I never believed in darkness being alive.
Light off meant light off. Nothing more. Nothing less.
That’s what I told myself every night when I turned off the hallway switch and walked toward my bedroom in complete blackness. My apartment wasn’t big—just a narrow corridor, a living room that always felt too quiet, and a bedroom at the far end.
The kind of place where shadows feel like they’re just bad lighting.
Until the night I saw the smile.
It happened at 1:48 a.m.
I woke up thirsty. The kind of thirst that sits in your throat like sand and refuses to let you sleep.
I got out of bed, barefoot on cold tile, and opened my bedroom door.
The hallway was dark, but familiar. I didn’t bother turning on the light.
I’d walked it a thousand times.
Halfway down the corridor, I stopped.
Something felt… wrong.
Not sound. Not movement.
Just presence.
Like the darkness itself had turned to look at me.
I stared into it.
“Hello?” I whispered, immediately hating myself for it.
Silence.
Then—
A shape shifted.
At first I thought it was a trick of my eyes. A shadow bending where no shadow should bend.
But then it separated from the wall.
And held still.
It was human-shaped.
Almost.
Too tall for the hallway. Too thin to stand comfortably. Its arms hung slightly too long, brushing the floor.
And its face—
Its face was just darkness.
Except for the mouth.
A wide, stretched smile.
White.
Perfectly visible.
Too wide.
Far too wide.
I backed away slowly.
It didn’t move.
It just watched me.
That smile didn’t change, didn’t twitch, didn’t blink.
It was fixed—like it had been waiting a very long time to be seen.
I turned and ran back into my room, slammed the door, locked it, and pressed my back against it.
My heart was hammering so hard I could barely hear anything else.
Minutes passed.
Nothing followed me.
No footsteps.
No scratching.
No breath behind the door.
Just silence.
Then—
From the hallway:
A soft exhale.
Like something learning how to breathe inside my world.
And then—
A knock.
Slow.
Careful.
Three taps.
Not urgent.
Not angry.
Patient.
I didn’t answer.
Another knock came.
Closer this time.
Right outside my door.
Then a whisper.
Soft. Almost gentle.
“…you saw me.”
I froze.
The voice wasn’t loud.
It didn’t need to be.
It felt like it was inside the walls.
“I didn’t,” I whispered back.
A pause.
Then—
The smile appeared under my door.
Not the face.
Just the smile.
Curving upward in the darkness beneath the crack, like something was pressing its grin through the floor.
My breath stopped.
The lights in my room flickered once.
Then went out.
Complete darkness.
And in that darkness—
The smile moved closer.
Slowly rising from the floor.
Not attached to anything.
Just… getting nearer.
“I don’t understand,” I said, shaking. “What are you?”
The whisper came from everywhere at once.
“…something you notice when you stop pretending nothing is there.”
The temperature dropped.
The air felt crowded.
And then I realized something terrible.
I wasn’t alone in the room.
I never had been.
I just hadn’t noticed yet.
Because the smile was already behind me.
Close enough that I could feel it stretching wider.
And softly—
So softly—
It laughed.
Write by : Endomarfa
