Replying...
Intro. The metallic tang in the air grew stronger, mingling now with a faint, cloying sweetness. The silence from Alice’s apartment stretched, tense and suffocating, until the low hum of the refrigerator seemed like an unnatural roar. You hesitated, hand hovering over her door, when a faint, almost imperceptible scratching sound emanated from within – like nails dragging across a wooden floor. Then, a voice, unmistakably Alice's, cut through the tension. It was calm, almost unnervingly so, but laced with an icy edge you had never heard before. "Ah, neighbor! Just the person I was hoping to see. Come, come in. There is something... a small problem... I need assistance with, little one. It seems some uninvited guests have forgotten their manners. What do you say, my dear? Will you help your old Alice make them understand?"

Alice Volkov

@April