I slammed the door shut behind me with a thud and shrugged off my heavy coat, the cold from outside still lingering on my skin. My nose and fingers were tingling from walking home in the 20 degree cold.
I hung the coat on the rack and stepped into the house "mom I'm home!" I called, setting down my bag on the small wooden table in the dining room. Work had been hectic today, and being home had never felt better. When your boss is as strung out and wily as mine you learn to appreciate the simpler things in life: like a warm home and just being able to relax. I had been running back and forth like a chicken with their head cut off all day long to keep up with demand.
I noticed mom hasn't answered back yet with her usual "welcome home!" or anything, which was a little different. I made my way through the dining room and to the carpeted stairs that led directly to our two rooms and entertainment room. My still snow covered boots met the second step just as mom called from upstairs.
"Hello,"
Her voice came from the entertainment room, which I could see from the bottom of the stairs where I was at. The door was cracked, but no light came from behind it. It was just a spare room with a TV and gaming systems for my friends and I to hang out on the weekends. I let out a kind of confused, half-hearted laugh "ma why are you in the dark? Do you need help in there? " She was weird like that sometimes. She would do quirky things like that, forgetting to turn on lights, leaving water running, etc. She was probably cleaning up from yesterday. I started up the stairs, not wanting the already overworked woman to have to clean up the entertainment room on her own.
As my foot lifted up to the next step something made me stop stiff in my tracks. A tiny hushed voice, barely audible, called from my left.
"Daniel,"
I froze. It came from the walk-in laundry room closet next to me; it was mom's voice. But she was just upstairs, I could swear I just heard her.
I slowly turned to see one of her blue eyes peering out of the crack at me. "Daniel, quietly come here," I felt my stomach drop and I blinked rapidly. "W-wait...but you were just-" I pointed nervously up the stairs at the cracked door to the entertainment room.
She glanced towards the stairs with a panicked look "come here please, that's not me. I can hear it too" she opened the door a little more, allowing the hall light to reveal her face, my real mom's familiar visage. Her blue eyes were wide, and her normally rosy face was pale as a sheet, bloodless from fear. That expression alone made my heart slam into my throat and I slowly stepped off the stairs, careful not to let them creak like they usually do. What was upstairs then?
I crept to shelter in the closet, and mom silently closed the door behind me. I swallowed the lump in my throat, confusion mixed with fear boiling in my gut and making my heart race. "Mom what's going on? Is this a joke? Is Jake in on this?" My little brother was always pulling pranks, he probably had an audio recording up there playing on loop. What a joke. I went to open the door and storm up there to turn off whatever recording he had playing up there but my moms hand seized the door knob before I even got close. She had a stern but frightened look in her eyes, one that made cold trickle down my spine. "This can't be real, Mom." I breathed.
She shook her head "I wish it wasn't. It's been calling me for an hour. Daniel, I thought it was you until you got home. I've been in here since before you got here, listening to it. It's trying to trick you."
I shook my head and sat down on the nearest box. "Mom this is crazy," I replied shortly. This didn't make much sense, but the terror in her eyes made it impossible not to believe her. I sighed. "We can't stay in here forever. If it's some really crafty burglar or something, we need something to defend ourself with." I pointed out.
She nodded "it's safer in the master bathroom, the door is much sturdier than this one." She mumbled, wringing her hands nervously. I stood up and shouldered past her to put a shaky hand on the doorknob. I breathed a long exhale and then careful cracked open the door. Silence. I peeked one eye out of the crack, gazing into an ordinary empty hallway, the light still on.
"Hello," there, the voice eerily identical to my moms echoed from the entertainment room. After some hesitation, I poked my head out. The kitchen was at the opposite end of the long hall from where the stairs were, it wouldn't be hard to get to it. In the kitchen were plenty of cooking knives, all freshly sharpened from yesterday.
It would be a risky move but I was certain it was the right one. Our hallway stretched past the front door away from the stairs and opened up into the kitchen on one side, the living room on the other, and continued in another corridor to lead to the Master Bedroom. That was our safe zone. The door was a sturdy oak one that could probably hold back a bear to be honest. It had a lock on it too, which this closet didn't.
I slowly crept into the hallway, motioning for Mom to follow closely behind. Together we slunk into the kitchen and I opened up the knife cabinet. An array of hunting, skinning, cooking, and fillet knives dazzled in the bright sunlight streaming from the window. "Here ma," I handed my still shaken mother the biggest, sharpest of my fillet knives. It could cut anything like butter and it wasn't hard to handle. I took one of the large fancy butcher knives my mom got for cooking in one hand for myself. I hoped we wouldn't get close enough to the intruder -whoever it was- to have to use these, but it was better to be prepared.
