3 parts Complete MatureDeep in the countryside, where the wind filtered through the trees like a whisper of forgotten secrets, lived a simple family. Their house, built of tired wood and a corroded tin roof, was little more than a refuge from the endless solitude of the night. However, beneath that apparent rural calm, something disturbing awaited.
At first, it was just noises: erratic footsteps in the hallway, the creaking of the walls, that tightness in the chest that arises when someone-or something-is watching you from the shadows. The family wanted to think it was the wind, perhaps a stray animal. But the children began to talk about him... the crooked man.
They described him crouching in corners, bent at impossible angles, with a distorted smile that belonged on no human face. As night fell, his silhouette stretched and twisted in the corners, advancing with a halting gait, always a little closer to their beds.
The crooked man was in no hurry. He amused himself with them, feeding off the fear that grew in the house, certain that sooner or later the family would understand the truth: no one escaped his gaze. And when he finally achieved his goal, only silence would remain... and that crooked smile, forever etched in their memories.