One night, Rick began whining insistently, and his barking grew stronger. I was tired of the tension — I couldn’t spend another sleepless night listening to sounds only he seemed to hear.

I grabbed my flashlight, threw on a jacket, and brought the old folding ladder from the storage room. My heart was pounding strangely — from irritation, from worry, or maybe because I finally wanted to put an end to this.

Rick calmly but deliberately stepped aside, staring upward. I climbed up. The ventilation grille hung slightly askew — I don’t think I’d ever noticed it before. I thought to myself: “Finally — must be a mouse or something trivial.” I removed the grille — and at that very moment, I saw something terrifying  Continuation in the first comment