I walk through curtains of darkness, pushing them aside with the beacon that is my iPod's LED light. While trying to focus on muffling my footsteps in the fluffy carpet I keep a sly eye around every corner. I am fourteen and still skittish when is comes to the dark. It's not that I'm afraid of monsters or anything like that, I'm just afraid of what could be there...lurking, unseen. I suppose that means I'm afraid of the unknown, but really, who isn't?

As I turn the final corner to the kitchen something crackles by my toe and I jump a good foot in the air. I barrel into the living room couch, iPod slipping out of my hand. I hear a soft thud as the LED switches off.

The darkness seems to solidify as my heart goes cold.

What now?

I blink frantically in an effort to adjust to the inky blackness. But before long soft footsteps echo down the stairs. My brain says logically "It's your Dad coming to see what the noise is about,"

But my heart whimpers, "Kidnapper! Murderer! Monster! Zombie!"

Ignoring the latter I gingerly reach out my hands to try and bring myself to my feet. I'm padding the ground searching for my iPod by the time the over head light clicks on and I'm swathed in bleary light. Squinting, I make out the shape of my Dad, groggy and hunched from being woken up. "Sorry," I splutter, grabbing my iPod where it lays two inches from my hand. "Needed a glass of water. I-I tripped" I still can't clearly make out my Dad's face but I know he's most likely annoyed. Being woken up my frantic teenage daughter isn't exactly high up on my things-to-do list either.

Straightening up, I begin to explain more thoroughly but before I can utter my first syllable the man who I thought was my Father comes at me at the speed of sound, catching me in a choke hold that leaves me barely breathing. I thrash but he just holds me tighter. "I don't want to hurt you" he whispers in a voice that brings to mind the spooky slits of cat's eyes.

"Yeah right" I gasp. But something small in my brain reminds me that if he'd wanted to kill me he would've done so by now.

"Hold still," he says calmly and I hear a clicking next to my throat. He releases me then and I stumble to the floor. Looking up, I foggily see his face. I was right about the cat's eyes; they sear into me as everything goes black.