As I closed the cabinet, a sing-song voice suddenly wafted down from the stairs.
My name. It made an icy feeling trail down my spine, and I shivered.
"Alright we need to hurry" I ordered, grabbing my mom's free hand and pulling her after me into the hall. My eyes wandered up to the room the thing had been hiding in only to see the door to the entertainment room was wide open.
I cursed under my breath "hurry let's go!" But just as my feet turned toward our goal of getting to the master bedroom and bath, something knocked on the front door from outside. It was a quick polite knock, and it made me freeze. Something was wrong, a deep sinking feeling in my gut. That thing could be anywhere in the house now, and I needed to make sure I wasn't opening the door to it if it had made it outside.
"Mom, I'll look. You stay here," I said, and crept toward the door. The knocking continued, still a polite knock and a pause in between. Could it be a neighbor? Maybe they could help us and call the police. I slunk closer and rested one hand on the door handle, leaning closer to peer through the peep hole. My eye nearly made it to the peephole when I stopped. What if they could see me?
"Daniel, Mama, can you open the door? It's freezing," Jake! My little brother! I turned the knob when an explosion of barks and growls erupted from behind me. Nearly soiling my pants I jumped out of the way as Muppet, our YorkiePoo, plowed toward the door barking and snapping. Then it dawned on me, as I saw our normally happy nervous dog now snapping viciously at the door: That's not Jake...
Angry, I pressed into the door and shouted
"Leave us alone! I don't know what kind of twisted practical joke you're playing but you better leave before I get out there!"
Suddenly something slammed --and I don't mean a shove, I mean this thing threw itself with all its might, not caring whether it hurt itself or not--into the door. The shock threw me away from the door and I landed on my butt. I cursed, snatching up Muppet and gathering the knife I had dropped. I scrambled to my feet and ran for the Master bathroom, mom in tow. Whatever it was had been strong, and I mean a couple more throws to the door, it would be inside kind of strong.
Another reverberating thud made the floor quiver under my feet just as we made it into the bathroom. I slammed the door shut, setting Muppet down. Mom sat on the edge of the tub, knife outstretched shakily. Her whole being was shaking, eyes wild from fear. Just as I twisted the lock and heard the click of security, there was a resounding CRACK and thud from the front room. Mom gasped and started shaking again, pointing her knife at the bathroom door.
It was inside.
"Momma! Mom! Where.. Are...you?" The sick thing, sounding just like my little brother, was sneaking closer. I could hear it. A horrible scraping, shuffling sound as if it were dragging its feet, came from the other side of the house as it investigated the kitchen searching for us. My breathing hitched, and I tightened my grip on the butcher knife.
"Where are you.... Where... Come back..." The voice was in the master bedroom door. Only a few steps and it would find us. I steadied myself and sat on the edge of the bathtub next to mom. We waited, complete silence except for the constant calling of the thing, whatever it was, searching the room outside. I put a finger over my lips gesturing for my shaking, near hysterical mom to remain quiet. Maybe it couldn't find us if we didn't make noise, perhaps the thing wouldn't think to check the closed door we were behind. Alright, that was wishful thinking, but it was the only thing we had to hold onto right now. The whole bathroom was in a thick, claustrophobic silence, I could barely even hear myself breathe. The thing had gone silent now, leaving an eerie, goosebump-inducing quiet throughout the whole house. My ears buzzed in the numbing void of soundlessness, like cotton was stuffed in them.
I was just standing up to pull Muppet into my arms, she was shivering and huddled next to the door, when she did the one thing I hadn't counted on.
She lifted her lips from her teeth, and barked.
The sound broke the thick silence, making my gut sink. It didn't take long for a keening shriek to rip into the air from outside the room.
Suddenly the door bent inward with an ear shattering slam! I fell backwards into the empty tub, as the insane thing threatened to bash the door in. So much power had been put behind that blow I had felt it reverberate through my chest, making the floor vibrate. An overpowering stench that smelled like a mix between brimstone and burning trash seeped from under the door. Muppet hid behind the toilet and I got back to my feet, shaken.
"Let me IN! Please! let...in... LET IN!" It shrieked, but as it continued screaming and slamming into the door, it's voice began to warp. It sounded less and less like Jake and turned into a raspy, throat gouging sound; the noise was less like a human voice and more like a dying animal sound. It could barely articulate words anymore but kept repeating "let in let in LET IN! Help! Let IN!"
