Jake walks up the porch stairs to the door and stops.
"Are you okay?" I question him from the a few feet behind, still on the small pathway that leads to the house. Jake clears his throat and scratches the back of his head.
"Uh, yeah. I just, you know, miss home," He says, peering back at me, "This is all really... trippy. You know?"
"Yeah," I say and force myself to feel cheerful, "But I'm sure we'll be home soon."
"Me, too," He turns back towards the front door and places his hand on it. He gives it a gentle push and it slowly opens, revealing a large, ransacked living room. A couch set up against the wall is missing its cushions and the TV's screen is shattered, almost looking like a spider web. Glass is scattered across the floor and there's holes in the walls.
"What happened?" I ask, my mouth ajar. Jake shakes his head, not taking his eyes off of the scene.
"I... I don't know," He says finally. I don't want to walk any farther in this house, it has already scared me. It looks like someone had a fight with another person. What if that person is still here? I shudder at the thought.
"Okay," I say, closing the door behind me, "Let's just keep looking for clues, I don't want to be in here for as along as I need to be."
"What kind of clues are we even looking for?" Jake wonders aloud, he walks through the living room, examining everything.
"Uh... I don't know, maybe clues about who took my brother and where he is? I hope he's okay," I walk over to the kitchen entrance.
"What if there aren't any clues?"
"Then I guess all of this is just hopeless!" I snap, silence swallows us whole. I sigh, breathing in deeply, "I'm sorry, but there's has to be something worth looking for here. I mean, there is a huge spotlight coming from your backyard." I look up at the window above the sink, hoping it shows the light, but it only shows the house next to us.
"Shh," Jake says forcefully, I don't speak, "Did you hear that?"
I shake my head, "It must have been Olivia and Jason."
"No," He quakes, "It sounded much different," He walks over toward the staircase and peered up into the darkness.
"I don't think we should look," I say.
"What if it's Daniel? I highly doubt that but... maybe it's someone that needs help?"
"I highly doubt that, too," I say.
"What if it's something important, we can't risk not seeing it," He argues.
"But we can't risk our lives," I reply.
"Isn't that what we've been doing?" He locks eyes with me, I can see he's scared like I am, but I can also see that this is the only thing he sees as hope.
"Fine," I agree, "But grab something to defend yourself with before we go up." I walk back into the kitchen and end up grabbing a knife. I hand him one, as well.
"Be careful with that," He warns, backing away from me.
"Calm down," I roll my eyes and slowly start to walk up the stairs. I can hear what he was talking about, the sound. It's a sound that I don't even think humans are capable of making. It's quiet but still make my body vibrate everytime I hear it. It kind of reminds me of a killer creature in any monster movie, which makes things seem even worse.
We reach the top, the noise has increased. I can feel my bones rattle with every step I take. I'm petrified, but I force myself to keep going forward. I can barely see, but Jake knows every inch of the house and moves with ease, I follow his lead.
Finally, we reach the source of the sound. We both stand outside a bedroom, shaking. Jake is shaking more than I am. I ready the knife in my hand.
His hand finds its way to the doorknob and slowly twists it.
The door opens with a deafening squeak in the silence. Everything is now quiet, besides the floorboards creaking with every step we take. With our shoulders nearly touching, we stand in the middle of the empty room. There is no furniture, only one window showing the vacant street and a closet.
The noise sounds off again, almost like a soft hum of machinery. It's coming from the closet. Jake and I face the white, closed doors of the closet. I hear Jake gulp and breath in deeply.
"When I was younger," He began, "I used to think there was a monster in my closet. My mom would look every night and reassure me, telling me nothing was there. Then one midnight," His voice started to rise above a whisper as the noise started to do the same, "The closest doors started to shake, waking me up from my sleep." The doors start to rattle as Jake wraps up his story.
"And then they opened and something jumped out at me, I don't remember what it was because I woke up the next morning, not knowing what happened, and found a scratch on my face. No one believed me and thought I'd accidently nicked myself in my sleep."
"Did you?" I don't take my eyes off of the doors.
"No. I don't have long nails."
"Jake," I quiver, "Is this your room?" I hold my breath.
"Yes."
The doors burst open, scaring me to death. We fall to the ground and watch as a pitch black, irregular figure slowly emerges itself into the moonlight. It looms over us and stares into our eyes with its glowing white ones. It's body is dripping black, oil like, goo onto the wooden floor. Its claws glint in the light.
Jake stands and pulls me to my feet. I aim my knife and throw at the creature. It bellows in response.
"LET'S GO!" He yells. The creature screeches and chases after us. I close the door behind us and bolt down the stairs, the creature breaks the door and follows us.
"Is there a back entrance?!" I shout.
"Yeah!" He runs ahead of me down the hall and into another room, it seems to be an office of some sort. He quickly stops himself and fiddles with the lock of the slider door, he opens it as the creature screeches again down the hall.
"GO, GO!" He screams and slams the slider shut once we make it out into the yard.
"JASON, OLIVIA?" I cry out, "Where are they?" I ask Jake, but he doesn't say anything in return.
"Jake?" I turn and see him staring at the bright light coming from inside the shed in the corner of the yard. We both glance at each other and run towards it. The door is slightly open, Jason and Olivia must be in there, but how come they didn't call back to me?
We both enter the shed and stop.
There was a sign next to the beam of light that read STEP IN.
"What?" I say, puzzled. Did Jason and Olivia step into the light?
The monster shrieks, it has made it's way outside.
"What do we do?" Jake questions, panic spreads through my body.
"We have to step in the light, I guess," I nervously turn back to look at the monster who's making its way to the shed.
"That's crazy!"
"Would you rather be torn to shred?" I motion back toward the door. Jake shifts his weight to his other foot and chews on his lip.
"Fine," He takes my hand and walks toward the light.
"Wait!" I run over to the door and pull it closed. I place my hand on it and let ice surround the entire knob.
"That should keep it out for a second or two," I turn away and stand next to Jake.
"Ready?"
"Ready."
We walk into the light at the same time and then everything disappears. I start to feel like I'm being torn apart and put back together, it also feels like how I felt when Nathan teleported us.
I yell through gritted teeth and squeeze Jake's hand.
I open my eyes and suddenly we are in a very futuristic looking room. I see Jason and Olivia on the floor, out cold. My head kills and everything is spinning, Jake has fallen to his knees and passed out. A middle aged man approaches me and smiles.
"Hello, Isabelle," He says, "We've been waiting for you."
To be continued...