He Was Already There

Mia didn’t respond to Jake right away. Instead, she scrolled back to one more clip, earlier than any she’d checked so far. It was from the night before they brought Ava home, when the crib was still empty, the room freshly arranged, untouched. She hadn’t expected to find anything.

The camera footage started as usual, the nursery dim and still. But just after 2:13 a.m., the feed glitched. Static flashed across the screen. And when it cleared, the crib remained empty—but something moved near the baseboard—a faint shadow. Nimbus had come that night, too! He wasn’t reacting to her; he had been waiting for her.