THE DEVIL WITHIN #WITWContest

Devon dragged himself through the front door, each step heavier than the last. His body throbbed with pain, his mind dull after enduring yet another day of relentless bullying. He didn't hear his mother calling from the kitchen, nor the wind chimes tinkling softly on the porch. The world felt distant, muted.

All he wanted was his bed - a place to collapse, to vanish into a sleep where no one could reach him. He slipped into his room, shut the door, and fell onto the mattress, the familiar scent of the sheets wrapping around him like a shield.

But as his eyes closed, something shifted. The air thickened. The quiet felt too deep. The bed beneath him... breathed, as though it were alive, waiting.