> I See You
>  by Horned Eclipse
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> The Closet
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Applebloom laid in her bed. She tried to stay as still as possible. A few seconds ago, she was awoken by a sound. Something was moving in her room. It sounded like some sort of scraping, as if claws were dragged against wood. She wanted to get up and look to see what made the odd noise, but the more she thought about it, the less that option seemed like the safest choice.
Now she doesn't dare move. Quickly, she glanced at the clock on the table beside her. It was midnight. Big Mac and Granny Smith were at a doctor's office that night; he thought he had sprained something while bucking apples and had gone to get it checked. They left a few hours ago and would probably be gone all night. Her sister had volunteered to stay to take care of her, so maybe Applejack had made the noise.
She could have gotten up, maybe to check on something outside or to get a snack. Or, the noise could possibly have been Winona, her dog, but there was one problem to that thought. Winona was currently at Fluttershy's cottage because she had gotten sick the day before. Fluttershy, being the kind mare she is, had offered to help her. 
However, if it was her sibling, why would the noise have sounded so different? She needed to find out what it was, but she didn't exactly know how without getting out of her bed. That was currently not an option. So the next best thing would be to sit and wait. A few minutes passed, and she didn't hear anything. Maybe it left? Or maybe it was waiting for her to fall asleep. There was no positive way to tell, but she couldn't just let it stay there. Her family could be in trouble, and if she stayed where she is, then they would stay asleep. And maybe if she didn't do anything, they would never wake up. 
A few more minutes passed, and she knew there was no other way. She gathered all of the confidence she could and turned her head to face her closet and her doorway. She didn't see anything, but it was too dark to really tell. A tear ran down her face, and she peered back at the doorway nervously. She needed to see the edges of her room to make progress. She looked at the table beside her. Not only was her clock on it, but so was her lamp. 
She reached a trembling hoof over the side of her bed and reached for her lamp. She leaned her body further to the edge of the bed to reach it. She felt her hoof touch the cold metal and quickly turned it on. She spun in her bed and her gaze flew across the room. Despite what she had expected, everything seemed complet- there's something in the mirror. 
There was a black shadowy figure that practically consumed the wall on the other side of her bed. It had small beady red eyes and long ravenous fangs dripping with saliva. And.. was that blood on it's teeth? Applebloom blinked and it had vanished. She scanned the room, and especially the wall beside her. It was as if nothing had happened. But she knew that wasn't true. 
She slowly slid out of her bed and opened a drawer in her table. After sifting through old newspaper pages she had kept and pictures of her family and friends, she found what she was looking for. She pulled out an old kerosene lantern along with a bottle of oil and closed the drawer. She blew the dust off of it and filled the lantern with the fuel. She quickly lit the lamp and took it's handle in her mouth.  
Slowly, she walked over to her door and glanced out at the hallway. On her right were the stairs that lead to the living room, and to her left was a dark hallway that lead to her family's rooms. She stepped outside her room and heard a deafening crack, then glass shattering. Suddenly, the all the light in her room expired. She was plunged into darkness with nothing but her faint lantern light to illuminate her surroundings. 
She whirled around to face her room. She bit down hard on the lantern's handle to stop from screaming. Her lamp was in pieces on the floor. It looked as if the light bulb inside it had erupted. She needed to get her family awake, and fast. She left her room and stepped into the hallway. She walked timidly forward until she found a door on her left. Applebloom let out a small sigh of relief as she lifted her hoof to open her sister's door. However, the door creaked open before she could touch it. Gently, she pushed the door wide enough to step in. 
"Applejack?" she spoke into the murky blackness of the room. She fearfully stepped into the room and over to her sister's bed. She saw Applejack laying in her bed, abnormally still. No breathing could be heard besides her own panicked breath. She was laying on her side, facing away from Applebloom. She slowly laid a hoof on Applejack's shoulder. Her body was terribly cold. She lightly shook her, yet her sister did not respond. 
Her hoof began to shake as a shiver began to take hold of her. She gently turned Applejack over to face her. Applebloom let out and ear-piercing wail and barely kept the lantern in her mouth as she backed away from the bed. Applejack had a deep gash running down her forehead to her muzzle, and blood was pooling around her body. Her jaw was completely dislocated and hung from her skull. 
Applebloom bolted out of the room and ran down the hallway to the stairs. Once she made it to the living room, she sprinted to the door. She attempted to turn the door knob, but it wouldn't budge. 
Applebloom cried out for help desperately, and begged for the door to open. The door remained locked all the same. She rushed up to her room and over to the window. She furiously tried to pry it open, but it too remained tightly shut. She turned around, preparing to sprint to the other rooms, but the door slammed shut and locked. 
She began to sob. She started frantically searching the room for anything that could possibly help, but she found nothing. She slowly walked over and sat down on her bed. Her sobs shook her body, and she wished it was all just a nightmare. The small flame inside her lantern went out, and she knew she was terribly wrong. She was too late.






A young filly sat in the darkness of her room, a dead lantern beside her. Her sister forever gone, and the rest of her family blissfully ignorant of the horror inside their own home. The filly glanced at the clock on her bedside table. It had stopped ticking and was forever stuck at midnight. She sighed in defeat and turned her sorrowful gaze towards the darkness inside her open closet. The darkness gazed back and grinned. 
 "Time's up."