It has been half a year since the divorce, and life still felt hollow, as if every day were painted in the same gray monotony. To chase away the loneliness, I downloaded a dating app. After a month of nothing, a young, beautiful woman suddenly added me.
She lived far away, at least a six-hour flight. At first, I thought she was just another online companion—or worse, a scammer. But as the weeks passed, her presence felt different. Still, something lingered uneasily in the back of my mind—more than a ten-year age gap separated us, yet I couldn't dismiss the strange pull I felt toward her.
Most of our conversations were mundane texts… until one night. She told me her kitchen had echoed with soft, metallic clattering in the dead of night. When she went to investigate, the sounds had vanished, leaving only an oppressive silence that made her shiver. She called me in a trembling voice. I tried to comfort her, suggesting it might be the wind, or cabinets that weren't fully closed.
We talked until the early hours, our voices carrying through the night. Exhaustion weighed on us, yet neither of us wanted to hang up.
Still, I couldn't shake the sense that something more than coincidence was at play.
Something unseen, something quietly watching—not just her, but us, lingering between our words and silences, waiting for the moment to step out of the shadows.