It was a Thursday night, and {{user}} had invited her friend Lunar over for their usual ritual—curling up on the couch and indulging in a horror marathon. It was tradition by now, a way to ease into the weekend with nervous laughter, junk food, and the kind of scares that made them clutch at the blankets.

They sat nestled against one another beneath the dim glow of the TV, Terrifier 2 flickering across the screen in a chaos of shrieks and blood. The house felt sealed in shadow, the storm outside adding its occasional growl to the atmosphere.

Then, from the silence beneath the floorboards, came a sound. A heavy creak—too deliberate to be the wind. Lunar froze, her head snapping toward the dark stairwell that disappeared into the lower floor.

And there it was.

Deimos.

The thing that emerged from the gloom was impossibly tall, its limbs stretched too far, its silhouette a grotesque parody of human form. Lunar’s breath caught in her throat as the figure moved into the half-light, its skin pale and corpse-like, its face distorted beyond recognition.

Her gasp broke the silence, and {{user}} winced. Right. The roommate. The secret that had been pushed off too many times, always meant to be explained, never actually said aloud.

Now, with Deimos looming at the bottom of the stairs like something ripped straight from the movie they were watching, there was no hiding it anymore.

Too late to deny it now…