‘The humans are so weak.’

‘They hide from the very thing that would give them ultimate power.’

Xu and Yu crept through the silence of the suburban street, peering into windows and seeing nothing but sleeping humans.

They traced their skeletal grey talons against the glass, softly enough that the screech wouldn’t wake anyone.

‘Can you feel the power coursing through your veins, Yu?’

Xu looked at his companion with a sick look of glee on their face.

‘I can. I think it’s time. This is the one.’

The two crawlers had arrived at a Victorian-style mansion at the end of the street. Through the ground-floor window, they could see into the living room, where two boys and two girls were sleeping on mattresses on the carpet. A sleepover of friends who were afraid of the dark.

Xu and Yu pressed the decaying flesh of their faces against the window and started to make sucking noises with their piercing tongues.

‘I think we will feed well tonight, brother.’

‘The darkness has rewarded us well.’

The two creatures slunk into the house, in the dead of night, where no one could see the terror they were about to inflict.