It scraped across the wooden floor like the clawed feet of mice scrambling across boards—though far larger than any mouse had a right to be—as it disturbed the peaceful silence of night. Moonlight slipped through the blinds, throwing bands of light across an otherwise darkened room, illuminating the various articles of clothing littering the floor. In one corner, across from the bedroom closet, sat the large bed Tanya had all to herself.

Her room. Her bed. Hers.

But tonight, it all felt alien.

Ever since her kidnapping by the hands of those thugs, Tanya hadn’t gotten an ounce of sound sleep. Every time the fifteen-year-old closed her eyes, something dark and unseen crept its way into the depths of her dreams.

And tonight was no exception.

*Scuttle*

“Hello?” she whispered, her voice laden with fear.

Nothing answered, but the moonlight continued to make odd shadows dance across her room.

*Scuttle*

“Is—is anyone there?” she whispered again, mustering a little more courage into her weakened voice. She didn’t know what made her feel so…insecure and afraid. She was the Shimizu heir, a prodigy, and a talented user of lifeforce. Even without a kami, she was perfectly able to fend for herself.

But the kidnapping had struck a severe blow to her confidence.

And there was also that…thing.

*Scrape*

“There’s no use hiding. I can hear you. I know you’re there.” She tried to sound brave, but the nervous quiver in her voice betrayed her. “Come out now, and I won’t be mad.” Her eyes cast another glance around the room, as if trying to pierce through the darkness. “I promise.”

Once again, Tanya was met with nothing but palpable silence.

She warily watched the edge of her bed, ready for anything to appear, but when nothing happened, she knew she was the one who had to make the first move. Swallowing nervously, she crawled on her hands and knees, making her way forward. She had barely lowered her head enough to look into the pitch-black darkness beneath—

“I am not under the bed, young one.”

The voice came as a thin whisper, right next to her ear. Tanya could feel something cold breathing down her neck, and she shrieked loudly, before losing her balance and falling headfirst onto the cold wooden floor. Lifeforce flooded into her arms and legs and her instincts kicked in.

“Who—whoever you are, don’t come near me!” Tanya warbled. “I’ll—I’ll kill—”

“Of course you will, youngling. That is what you’re born to be.”

*Scuttle*

Managing to limit her reaction to the barest of flinches, Tanya flooded her palm with lifeforce. It glowed with a familiar blue light, one of the easiest tricks her father had taught her with the esoteric power.

What wasn’t familiar to her, however, was the eerie coldness that accompanied it.

She couldn’t help but shiver as the strange voice laughed in the darkness.

What was happening?

“Stop laughing!” Tanya yelled, no longer holding back her tears. “Who—whoever you are, stop playing your dirty tricks with me.”

“Oh, but I am not, youngling.”

She had long ago learned about the spirits that roamed the lands during the Black Moon Rising. Things that the wards of their homes kept them safe from. Wraiths, spirits, monsters of the vilest kind that made people’s skins crawl by mere mention of their name.

“Listen,” she intoned, putting on a brave face despite the wetness of her cheeks. “My father is very strong. He’ll kill you no matter what you are. So if you want to live, come out and face me!”

A brief silence followed the declaration, before it was broken.

“If you insist.”

Nothing happened.

“…Where are you?”

She felt a strange pressure on her skin from her left. Tanya turned, but found nothing except the ornate mirror on the edge of the bed.

“Come closer.”

She didn’t know why, but she crawled across the bed. Until she was right in front of the mirror.

That was when Tanya saw it.

Frost.

Spikes of ice jutted out from “her” right hand, coating the bed with sheets of dense hoarfrost. Tanya squealed and looked at her own hand, and found nothing. She looked back into the mirror. The frost was slowly climbing up her reflection’s entire right arm, like rings of thorns coiled around the stem of a rose, contorted in random meandering patterns. Jagged barbs, their chilling surfaces serrated like the edge of a knife, sat in rows across her skin. First her breasts, then her abdomen, her left shoulder and left hand, until her reflection appeared to be encrusted in frost.

“This is—this is—an illusion,” Tanya screamed, pushing herself back, touching her own skin. Everything felt normal. She glanced at the mirror again.

Glacial white eyes met oceanic blue.

“An illusion. That’s what this is,” she repeated. “YOU HEAR ME? I’M NOT AFRAID OF YOUR ILLUSION. I’M NOT AFRAID—”

Hoarfrost erupted out of her fingernails, coating them in white.

“LOOK AT ME!”

The command in that voice was so overwhelming that Tanya couldn’t fight it. Her entire body was shaking, her heart beating a million times a minute. Every bit of her instincts screamed at her to run away. To her father. To the elders. Someone. Anyone. They’d take care of this frost. Of this—of this—

Slowly, cautiously, she trudged toward the mirror.

She’d face it.

Face her distorted reflection.

Face her—

Wait. Where did she go?

The mirror was empty. There was no reflection. Nothing. It was as if she wasn’t standing in front of the mirror at all. It was like—

“Looking for me?”

Tanya whirled around, and looked up.

The creature in front of her looked absolutely fiendish, with two bulbous, blue eyes staring right at her. Tanya felt like she was sitting in the nude with the way its gaze stared right through her, as if it looked beyond her outer skin and flesh right at her soul.

A pair of sharp, ivory fangs showed themselves next.

Its arms were too large for its misshapen body.

Its hands were too large for its gargantuan arms.

It was…this was…a nightmare made manifest.

It was Frost.

And it had come for her.

“You—” Tanya pointed an erratically shaking finger toward it. “You’re a monster.”

“Yes,” the monster replied. “And you are me.”