Soft humming emanated from the small attic room, accompanied by rhythmic thumps. Vina stopped just outside its old wooden door, her hand barely touching the doorknob. She hesitated and took a deep breath in an attempt to calm her jumpy nerves. Her other hand subconsciously clenched into a fist and she had to flex it multiple times before it relaxed at her side.

After what seemed like an eternity, she finally turned the doorknob and entered the dark room. The single window that overlooked the back garden had been obscured by the black curtains that hung awkwardly a few feet off the ground. The only source of light came from a dim table lamp that illuminated the hunched figure rocking back and forth.

“Kay.”

The humming stopped. Vina crossed her arms over her chest as the figure turned around to face her, the lamp casting its dull yellow light on the young girl’s pale face. Her large blue eyes stared blankly into Vina’s, her left hand still twiddling a pen.

“Do you want to tell me about this?” Vina said calmly as she held out a sheet of paper.

The girl, Kay, took the paper from Vina and her eyes quickly scanned through its contents.

“It’s my English essay, Mum,” she replied after a few seconds.

A small sigh escaped Vina’s lips and she fumbled around, searching for the chair she knew was somewhere behind her.

“Kay, do you mind if I turn on the lights?”

Kay gave a small, almost imperceptible nod. Vina hit the switch and immediately, the room was bathed in white light. Kay flinched from the brightness, grabbing a baseball cap from her desk to shield her eyes.

Vina grimaced slightly at her daughter’s actions. Since Kay was young, she had always been somewhat fearful of the light, almost as if the light hurt her skin. The dark comforted her. When she went out, she would make sure that her clothes covered her entire body. A cap or an umbrella protected her face. In their house, lights were dimmed so that there was only enough brightness for them to see and move around safely.

Even now, she could see that Kay was uncomfortable. Her fingers drummed a silent beat on her knees and her feet tapped the floor in unison. It was something she did to keep her mind off things that unnerved her.

“Kay, honey, you wrote this essay yourself right?” Vina tried to get her daughter to focus on her.

Kay nodded, her eyes flitting to her mother and then to the paper in her hands.

“Your teacher read it and was very concerned about what you’ve written. I read it as well, Kay.” Vina paused for effect.

Earlier in the afternoon, she had received a call from Kay’s form teacher. He had been disturbed by what Kay had written in her homework and wanted to find out whether something was wrong. The essay was a mere 500 words but that was enough to send a chill through Vina’s veins.

The topic of the homework was to imagine an unusual situation. Kay had written about a world where dogs were monsters and terrorized kids. And then one day, they just magically disappeared because a young child stood up to them. Nobody knew how it happened but the rumor was that the young child had been possessed by the lord of darkness and had done his bidding by mercilessly slaughtering all the dogs. Still, what mattered was the result, and the child was hailed as a hero.

Vina knew that Kay had been terrified by dogs recently. Their neighbor had a large bulldog that barked at anyone that came close to the house. One day when Kay’s cap had blown into their neighbor’s front porch, she had gone to retrieve it but almost got bitten by the dog as a result. From that day, she avoided all dogs and each time a dog appeared in her vision, she would hiss in fear and freeze in her spot.

Still, that did not explain the gore and evil present in her story. The way she had written it implied that she was the young hero and that bothered Vina even more. It was never easy understanding what went on in Kay’s mind.

Her odd behavior and mannerisms manifested when she was only 3 years old. Vina had brought her to doctors and psychologists, and most of them concurred after the neural imaging scan that Kay’s mental deviancy leaned towards some form of autism. Even then, Kay had a peculiar way of thinking and reacting that they could not diagnose. It had stayed with her until now despite all the adjustment therapy and tuning medication that she went through.

So it was with much trepidation and anxiety that Vina now sat in front of her daughter, trying to understand her flesh and blood that seemed more like a stranger at times like this.

“Tell me, Kay. Do you envision yourself as the hero? The hero who’s possessed by this lord of darkness?” Vina quietly asked.

When Kay did not answer, she tried probing her more. “Do you want to, like the hero, take a machete and kill all dogs in this world? Is that what you’re thinking?”

Kay glanced at Vina with fear, her left hand now twirling the pen furiously. Vina took the pen away from her and clasped Kay’s hands in hers. “I’m not angry with you, Kay. I just want to know whether this is what you’re thinking. I want to understand you.”

A few seconds lapsed in silence before Kay finally answered, “No, Mum. I just wanted the story to be more interesting. That’s all…”

Vina sighed in relief. “Alright. It’s ok, Kay. I understand.”

She got up and patted her daughter on the head. “I’ll get back to work then. Call you when dinner’s ready.”

As she left, she turned the light off, returning the room to darkness. Before the door closed behind her, she glanced back to look at Kay. Her daughter’s blue eyes seemed to glow and a thin smile was etched on her lips. It seemed almost… evil.