#el!eclipse

Your house is most definitely, absolutely, undeniably haunted.

Of course, there is another possibility: you have lost your mind. All things considered, the former is far easier to accept.

Everything that happened on the island was like an absurd dream, indistinguishable from reality. Then, you woke up, the memories fading away like mist as you returned to the ordinary world beside your family. 

Yet the dream refused to end.

At first, it was just some trivial hallucinations, which you attribute to excessive stress. As you staring absently at documents on the computer, twisted blood-red words crept out from the corners of the screen. Phrases like "You belong to me", "Found you" and "I love you" spread across the entire frame. A blink,and they vanished without a trace. The text cursor still flickered steadily at the end of the line. If someone had hacked into your computer just to pull such a pointless prank,that would be terribly boring.

Things took a turn for the worse a few weeks later. Exhausted after a long day’s work, you collapsed onto your bed, drifting off into drowsiness. When a cold, slimy sensation wrapped around your ankles. You snapped fully awake and flipped on the light. Your legs lay safely tucked under the covers, and there was not a single other living thing in the room. You tried to close your eyes again and quickly fell into a deep sleep, but the strange presence returned night after night. Worse still, you gradually grew accustomed to it,noticing its presence later and later each time. On one occasion, the cold touch had already crept up to your knees before you barely open your eyes.

Then came a pre-dawn morning. You roused abruptly. Faint pale glimmer seeped through the curtains,not yet dawn. Why had you woken up at this hour? You rolled over, ready to slip back into sleep.

A figure standing on the other side of the bed.

The being was swallowed by shadow. Light bend away from its form, leaving only a terrifying silhouette. You felt as if trapped in a nightmare, body rigid, unable to move a muscle. Its edges were jagged and distorted, barely resembling a human shape. A faint sense of familiarity flashed through your mind, but terror snuffed it out instantly. It made no movement, just stood there, as if it were the night itself. No details could be made out, yet every biological instinct screamed that its gaze was locked firmly upon you.

You strained every nerve to recall every trick you had ever heard to break free, wagging your pinky finger, shouting curses under your breath, and chanted random incantations from unknown sects. But the figure remained rooted to the spot, simply watching you struggle to rouse yourself.

Gritting your teeth, you forced down the surging panic, squeezed your eyes shut and pretended the apparition did not exist. It’s fine. Stay calm. It’s just a dream, just sleep paralysis.

What followed was the longest minute of your life. It might have lasted less than sixty seconds, yet dragged on like an entire century. Then the oppressive stare and heavy weight lifted all at once. Sensation flooded back into your body. You sat bolt upright, gasping for air. Your pajamas had long been soaked through with cold sweat, and your heart raced wildly, refusing to steady for a long time.

That very night, you dragged and begged Charlie,one of the only two "sensible beings" in the house,to sleep beside you. He sat resignedly at the foot of your bed. “Miss, you’re just like you were when you were a child.” You didn't care what he said, he was staying with you today.

Your makeshift "knight" could not fend off the unseen presence either. In the middle of the night, you woke once more, eyes heavy and mind muddled as if you were still trapped in a dream. A familiar sigh brushed your ear, followed by indistinct murmurs. Before you could react, you sank back into a coma-like slumber once more.

Sunlight steam onto your face. Just as you open your eyes,Charlie handed you a warm glass of water at once. “You slept quite soundly last night. There was a period of rapid eye movement around two in the morning, and your proportion of deep sleep was…”

You tuned out the rest of his analysis. You had not slept well, at all. Weariness weighed heavily on you, leaving you feeling lightheaded and unsteady on your feet after days of restless nights. When you ran into Antey and Sydney, the two brothers were visibly alarmed by your haggard state.

“Whoa, how long has it been since you got a proper night’s sleep?” You did not even have the energy to banter back. You told them everything about the strange occurrences and shared Charlie’s sleep observations. The two exchanged a glance.

“Uh,about that… don’t push yourself too hard. Stress isn’t good for your mental health,” Antey rubbed the back of his neck, struggling to phrase his words without sounding like "you were losing your mind"—and failed obviously. You jabbed your elbow hard into his side, making him yelp and jump away.

Sydney ignored Antey’s dramatic complaints. “If Charlie says the same thing, it’s probably just nightmares. You really do need to relax.”

Great. There it was,again. Just nightmares,nightmares that felt as real as actually seeing a ghost.

