Shurale

Every year, hundreds of thousands of people go missing around the world. Many will never be found.
Varenka presses herself against the smooth, cold wall of their stunted wooden house, hearing a huge gray humanoid creature trotting twenty centimeters away from her. Its long claws touch the glass and leave deep scratches. Varya tries not to breathe. For the first time in her five years of life, she feels such a dank all-consuming fear. This time she knows she won't be able to pinch herself and wake up, because everything that is happening now is happening in reality.
The monster peeks through the window, its eyes huge and glowing red meet the blue frightened eyes of Varenka's mom, huddled against the wall across from her daughter. Mom clamps her hand over her mouth and stares motionless at the shattering glass and the huge creature, covered in thick wrinkled skin, approaching her. Its long arm grabs the young woman by the neck, sharp claws dig into her flesh, and trickles of dark blood begin to glisten on the pale, soft skin, reflecting the light of the moon.
Mama looks at Varenka, ready to rush to her and scream, and shakes her head faintly. Varenka doesn't need to scream, she doesn't need this creature to know that there is a little girl here, otherwise Varenka too may meet her father's fate. The woman's blue eyes begin to see worse and worse, they are covered with tears of pain and fear, but she does not allow herself to scream, not until she sees a gray clawed hand reaching out from the darkness of the house to her little girl.