The Sisters Nightmare

Chapter 11: The Humiliation and the Hinter

The shopping mall incident stayed glued to everybody’s mind long after they left the building. You know the kind of humiliation that doesn’t just sting physically, it crawls under your skin and keeps replaying itself over and over? That was exactly what happened to Vera.

Meanwhile, inside Mrs. Janny’s car, the atmosphere could not have been more different. Laughter. Pure shameless laughter. Aurelia was still acting out the slap with exaggerated slow motion, throwing her hand dramatically through the air while the younger girls screamed with amusement. “I swear the sound echoed across the whole mall,” one of the daughters said, holding her stomach. “No,” Luna interrupted, finally smiling for the first time in days, “the best part was her face after the second slap. She looked like her soul disconnected from her body.”

That nearly sent everybody into another round of hysterics. Even Mrs. Janny herself was laughing now, though there was still a tiny piece of guilt sitting at the back of her chest. She tried hiding it, but it was there. The slap had felt satisfying in the moment, maybe too satisfying.

Then there was Kiternater. The small kitten sat quietly near the car window, tail moving lazily. Outwardly, he looked harmless. Cute, even. But the creature behind those glowing eyes was not harmless. Not even close. He had watched everything at the mall carefully. The insults. The tension. The slap. The humiliation dripping from Vera’s face afterward. And somehow, in his cold alien reasoning, he found it fascinating.

Humans slapped each other over pride. Over emotion. Over betrayal. To Kiternater, it resembled dominance rituals between predators. He liked it. No… more than liked it. He wanted to participate. His tiny mouth stretched slightly into something that looked dangerously close to a grin. The ultimate slap, he thought.

Back at the shopping mall parking lot, Vera sat inside the car trembling with humiliation. Mascara stains ran down her cheeks while angry tears rolled endlessly from her eyes. People were still staring. That was the worst part. Not the pain. Not even the slap itself. The witnesses. She could still hear the sound in her head. PAH!

Especially Janny’s own. That one carried weight behind it. Years of resentment compressed into a single strike. Then Aurelia followed it. A daughter slapping her father’s new wife in public? The disrespect of it burned hotter than fire. And Kelvin… her husband… had done nothing. Absolutely nothing.

When Kelvin finally approached the car, he already knew he was entering dangerous territory. Vera didn’t even look at him immediately. She just stared ahead silently while breathing hard.

“Vera…”

“Take me home.”

Her voice came out cold. Kelvin sighed. “Listen, things got out of hand—”

“Take me home.”

Mrs. Janny had tried apologizing before they left the mall parking lot. Ironically, that made things worse. Vera interpreted the apology as pity, and pity was poison to wounded pride. Now the silence inside the vehicle felt unbearable. Kelvin kept gripping the steering wheel tighter. Military training had taught him how to handle gunfire, explosions, ambushes. But emotional warfare from an angry wife? That was a completely different battlefield.

Back at their house, the tension only thickened. The nanny caring for Edwin and Berry had already fallen asleep on the couch after exhausting herself with the twins. The television flickered quietly in the background while soft baby noises echoed from upstairs. Vera entered the house looking emotionally wrecked. Then she suddenly snapped. “Did the world just plan to get me upset today?!”

The nanny startled awake immediately. “S-sorry ma’am, the babies are—”

“Quiet.”

That single word carried venom. Without hesitation, Vera reduced the woman’s payment brutally. What was supposed to be seventy dollars became seventeen. Seventeen. For three hours. The nanny stared at the money in disbelief. “You can’t be serious…”

“I paid you, didn’t I?” Vera shot back.

The woman’s expression changed instantly. Not anger exactly. More like crushed frustration. She grabbed the money slowly and left without another word. Kelvin noticed it was unfair, but he was already too mentally exhausted to start another argument tonight. Upstairs, Vera refused to cook. Refused to speak. Refused even to acknowledge Kelvin’s existence.

Meanwhile, across town, Janny’s house remained alive with excitement. The daughters were still discussing the slap like sports analysts replaying a championship moment. “I’m telling you, Mom rotated her shoulder before impact.” “That’s why the sound was so clean!” Even Luna, who had spent days emotionally distant, was now laughing openly. Janny shook her head while smiling. “All of you are terrible.” “No,” Aurelia corrected proudly, “we’re supportive.”

More laughter. Only Kiternater remained silent. Watching. Calculating. Unlike humans, he didn’t process morality emotionally. He processed outcomes. Fear. Pain. Predator. Prey. That was how his species interpreted existence. And tonight, Vera had been selected as prey.

Hours later, the atmosphere inside Kelvin’s house had become unnaturally still. The kind of silence that feels wrong. Vera lay on the bed staring at the ceiling, unable to sleep. Anger still crawled beneath her skin like insects. Then her phone rang. Unknown number. She frowned before answering.

“Hello?”

