My first poem in a while.

The office decided to celebrate Friday Funday by drawing names out of a hat for a surprise dare. Olivia pulled out “Basement.” Everyone laughed. Then they remembered the building did not have a basement. Still, she went looking. Olivia found a door she had never seen before. The handle was cold and wet, and felt ever so slightly sticky. Inside, everyone’s names were written on the walls. Each one had been crossed out except for hers. She never came back up, but something did,

You jolt awake in the dead of night, breath shallow, heart hammering. Something is there, lurking in the dark. You don’t need to see it to know it's there. The weight of its gaze presses against you; prickling every nerve and freezing you in place. Don’t move! Don’t breathe! If you stay still, maybe it won’t find you. But stillness is easy when terror has locked your body in chains. Paralyzed. Then comes the scrape. It is long and deliberate: The sound of claws dragging acros