I remember so many little details about the day this all started; It was raining, which is rare in California. My Mom had taken my sister to a Volleyball practice, and my Dad had caught a flight to Texas.

  I was in our den at the back of our house; It's open for the whole family to use and it's got a big window that looks out to our back garden and pool. I was talking to my friends and doodling horror drawings and reading short stories, kinda bored but happy.

  At some point I picked up my phone and was scrolling TikTok when I turned around and saw it.

  Whatever I was looking at wasn't a person, but it wanted to be. It had a smile that was friendly and romantic yet malicious and distorted, Eyes wide yet small, Its Hair long yet short (The hair was phasing into each other while remaining separate), Pressing its face up against the glass with its eyes locked on mine, head cocked to the side, neck skinny but fat, hands misshapen spikes jagging out and digging against the glass. It pressed its entire spider-like body onto the glass in an equally spiderish crawl while sticking to the wall like one; Its body was trying to look fit and attractive at the same time but I could tell. It was neither.

  The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

  I didn't know what to do and for a while I did nothing. Eventually I did do something. I backed away, phone in hand, keeping my eyes on it the entire time. Every time I moved back, it scuttled up the glass a bit more in quick bursts toward my direction. When I reached the doorway I could see out the corner of my eye the back door was locked so I made a run for the living room and hid behind the couch. I used my phone to call my mom and whispered to her what happened. She was terrified and came home right away and left my sister with her best friend and her own mother. My mom came over and checked out the house but she couldn't find anything.

  But I did.

  The next day I was writing a story (I think it was for a local youth horror contest) when I noticed a sticky note pasted on a blank space of the wall in my bedroom. It was a drawing and the linework on it was shaky and jagged, but I could make out what it was. It was a heart, and in handwriting barely readable, my initials inside it. I began crying as I realized it had found a way in when I noticed water droplets on my desk. I looked up and saw that my bedroom window was open.