Shorts stories & Creepypastas

Night Devil

Erwin Le-Elbaid was the powerful leader of the world's largest armament manufacturing company. He was a person of great stature whom men envied and for whom women fought, whether for his physical charisma or his fortune. However, he was also of the most arrogant and detestable attitude, a facet that people knew well because he did not hide it.

In the rare interviews that he granted, at his discretion, to journalists, he asserted, without the slightest shame, that his only son was a worthless burden to him, just a mouth to feed at his expense. That was why, from the boy's earliest age, he had always sent him far away to boarding school during the school year and to summer camp during the summer.

Likewise, when journalists mentioned his childhood, Erwin refused to admit that he might have had any nocturnal terrors, and referred to children prey to such fears as "fools who will never get ahead in life."

That evening, he finally returned home after a long and boring business meeting at his office. He even noted with joy that his son was gone. Mike, his offspring, had expressed his repulsion a few days earlier about going to summer camp, announcing that, no matter what Erwin would say, he would go on a humanitarian trip to Africa to dig wells in water-deprived villages.

Good riddance! Erwin had of course agreed. He could never have hoped to be further away from that boil, even if he did not understand the point of going to Africa. If those people wanted wells, they could dig them themselves after all!

To finally relax from his day, he poured himself a glass of whiskey before quietly sitting down in his luxurious leather armchair, which had cost him an arm. He was going to open a book on the politics of rich countries when a noise from upstairs reached him.

Was the boil not gone yet?

Furious to be disturbed during his moment of rest, he set down his glass, his book, and stood up to walk towards the grand staircase.

"Mike! Why are you still here? What have you broken now, you little demon?"

No response reached him for a long time. Perhaps his cowardly son was too scared to face him, preferring to hide. When Erwin reached the top of the stairs, he discovered with horror one of his Ming vases, bought for over a million, shattered into pieces at the base of its stand. Enraged, the businessman immediately headed towards his son's room, crudely decorated with hard rock posters and depressing gothic paintings, but it was empty. The absence of a suitcase under the bed - always within reach since he often left - indicated that he had been gone for a while. Another noise was heard on the ground floor. Was there a thief who had dared to enter his home? In his luxury villa? And that stupid alarm that wasn't working!

He rushed down the stairs to the living room, finding his glass shattered on the floor, and his precious armchair torn open along its entire length. However, nothing had disappeared from his various art collections worth a fortune. Had an animal dared to sneak into his house? Growling, he hastily picked up the broken glass to roughly clean the alcohol-soaked carpet. He wasn't used to doing that, but the maid only came in the afternoon, so someone had to do it now.

He then went back upstairs for a relaxing shower, but this time, as he had barely turned on the water, a crash behind him made him jump. Immediately opening the shower door, he found nothing but the broken mirror. There was also a message, written in the condensation on the only remaining piece on the wall. 

"Do you remember your old friend?"

This time, someone was definitely playing a trick on him! But as he tried to open the door to call out and warn this mysterious intruder, he was shocked to find that the door was still perfectly closed from the inside. And the only small window in the room, besides being tiny, was barred. He was alone in a room locked from the inside, with the door as the only way out.