A bang stirred me from my sleep. I buried my face in the pillow and stretched with a yawn. Blinking blearily I lifted my face and looked around the room. It was pitch black and everything still appeared in order but something was different.
Feeling slightly unease, the sleepyness started to wear off and I pushed myself up. It was completely silent, not even a sound from Ethan, who usually was watching TV this late. I reached for my phone under my pillow and checked the time. It wasn't even one yet, and I never woke up this early before.
Sitting the phone back down My stomach clenched and the silence turned eerie. Nothing was out of place so I had no idea of what was wrong with me all of a sudden. I tried to shake the feeling off and I laid back down and pulled the covers closer.
Crash!
The loud sound had me shooting up and my pulse racing. My eyes were open wide as if somehow that would show what made the noise. Ethan, it had to be Ethan, not someone breaking in in the middle of the night.
My attempt to calm myself didnt work and just made my pulse rise even higher. My eyes flew around the room until they landed on the metal baseball bat behind the door. Before I could convince myself not to, I threw the covers back and my feet were padding across the room to the bat. Hesisitantly I ran my fingers across the cold metal before picking it up.
Holding it made me feel a little better but the feeling fled when another loud bang came from down stairs. My fingers tightened on the bat and again I hoped it was just Ethan making a mess. With a groan I moved one hand from the bat to the door and slowly opened it.
It was just as dark in the hallway as it was in my room. A gentle light coming from down the stairs was the only source of light. I paused at the top of them, trying to hyping myself up, before going down.
The living room was empty at first glance. The light that I saw was from the TV showing static, and there were a few beer cans and bags of chips on the coffee table. Those were the telltale signs that Ethan had been down here. I let out a sigh and started to lower the bat before my eyes landed on a figure standing in front of the kitchen entrance.
I froze and my grip on the bat tightened again. The soft glow from the TV made it so I could make out some features. He was tall and he had his back towards me while every once in a while his body would twitch and jerk. His large frame and black hair reminded me of my babysitter.
"Ethan, is that you? I asked with a hitch in my voice. My heart felt like it shoved in my throat and my whole body was shaking.
I knew it was probably Ethan but something was wrong. I wanted to think that he was playing a joke on me but he was more of a serious type. No, this was something completely different.
He showed no sign of hearing me, he just kept twitching and stumbling forward. I looked around the room for what had crashed and saw the floor lamp through the window. I winced at the sight, mom was going to be pissed.
I moved across the room slowly until I was a foot away from him. I wanted to reach out and touch him to get his attention but I was terrified. Something told me that he wasn't the same, that something was different.
Up closer now I saw something dripping from his arm and it was making a puddle and a trail. I frowned but turned back to Ethan and took another step forward. I moved one hand from the bat and reached out and touched his shoulder.
Before it was like everything was frozen in time, like fate was giving me a chance to turn back around and pretend everything was still normal. As soon as I touched him there was no more chances, time started back up. He exploded and turned around suddenly with a shriek, knocking me backwards and the bat flew from my hand.
My elbow struck the floor hard and sent a wave of pain through my arm that made me let out a scream of curses. I clutched at it but it was soon forgotten when my babysitter launched himself at me with another high pitched shriek.