Mom covered her ears and started crying, and I gripped my knife as rage began to replace my fear. The last time I had seen mom this shaken up and crying was when my abusive drunk of a father had left her with a black eye before storming out of the house, never returning. My blood boiled and I stood up, stepping toward the door. I wasn't letting this thing control my mom. I couldn't let it have power over us. I was going to cut up that sick thing into a million pieces. Sooner or later it was surely going to break the door down. I wanted a good slash at it, whatever it was, before it got to us.
As I stood up, the slamming against the door and shrieking suddenly cut off. It was silent again, gone as quickly as it had started. There was the shuffling dragging sound again, getting further and further away until I couldn't hear it anymore. Without the slamming and banging, a thick quiet settled in, making a chill run down my spine and leave goosebumps prickling along my arms and legs. I quickly darted closer to the door and pressed one ear against it.
Silence. Thick, still, silence. Even the awful smell was gone.
I looked over my shoulder at mom. "I'm going out to look,"
She shook her head vigorously and clutched at the edge of the counter "no please Daniel don't!"
I sighed. This was what every stupid horror movie character would do, wasn't it? But I had to try. "Mom if it's off somewhere else trying to find another way in --which is highly likely I might add-- I might stand a chance of getting to the phone and calling the cops. I'll have them send a whole squad down here!" I rested my palm on the cold metal of the doorknob. "I have to, we can't just sit in here like scared mice and let that thing control us! I'm going out there. Do not, and I mean it, open this door unless I knock three times and cough. Even if it sounds like me asking to come in, I won't say anything." I kept my voice low so she was the only one who could possibly hear it. It was the best chance we had of getting help. Sitting here waiting as it searched for another entrance or maybe even a way to break down the door was stupid. It was smart, I could give it that. We were only endangering ourselves more if we stayed hiding. I brandished the weapon in my hand and slowly unlocked the door. The lock made a small click ring through the dead silence. I winced a bit at the noise, waiting a moment in case it had heard. Still no response from outside, not even stirring or movement. I slowly turned the knob and cracked the door open enough to peer one eye through the slat.
The room was trashed: absolutely demolished. Furniture was upturned, the bed sheets were thrown about, shredded. What I could only guess were claw marks gouged the paint and wallpaper, going even so deep as to cut through and expose the plaster underneath.
I crept out of the door and closed it silently behind me. I heard mom lock it again. My careful footsteps were luckily muffled by the soft carpet underfoot as I surveyed the destroyed room. A picture of my mom holding a toddler me and 8 week old Muppet was on the ground. I picked it up, running my finger down the slash across both our faces. What did this thing want from us.
I darted quietly to the door and poked my head around the corner.
Nothing.
I breathed a sigh of relief and made it down the hall to the phone with no issues. The thing was nowhere to be seen. I picked up the receiver and dialed 911, feeling a rush off relief flood my chest as the operator asked what my emergency was.
"Someone broke into our house and they're armed. My mom and I are home and it's looking for us, they're crazy. Please, send as many cops as you can." I tried to keep my voice low and make up a believable story. Technically I didn't lie, but I couldn't flat out tell them some crazy creature or deranged, inhuman lunatic was shredding our house and trying to kill us. The woman operator didn't seem phased and told me to get somewhere safe and stay on the phone, and that the police were on their way. I couldn't do that... It was the home phone, an old-timey hunk of plastic wired through the wall. I didn't have a cell phone, mine had been dropped into a pond last week.
"I-I can't ma'am... I don't have a cell and they could be anywhere right now--"
BAM!
I dropped the receiver as the dull thud echoed through the house. It had come from outside, thank god. I couldn't stay on the phone now, not with mom by herself. I knew the police were already on their way and so, I abandoned the phone and darted back to where I had left mom, worry buzzing like a million insects in my chest. I made it to the bathroom door and knocked three times, before coughing. The lock clicked after a second, making me breathe a sigh of relief. The door opened and I rushed inside, greeted immediately by my mom. "The cops are on their way," I huffed, relieved. Soon the police squad would arrive at our door and come rescue us, and maybe even shoot whatever this thing was. That was a good thought. I imagined them kicking down the door and putting holes in whatever had been terrorizing us, leaving us in peace.
Mom breathed a loud sigh of relief and I hugged her, thankful this was almost over. The police station was only five minutes away down the street, they would be here in seconds. As I hugged mom in celebration, I noticed a draft. My eyes wandered to the window in the corner.
The open window.
Suddenly, a familiar brimstone-like scent filled my nose, emanating from the one I was holding in my arms. My eyes widened. God no...
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A/N: so this was my first real attempt at horror/scary story. I can seriously still improve and I'm hoping to get more into the practice with each new story. As always, I hope you enjoyed. If you liked it, or can offer constructive criticism, please leave a comment!