You didn't want to say more, waved them goodbye and walked on. Ant called out random advice from behind you. “Hey! Put a pair of scissors under your pillow! I’ve heard everyone does that for this sort of thing!”

Sydney punched his arm. “Superstitious nonsense.”

Is there anyone reliable in this household?

Night fell. Sleep threatened to claim you the second you closed your eyes, but you dreaded facing the nightmares again. Curled up under the covers, you scrolled aimlessly through forums, searching for related keywords: "How to relieve sleep paralysis", "Ways to stop recurring nightmares", "Middle-of-the-night awakenings". Nothing more than generic tips and superstitious remedies, utterly useless.

Sighing, you posted a thread, hoping to find others who shared your ordeal. Replies trickled in soon, from fellow sufferers recommending the same useless methods you were sick of seeing. Just as you were about to close the page, one comment caught your eye.

User ID: 99108105112

Do you feel something coiling around your body, or see a figure standing beside your bed?

The account had a default avatar and profile was completely blank, its username nothing but a string of random numbers. Yet this stranger had described every single one of your symptoms exactly. 

Clutching at a sliver of hope, you replied:

Yes, that’s exactly what happens to me. Do you go through this too? Is there any way to stop it?

User ID: 99108105112

You know that figure all too well, don’t you?

Annoyed by their cryptic tone, you turned off your phone and tossed it aside. Still, their words stirred that faint, buried sense of familiarity you had felt before. Where had you seen that shadowy figure? You racked your brains, but something blocked your thoughts, leaving you with no answers.

You could not remember when you finally drifted off. A cold sensation seeped up from beneath you.

You open your eyes.

White space, threaded with pulsating red tentacles that writhed like blood vessels.

There you saw him.

Eclipse

Once again, you existed only as a disembodied consciousness, floating in the palm of the very being who had haunted your nights.

“Welcome back, Pearl. We meet again.” Eclipse wore his familiar smile. Gel-like tendrils swayed before your "eyes", swaying like the ornaments hanging above a cradle from your dim childhood memories.

The moment you laid eyes on him, a tidal wave of suppressed memories crashed over you, sweeping everything back into place. You recalled the golden and greyish-blue fish tails, the inescapable thick fog, and this palm that had held you.

You were back in the Core.

He read the confusion and anger within you, yet made no real attempt to explain himself. “Am I not allowed to visit my little fry?” He rested his chin in one hand, tone as matter-of-fact as if he had merely been tucking you into bed at night.

His actual way of “visiting” was to linger beside your bed like a vengeful spirit, staring and scaring his human so much that couldn't sleep.

He curled his lips into a helpless smile at your silent reproach, then his expression softened into a serious one. “My dear, I know what you’ve been researching.” He had seen everything through your eyes—the forbidden knowledge you ought never to touch again, the secrets that would drag you back into the abyss. He had sent you to the human world not to watch you fall into yet another endless cycle. Depriving you of sound sleep was the simplest way to stop you. But you were as stubborn as ever, forcing yourself to sit in front of your computer and dig up clues regardless of your exhaustion. That was why he had pulled you here, to warn you face to face.

“Besides,” he toyed with the tiny glowing orb hovering in his palm, “your… brother, is right. You push yourself far too hard. You truly need to unwind.”

Wait,a strange look crossed his face. You had a very strong premonition that something bad was coming.

“Shall your fairy godmother lend you a hand?”

Oh, help. What was this situation? Was this something a "fairy godmother" should do? If you still had physical eyelids, they would have been twitching wildly. You said nothing, only staring at him in pure exasperation.

He waved a hand, brushing off your piercing gaze. “Alright, alright, I’ll stop teasing you.” He lifted you closer to his face. A frigid mechanical aura mixed with the scent of ocean water washed over you. Though he tried to appear nonchalant, you noticed his lips press together in quiet discontent. He tapped your consciousness gently with a fingertip."Take good care of yourself, Ela. Don’t make me worry.”

Before you could reply, a gentle push sent your spirit plummeting downwards. You drifted through layers of darkness and writhing tentacles, back into your physical body.

You sat up gasping. The familiar bed, the familiar furnishings. Sunlight filtered through the curtains and cast onto the floor. From outside the door came the sound of Charlie preparing breakfast.

Another ordinary morning.

Had it all been nothing but a wild, vivid dream? And the details of the vision began to fade away little by little.

The anonymous account. You seized on this last thread of doubt and grabbed your phone to open the forum.