Hands reached out from the old TV screen - to embrace as friends, they said. Each breath rattled through their lungs like water being forced through bellows as their eyes flickered from the confused child to the terrified parent standing at the doorway, frozen with fear and pale as death.
The bedside lamp's light seemed to distort over the creature's skin, falling into crevices that weren't visibly there and sending shadows of countless other limbs flailing across the walls all around them. With every blink of the child's puzzled little eyes, another set of hands appeared in the shadows.
Only the parent noticed claws slowly emerging from the shadows, little pinpricks of concentrated darkness gradually breaking into the room all pointing towards the child. They were entranced by the voice, now voices, calling them a friend and asking if they could hold hands.
Tears began to cloud the parent's eyes as they realised they still couldn't move an inch, as they realised they were being held back, as they realised that even if they did break free they would still be too late to act. All those clawed hands were no longer shadows and were inches away from the preoccupied child.
The second the parent was released they leapt to save the child who vanished in the same moment.
Their frightened face briefly flickered on the TV screen before it shut down, never to work again.
One more soul gathered, one less working portal to their world.
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