Sinister Intentions

Chapter 1

I search 'Hush' on Netflix and set it to play before asking Alexa to turn off the lights in the living room, wanting to watch it in the dark, but not complete darkness. I leave the kitchen lights and the lights in the upstairs foyer on, so I have some light in the background. It's cowardly, I know. But sometimes movies can get really scary and I want some lights on just in case I get freaked out and get all jumpy.

When I'm all settled, I put the movie to play and grab my bag of Hot Cheetos off the couch and eat a handful before taking a sip of my Dr. Pepper. The opening scene starts and I watch intently as the protagonist signs to an acquaintance who comes over to see her. I knew going into the movie that she was deaf and mute, but now that I'm actually seeing her sign on screen, I just know I'm in for one great movie because you don't see a lot of deaf and mute characters in movies. Especially not in horror movies and something tells me, it's going to add a unique element to the movie.

I'm about twenty minutes into the movie and the protagonist just realized there's a killer on the loose, and I know things are about to get good. She tries to leave the house and the killer's masked face appears in the window just as a loud knock sounds at the front door of my house. I jump in my seat, spilling some of my Hot Cheetos on my lap.

"Gosh dammit."

I pause the movie and clean up my mess, hoping whoever it is just goes away when I hear them knock again. I sigh, feeling slightly annoyed at the interruption, and stand up off the couch and head for the door. I unlock it and find my elderly neighbor, Mrs. Robinson, standing there on the front step, and my annoyance immediately dissipates.

"Hello, Sagan," she greets me in her cute little granny voice.

"Hi, Mrs. Robinson. How are you?" I greet her.

"Good," she answers with a smile. "But not as good as you," she teases me, as she appraises my sexy onesie. "I'm guessing someone is getting lucky tonight," she tells me with a wink and I just shake my head at her. She may be old but she is quite the spunky little old lady.

"No, I wish. I'm just watching movies and eating junk food."

"Okay, I'll get out of your hair then. I just came to check on you. Your parents told me they were heading out of town. I just wanted to make sure you're okay since it's Mischief Night and all."

"I'm perfect," I reassure her. "Thank you for checking up on me," I say gratefully. It's sweet that she popped over to make sure I'm okay.

"Anytime," she says with a smile before turning to leave. "You have yourself a fun Mischief Night," she throws over her shoulder as she heads in the direction of her house next door.

"You too, Mrs. Robinson," I respond and she waves behind her as she disappears out of my view. When I hear her door close next-door, I lock the front door behind me and go back to watching my movie.

I set it to play again and immediately get sucked back into the story, dying to know what's going to happen. Before I know it, I've watched most of the movie and get to an intense scene where the protagonist locks herself inside a bathroom to hide from the killer and sits against the bathtub facing the door, but what she doesn't know is that the killer's in the bathtub behind her.

He says something to her, knowing she can't hear him, but the moment he breathes down her neck and moves her hair with his breath, she immediately becomes aware of his presence. I wait with bated breath, wondering what's going to happen next when the power goes out in the house.

"You got to be fucking kidding me," I mutter. "Just when I get to the good part too," I complain, knowing no one is going to hear me, but I choose to complain anyway because now I have to go out into the goddamn cold to go reset the breakers in the electrical box. Talk about fucking inconvenient.

I stand up from the couch and grab my phone, turning on the flashlight and use it to light my path as I make my way from the living room, past the stairs to the backdoor that leads to the deck. The moment I open the door in the back of the house, a cold breeze hits me, making me shiver and my nipples harden. I look down at my poor nips that are only covered by the cotton material of my onesie and mentally apologize to them as I flip the switch for the light on the deck, figuring I'll turn it on so I have some light outside when I reset the breakers.

I step onto the wooden deck and look around, making sure there aren't any wild animals on the prowl. Our backyard bleeds into the forest and since we've never fenced off our property, we get random animals roaming around our back yard all the time. And I'm talking like foxes and big ass bears, and as scary as it can be sometimes, I wouldn't have it any other way because I love seeing them roam free around our yard. When I don't see any animals in sight, I walk towards the stairs of the deck in my bare feet, regretting not going up to my room to put on my slippers before coming out here.

I hear leaves rustle on the far right side of the forest just as a loud gust of wind hits me, making my hair blow behind me. I stop where I'm standing, and rub my arms to warm my cold body as I wait to see if an animal steps out of the darkness of the forest. If it does, I'm bolting inside. I'm okay with possums and deers, but if I see a raccoon or anything bigger and scary, I'm running inside. There's no way I'm standing up against a damn raccoon. Those things are savages.

I don't hear the rustling again and figure it's just a possum wandering around in the leaves and walk down the steps. When I reach the bottom step, I feel a splinter pierce the bottom of my right foot and hiss.

"Fuck," I curse loudly, not caring who hears me.

I hobble on my right foot, not wanting to push the splinter further in my foot, and sit my ass down on the steps of the deck, risking splintering my ass, but I take the risk anyway, needing desperately to get the splinter out of my foot.

It hurts.

I bend my right leg so my foot rests on my left knee and hold the flashlight on my phone over the bottom of my foot so I can find the offending splinter that stabbed my foot. I find it and yank it out and its quickly replaced by a drop of blood. I wipe it off with my finger and rub the spot, trying to make it feel better.

The wind whips my hair around and I stand up not wanting to be in the cold longer than necessary. I step off the deck onto the cool grass that feels good under my bare feet and turn to walk around the deck when I hear rustling in the forest again. This time it sounds like it's coming from the left side, but again, no animal steps out, so I ignore it and take another couple steps to hear that rustling sound again. I stop and look around, feeling myself starting to get nervous. I want to believe it's just the wind moving the leaves on the trees but I haven't felt another gust of wind, so I know that can't be it.

Is someone out there or what? I wonder as I look around. No, they can't be. Tonight is Mischief Night. Everyone from my high school is either partying or up to no good, not holed up at home like me.

I shake off the thought and make my way around the side of the house in search of the electrical box when I hear twigs break in the distance behind me. I freeze where I stand, hoping whatever is out there lurking just moves on when I hear dry leaves crunch and more twigs break somewhere behind me.

Fuck.

That's no possum or raccoon. It can't be. They're too light to break twigs, which only leaves two other options, a wild animal or a person, and my gut tells me it's the latter.

I feel my pulse race when I hear what's no doubt a person take another step and mentally beg my feet to move, but they're rooted to the ground, refusing to move while danger looms at my back in the distance, hovering over me like my worst nightmare.

I swallow nervously as I feel someone run their gaze over my backside and involuntarily shiver as they burn a trail over my backside with their eyes.

"What do you want?" I ask aloud and cringe when I hear my voice shake. This is exactly what they want. They want me to tremble in fear and I'm feeding right into it.

Fuck my life.

They don't answer me and take another step toward me.

I feel drops of sweat bead on my forehead and my heart work its way up my throat as I slowly turn around to look at what or more exactly who is waiting for me in the darkness, and just internally pray whatever awaits me in the darkness isn't something out of my worst nightmare.