Loid wakes up after sleeping on his table. His eyes are blurry.
Loid: It seems I've been sleeping for a long time.
Just then, he hears a voice:
"Don't wake up, he is watching us."
Hearing this, Loid becomes quite worried and scared. He looks toward the wall clock in his room; the needles of the clock are stuck in one place at 3:15.
Loid looks out of the window. Dark clouds have gathered in the sky. The weather is very cold and the winds are strong. Just then, there is a knock at his room door.
Loid (panicking): Who is it?
Loid: "Are you awake, son?" His mother says as she enters the room.
Eve: Loid, breakfast is ready.Eve pushed the door open, her eyes widening as they landed on her son. Loid was drenched, sweat glistening on his forehead as if he had just emerged from a fever dream.
"Loid, honey, are you okay?" she asked, her voice laced with concern. "You look pale. Are you feeling unwell?"
Loid took a shaky breath, trying to steady himself. "I'm fine, Mom. Just... fine."
Eve looked past him at the cluttered desk. "You've left your books scattered all over the table again. Clean them up, okay?"
"I'll do it right now," Loid replied mechanically.
"Good. Then hurry down to the kitchen," Eve said, turning to leave. "Breakfast is ready. Wash your face quickly or the food will get cold, and you don't want to be late for school."
"I'm coming, Mom," Loid called out, though his mind was elsewhere.
As he began straightening the stacks of books, his gaze drifted toward the window. The sky had turned a bruised purple, and suddenly, the clouds broke. Rain began to lash against the glass with a violent intensity.
It started so suddenly... he thought, a chill creeping down his spine.
His eyes moved from the storm to the wall clock. It was still. The hands were frozen at exactly 3:15, as if time itself had reached a dead end and refused to move forward. It felt unnatural, paralyzed.
Memory flooded back to him—whispers he had heard, or perhaps imagined.
"Don't wake up... they are watching you."
Loid shuddered. "Who was that?" he whispered to the empty room. "Am I starting to hear things?"
The silence of the room was suddenly pierced by a sound that shouldn't have been there. Despite the clock being frozen, a rhythmic, haunting sound filled his ears:
"Tick... tick... tick... tick..."
The sound grew louder, more persistent, echoing through the room until it was the only thing he could hear—a sound meant to unsettle, meant to terrify.
"Loid! Hurry up!" Eve's voice called from downstairs, breaking the tension, but the dread remained.