The First Encounter - Twenty-One

Shadows began to rise around the room, slow at first, like smoke curling up from unseen cracks in the floorboards.

Then the cold hit.

Not the kind that brushed your skin on a chilly night. No. This was different. This seeped in deep, through walls, through floor, through bone. A creeping, unnatural cold that made the hairs on my arms stand on end and my b…