The Nightmaretaker- The Man Possessed By The Devil »

Martin began to notice changes in himself he could not dismiss as fatigue. His reflection in the window one morning had a dark smear behind his shoulder like charcoal. Once he lifted his hands and saw the shadow of a pen between his fingers though he did not hold one. At times he spoke aloud and his voice answered slightly late, as if another mouth echoed what he said a breath behind. The ledger's presence made small mistakes in the world—lights that blinked, clocks that lost minutes. People began to speak of him in the staff room with an odd mixture of gratitude and unease.

That night he placed the slip beside the ledger and did something he had not done since the choice became a practice: he hesitated. He wrote the entry and then he smudged it deliberately before it dried. The smudge looked like a small mercy, the way his thumb could make a blot of ink into a softening. Then he reached into his coat and put the pen away where the man could not find it. The Nightmaretaker- The Man Possessed by the Devil

| Method | Effectiveness | |--------|---------------| | Sleeping in a different location every night | Low (he finds you within 3 nights) | | Keeping a light on at all times | Medium (he prefers dark but adapts) | | Daily salt lines at windows & doors | Medium (slows entry by 45 minutes) | | Sharing a bed with someone who has no fear of him | High (his possession requires targeted fear) | | Receiving a (rare ritual by a nightmare priest) | Very High (lasts 1 year) | Martin began to notice changes in himself he