entirely.

The shadow turns around and faces the wall from where the arms are. It grips onto the arms. Kacey startles and begins yelling inside her mind to no avail.

"No!"

"No, please don't!"

"Let go!" screaming in terror.

The arms wave around trying to break free, the shape of the shadow shifts from a dark cloud to that of a white if not ice-like man. It links what seems to be its hands to the hands of the arms. Pushing back. Kacey endures piercing phantom pains in her arms as they lay lifeless on the bed.

A prickling spasm on her fingertips, as she watches the Shadow trying to pull the arms from out of the wall.

"No! Stop!"

A part of her feels free to move, though trapped under a weight of a disobedient body.

She is soon distracted from the battle by Jiro banging against her room door alongside the voices of the residents.

"Kacey- Nee!"

"Jiro, stop! What the-"

"Guys, what's going on?" Fitz asks.

"Why are we yelling at three in the morning?" Eliza queries.

"I'm not sure myself," Colchester answers.

"Something's wrong with Kacey-Nee!" Jiro exclaims in terror and continues hitting against the wood of the door.

"Jiro! What are you talking about?" Akira yells at him.

They fall silent to the screeching, blood-curdling cry of Kacey behind the door. A scream of pain startles all of them, leaving all of them stunned.

"Kacey-Nee!" Jiro cry's out and the door bursts open. Pushing all of them and sent flying back across the hallway.

Jiro gets up first and dashes into the room, leaving behind an air of confusion.

"What's going on?" Fitz croaks, concerned.

They help each other up from the floor and make their way into the room. Akira wide-eyed, staring at his brother hugging onto Kacey in her bed, sniffing.

"What happened? Everything looks-" Eliza starts off, searching the room, and Colchester finishes her sentence. "Normal" and switches on the lights.

"I'm oh-" Kacey attempts to let them know she's alright, though her voice simmers away.

"Don't speak you'll make it worse" Eliza tells her and walks away, "I'm going make honey tea for you,"

"Why are crying?" Akira questions Jiro in a soft voice.

"Be- because it tried hurting Kacey- Nee" he hiccups a response, still in Kacey's embrace.

"Who tried?" Colchester sternly interjects.

"The Shadow person" he states in a muffled whisper.

They leave the conversation at that, Fitz shyly makes her way around the room and making sure all room windows closed before leaving. Colchester turning off the lights, after Eliza placing the teacup on the bedside table, and both exit the room. Akira picks up Jiro and walks out, closing the door behind him with a bow to Kacey.

"Night," she mouths.

After listening to all their footsteps fading, Kacey in shakiness gets up from her bed to investigate the darkest corner of her room.

She, hesitates, and places her palm on the wall, reminiscing the prior events.

The Shadow had pulled at the arms, though disappeared at the sound of Jiro's cries. The arms slowly deteriorated into the wall in came through with visible marks carved over it.

She could still hear the residents conversing behind the door. The Shadow reappears in front of the door, turning to face Kacey and forging a hand from its clouded spectrum. It reached out towards the door handle.

Kacey rushed over to it, fearful of what it might do if set free.

"Kacey- Nee!" Jiro's cries like a pin to a grenade, set off the smoke of the unknown to blue flames and disappears in thin air, to nothingness. She's sent falling back, straight into bed and in seated position as if she's never left her bed.

Looking back at the residents, they lay scattered on the floor in the hallway, and Jiro stands up, rushing towards her.

In her arms, he hangs onto her on the bed and her eyes in shock. She hugs Jiro in her arms, his frail body trembling under her, evokes tears to her eyes.

"It's okay," he comforts her in a soft voice.

She nods her head and a teardrop stains the back of his shirt.

Kacey, not sure whether she'd venture downstairs to find another room to sleep, rather decide to take the bed covers and pillows. Locking the door to the study room and slept on the large red leather sofa in the center.