Static. Then a voice. Cold. Distorted. “You didn’t pay me… now I’m dead.”

Vera sat upright immediately. “What?”

“You caused it.”

The line cut off. She stared at the phone. Then it rang again. Same number. Her heartbeat increased. Slowly, she answered. “You didn’t pay me… now I’m dead.”

The voice sounded closer this time. Almost wet. Like someone speaking through blood. Vera’s breathing became uneven. “Who is this?!”

“You caused it.”

Click. Again the line died.

By the third call, fear had fully entered the room. “You didn’t pay me… now I’m dead.”

Then suddenly—THE VOICE CONTINUED FROM INSIDE THE WALL. Not the phone. The wall. “You caused it!”

The bedroom exploded into chaos. BOOM. The bed shook violently like something massive had slammed into the house itself. Mirrors shattered instantly. Glass sprayed across the room. The wardrobe doors burst open. The walls trembled. Cracks spread across the ceiling. Vera screamed so loudly her throat nearly tore apart.

Then came another impact. BAM! The bed frame snapped underneath her. Lights flickered wildly. Kelvin stormed upstairs instantly. “What the hell is going on?!” He kicked the bedroom door open and froze. The room looked like a tornado had ripped through it. Broken mirrors. Destroyed furniture. Pieces of wood everywhere. And Vera crouched near the corner shaking uncontrollably.

Kelvin’s military instincts activated immediately. He scanned everything rapidly. Entry point. Windows. Threat locations. But none of it made sense. “How did this happen?!”

“I-I don’t know!”

Before he could respond—A HAND BURST OUT OF THE WALL. Not metaphorically. Literally. A pale human hand shot out from solid concrete with horrifying speed. SLAP!

The impact sounded like a gunshot. Vera’s head snapped sideways violently. Then the hand disappeared back into the wall instantly. Kelvin stumbled backward in shock. Even combat experience could not prepare someone for that. For the first time in years, genuine fear entered his chest. Vera screamed again, clutching her cheek. Her skin was burning. Actually burning. Smoke lightly rose from the slap mark as if her flesh had touched heated metal.

Kelvin forced himself to stay composed. Think. Protect. Move. That training saved him from panicking completely. He grabbed Vera immediately and rushed her downstairs toward the car outside. She was crying uncontrollably now. “What is happening?! Kelvin, what is happening?!”

“I don’t know.”

And that terrified him even more. After getting her into the vehicle, he turned back toward the house. “The twins.” He ran back inside.

The moment he entered the living room, he froze again. The nanny stood there calmly holding Edwin and Berry. Except something felt wrong. Very wrong. Her posture. Too stiff. Too still. Her eyes looked strangely empty.

“You didn’t give me my money,” she said quietly.

Kelvin slowly stepped backward. “Who are you?”

“Then you will understand… when it’s too late.”

Outside, Vera sat trembling in the car. But maternal instinct overpowered fear. Her babies were still inside. She couldn’t stay outside. Grabbing her handgun from the glove compartment, she quietly returned into the house. Her breathing shook violently as she entered. Then she saw the nanny. Standing motionless. Holding the twins. Vera raised the gun immediately. “Put my children down!”

The nanny slowly turned. And smiled. That smile wasn’t human. Vera fired. BANG! The bullet struck directly through the nanny’s forehead. For half a second, silence filled the house. Then the body twitched. Its skin began tearing apart. Not bleeding. Changing. Kelvin grabbed Berry instantly while stumbling backward.

The nanny’s body expanded grotesquely. Bones cracked loudly. Skin split open. Something massive forced itself outward from inside the disguise. The ceiling suddenly exploded upward. Wood and concrete blasted into the night sky. And there it was. Kiternater’s true form. An enormous alien dragon towering above the ruined house.

Black scales reflected moonlight like wet oil. Its glowing eyes burned with predatory intelligence. Rows of monstrous teeth flexed slowly while saliva dripped onto the floor in thick streams. Vera stared upward in absolute horror. The tiny kitten from Janny’s house was gone. This thing was ancient-looking. Like a living nightmare.

Then Edwin cried. One tiny helpless cry. The dragon moved instantly. Fast. Too fast. Its jaws snapped downward—CRUNCH. The sound alone was enough to break a human mind. Vera’s scream became inhuman. The creature swallowed Edwin completely.

Kelvin barely managed to save Berry before the dragon’s tail smashed through the walls again. The house shook violently. Dust filled the air. Furniture crushed beneath the creature’s massive limbs. Vera collapsed instantly after witnessing her baby being eaten alive. She fainted.

Kelvin stood there holding Berry tightly against his chest while staring at the monster before him. His wife is unconscious. One son dead. His home destroyed. And the creature watching him with cold amusement. Not rage. Not emotion. Amusement. Because to Kiternater, this wasn’t revenge. This was hunting. And hunting, to creatures like him, was just another game.