Night Owls

Jerry glanced down at the photograph in his hand, then back up again at the woman sitting alone at the back of the cafe.

She certainly looked like the woman in the photograph but something about her…energy felt off. The woman in the photograph looked vibrant, filled with life, love, vitality. The woman in the cafe here, she felt like a void. The absence of the essence of life.

All at once a blinding light coursed through the space. Jerry and the woman froze. And then a creature appeared, seemingly from the air itself.

The absence of noise was the loudest, most bone-chilling event Jerry had ever experienced in his long life.