text: I hid under my blanket. My flashlight perched against my shoulder, while the book was firmly in my grasp. I intently read each word carefully, as the music of the radio played in the background. A waltz tune dragged on and I was beginning to get tired of listening to it. Hopefully, it would change soon. And that wish eventually came true. But not in the way that I had expected. Static. A drawn-out staticky tune played. It was the same waltz, but it was too unintelligible to decipher. I pulled the blanket off from over my head. The smell of the room hit my nose for it had been isolated from me until now. I peered around in the darkened area. The only light that I could see was the slight blue twinge from my radio. I stared at it. I stepped out of bed and I puzzled over its malfunction. Attempting to extended the antenna towards the window was met with no results. I smacked my hand against the wooden top, but all it did was make the machine sputtered more. And on the final strike that I laid against it, I heard the voice. *“Colder,”* it said. I tried to switch the stations, but each had the same message. *Colder* As I checked behind the dresser that it was perched on, I found the plug and pulled it out of the wall socket. But still. *Colder* I held the radio in my hands and listened to the voice. It was the voice of a child. A boy. It was a prank. At least that’s what I told myself. I prepared to go to the garage and throw it in the trash. Before it said its next word. *Warmer* My heart skipped a beat. The hairs on the back of my neck spiked so suddenly at that one word. I stepped back towards the dresser. *Colder* I stopped and headed for the door. *Warmer* Ambling into the hallway, I stared down at the radio. The slight waltz continued to play. My feet pattered against the carpeted floor. *Warmer* The gloomy house bore down on me more and more. My vision began to tunnel and the structures around me were nearly void. I reached the stairs and looked down at the landing. However, I focused not on it, but on the radio that could see me... feel my presence. *Warmer* Each measure of the stairway made me more and more anxious as to when it would speak next. And soon it had. When I was near the storage space. *Hotter* This was it. This is where it was taking me. The space underneath the stairs. I reached for its handle. My hand quaked at the prospect. The nervous heartbeat that thumped against my temples. The horror that the voice had caused me, and how easily I obliged to its wishes. I opened the door. *Hot* Those final words. The darkness inside the space. The shadowy claws that outstretched from within. It’s coil-like limbs reaching around me. My eyes dilated at its shapeless morph. It curled around me. Under my arms, twisting over my legs. My shirt tore to pieces, and my pyjama bottoms did so as well. It pulled me in. The radio fell out of my hands and clattered against the ground. Shattering to pieces. But the light still pressed on long after the darkness had ceased, and once more it chimed.