<p>The darkness wasn’t empty.<br/></p><p><br/></p><p>I could feel it—warm breath inches from my face, the mattress dipping beside me, something shifting its weight slowly, deliberately, like it wanted me to know it was settling in.</p><p><br/></p><p>I tried to move.</p><p><br/></p><p>I couldn’t.</p><p><br/></p><p>My body felt pinned by invisible hands pressing down on my chest. All I could hear was my own shallow breathing… and something else. A low chuckle, so soft it felt like it vibrated inside my skull rather than in the air.</p><p><br/></p><p>“Do you want the lights back, Sochi?”</p><p>The devil’s voice was mockingly gentle—almost playful.</p><p><br/></p><p>I didn’t answer.</p><p><br/></p><p>I couldn’t answer.</p><p><br/></p><p>A sharp fingertip traced a line down my arm. It wasn’t a touch—it was a claim, slow and deliberate. My skin burned where it dragged, like the heat was sinking under my flesh.</p><p><br/></p><p>“You should have said goodnight,” it whispered.</p><p><br/></p><p>The light flickered once—just enough for a flash of its silhouette. Tall. Bent. Wrong. The instant I saw it, the light snapped out again as if the room itself was terrified to keep looking.</p><p><br/></p><p>Something cold pressed against my ear.</p><p><br/></p><p>A mouth.</p><p><br/></p><p>“Do you know why I came out tonight?” it breathed.</p><p>“I come out when you stop pretending you aren’t afraid of me.”</p><p><br/></p><p>My heartbeat thundered.</p><p><br/></p><p>Then slowly… painfully slowly… the weight lifted.</p><p><br/></p><p>The presence slid off the bed. I could hear its feet on the floor—bare, wet, dragging slightly like something heavy clung to them. It moved back toward the closet.</p><p><br/></p><p>But it didn’t go inside.</p><p><br/></p><p>Instead, the devil stood at the doorway, half in shadow, half in my room. I still couldn’t see its face—just the shape of its grin glowing faintly red.</p><p><br/></p><p>“You thought the closet was my prison,” it said softly.</p><p>“But it was yours.”</p><p><br/></p><p>The closet door shut.</p><p><br/></p><p>The room fell silent.</p><p><br/></p><p>For five whole minutes, nothing moved. I didn’t breathe. I didn’t blink. I waited for the devil to open the door again… but it didn’t.</p><p><br/></p><p>Eventually, trembling, I reached for my phone to turn on the flashlight.</p><p><br/></p><p>The screen wouldn’t turn on.</p><p><br/></p><p>Dead.</p><p><br/></p><p>Even though I had charged it an hour ago.</p><p><br/></p><p>I forced myself to sit up, heart still hammering, and stared at the closet. The room was quiet now—too quiet. I almost convinced myself it was over.</p><p><br/></p><p>Then I noticed something.</p><p><br/></p><p>The closet door was wrong.</p><p><br/></p><p>There were scratches on it now—long, fresh, and deep enough to peel away chunks of wood. They hadn’t been there before.</p><p><br/></p><p>And carved into the center, crooked and shaky like someone did it while laughing, were four words:</p><p><br/></p><p>“SEE YOU TOMORROW, SOCHI.”</p><p><br/></p><p>The air froze.</p><p><br/></p><p>My breath turned white.</p><p><br/></p><p>And behind the door…</p><p><br/></p><p>something tapped back.</p>
At the end of the month, we give out prizes in 3 categories: Best Content, Top Engagers and
Most Engaged Content.
Best Content
We give out cash prizes to 7 people with the best insights in the past month. The 7 winners are picked
by an in-house selection process.
The winners are NOT picked from the leaderboards/rankings, we choose winners based on the quality, originality
and insightfulness of their content.
Top Engagers
For the Top Engagers Track, we award the top 3 people who engage the most with other user's content via
comments.
The winners are picked using the "Monthly Engagers" tab on the rankings page.
Most Engaged Content
The Most Engaged Content recognizes users whose content received the most engagement during the month.
We pick the top 3.
The winners are picked using the "Monthly Contributors" tab on the rankings page.
Here are a few other things to know for the Best Content track
1
Quality over Quantity — You stand a higher chance of winning by publishing a few really good insights across the entire month,
rather than a lot of low-quality, spammy posts.
2
Share original, authentic, and engaging content that clearly reflects your voice, thoughts, and opinions.
3
Avoid using AI to generate content—use it instead to correct grammar, improve flow, enhance structure, and boost clarity.
4
Explore audio content—high-quality audio insights can significantly boost your chances of standing out.
5
Use eye-catching cover images—if your content doesn't attract attention, it's less likely to be read or engaged with.
6
Share your content in your social circles to build engagement around it.
Contributor Rankings
The Contributor Rankings shows the Top 20 Contributors on TwoCents a monthly and all-time basis.
The all-time ranking is based on the Contributor Score, which is a measure of all the engagement and exposure a contributor's content receives.
The monthly score sums the score on all your insights in the past 30 days. The monthly and all-time scores are calcuated DIFFERENTLY.
This page also shows the top engagers on TwoCents — these are community members that have engaged the most with other user's content.
Contributor Score
Here is a list of metrics that are used to calcuate your contributor score, arranged from
the metric with the highest weighting, to the one with the lowest weighting.
4
Comments (excluding replies)
5
Upvotes
6
Views
1
Number of insights published
2
Subscriptions received
3
Tips received
Below is a list of badges on TwoCents and their designations.
Comments