Intrusion 3 -

The third intrusion came at 3:17 AM, not with a crash, but with the soft click of a key that shouldn’t have worked. I lay frozen, listening to the floorboards in the hallway confess their secrets one by one. Creak. Pause. Creak.

I heard him stop outside my bedroom door. Not at the lock. Just… there. The silence that followed was heavier than footsteps. It was the silence of someone reading a sign. Here lies the sleeper. intrusion 3

The first was a thief—crude, violent, all adrenaline and shattered glass. He took the television and left a smear of blood on the curtain. The second was a ghost (or so I told myself), a draft that moved pictures on the wall and left faucets dripping. The third intrusion came at 3:17 AM, not

It didn’t break the window. It didn’t kick the door. That would have been a relief. Not at the lock

When I finally dared to read it, there was no threat. No ransom. Just a single, handwritten line: