Matthew ran at lightning speed towards the same attic vent again before the two-legged, claw-equipped hybrid could catch him. Just in time, he thought to himself. He crawled back underneath the vent and slid back down to the ground floor. While walking towards the kitchen, he noticed a door underneath the main staircase. He opened it gently as he would always do and looked inside.
It was yet another stairway to a basement. Matthew then trudged his way down briefly after closing the door and saw two more doors. Like the attic, the whole basement was full of stale air and covered in cobwebs and mould.
Matthew then noticed an unlocked safe. He pulled it open, revealing inside it a small piece of paper with a passcode. It read "1-5-6-2" on a couché paper card with the words "Yael Technologies" printed in a small font at the top of the card. He memorised the numbers and walked back into the main basement.
All of a sudden, a loud series of clanking noises rebounded around the basement. Matthew turned his head to see a broken door sliding down the stairway. Then, thumping sounds came. It's here, he thought. He crouched underneath the table and laid flat. He quickly grabbed the vase of dead plants on the table and hid it under the table with him.
The boar walked over, closer and closer to the table. It definitely noticed the missing vase.
Thus, Matthew discreetly stretched his hand out, the vase extending out from the table with his hand. With much force, he slammed it against the boar's feet. Matthew managed to push himself out of the table just before the boar tripped and crushed the table and vase, breaking them into uncountable splintered bits and pieces. He sprinted up the stairway, out of the haunted basement and away from the vicious monster.
He looked at the main door once again, rushing over to unlock the digital lock. 1-5-6-2, the numbers spoke in his head. Translating his memory into actions, he pressed the numbers on the keypad. It was a success that he was close to celebrating out loud. Then again, the thumping sounds of the violent creature reminded him to keep focused on his task and to avoid any unnecessary distractions that could slow him.
He ran back up to the attic and carefully crossed over to the other side again. He suddenly recalled the other room right in front of him. And so, he pulled open the door and saw another hardware table full of items. To his dismay, most of the items weren't able to serve much of a purpose to him.
Several blocks, made of wood and brick, were stacked neatly on the table. Matthew wasn't sure why they were there, but it wasn't essential to know. The one thing that caught his attention was the sole useful tool on the table—the hammer. He quickly snatched it, knowing that it would be helpful in removing the wooden boards off from the main door.
And just as Matthew was getting "lucky", something was about to shatter his success. The environment was so conducive for him to work on his plan that he thought nothing could go any further south at that point. There was no creaking or thumping. There was no door slamming. And there was no other sign of the creature nearby. Yet.
A slam on the wall a few seconds later marked the beginning of his potential downfall.
The lights suddenly went out abruptly after the bulbs were smashed. A final crackle was heard from the short-circuited lighting system as the room darkened. And Matthew instantly knew what was in the room with him.
Its monstrous figure dominated the room as the shadow fell on Matthew in the dim twilight. With additional shrieks and roars, the shadow of a giant monster frightened the life out of Matthew.
In the shadows, the silhouette of a bat returned. It levitated higher up every second that passed. Matthew knew he was going to get knocked out once again if he weren't to do anything. But instead, there was a snapping sound. It came from the tearing of the blind holders. Now it was total darkness. The red eyes of the creature seemed to glow in the dark now.
Red eyes that symbolised death.
Matthew drifted left and right in the pitch darkness, reaching for something he could use to keep himself alive. Every moment, the creature randomly smashed something in the room, one by one. By reaching around with his hands, Matthew ensured that they were deemed next to be fractured by the bat.
Suddenly, his hand reached a space in the wall. A huge space. And just above it was a piece of paper stuck onto the wall with some adhesive. It was just like the one he had seen in the guest bedroom he had woken up from. Then again, there was no time to scrutinise every little detail of the hole.
He quickly crawled forward as the boar smashed glass and wood into bits. He pushed himself through the hole, which revealed itself to be yet another vent hole, leading him down to the bathroom on the second floor.
He quickly moved down the stairs and ran to the kitchen before noticing an unexplored backyard behind it. He then ran out of the main house and spotted a shed. Deciding to check the shed out, he headed towards it and opened the door silently.
There was nothing but an aquarium of dead fish and a key in the shed. Grabbing the key, he ran back into the house. He quickly sprinted towards the front door to see if the key fitted in the keyhole of the main door. He was fortunate that it did. All that was left were the wooden boards that were nailed tightly onto the doorframe and the door.
Hence, he scrammed back down into the basement, towards the second room that he had not yet explored.
It was probably the last stairway in the house—leading to a lower basement. It was only a garage with ammo and a drill on one of the shelves. Matthew grabbed the ammo, thinking that he still had his gun, until he felt his back pocket once again and remembered his earlier discovery of his gun's loss.
He clenched his fists exasperatedly, thinking about how he was even going to get out of the house. He had nearly met his death three times already and was pretty convinced that the fourth wouldn't just be a near-death encounter but truly the end of him.
Unfortunately, there was no time to fret. Thumping sounds began again. The distorted, monstrous groaning continued to go on. Knowing that there was no other way to escape, Matthew looked around for essential items. Then, he looked back at the car in the basement. Finding the car door unlocked, he dragged it open. Stepping foot into the vehicle, he hid inside, pulling the door closed discreetly and taking refuge from the creature. The creature then stepped into the cellar and circled it. For a moment, there was true silence.
Complete silence.
But a loud thump was heard out of the blue as something slammed against the car door. Red eyes glanced into the car; the boar knew he was inside. He ran out of the other side of the car and made a dash for the stairway, and ascended it before locking the door to the basement. As he knew very well, locked doors would only slow the creature by half a minute at most, but at least it did something.
He hurriedly grabbed out the hammer he had found earlier and then broke open the bolted planks that covered up what seemed to be a secret passageway or tunnel under the house. He crawled underneath and found a safe with a purple-stickered lock sitting at the side of the tunnel.
The purple key, Matthew thought to himself. The key with a matching purple sticker that he had retrieved from the pile of boxes on the attic floor. He slipped it out of his pocket and quietly unlocked the safe before retrieving the gun hidden inside. It was his gun. He placed the ammo he had collected from earlier inside it and cocked the gun.
It was time to get out.
He ran back up to the main door and left it on the floor. Red eyes glowed from above as the boar made its way down the stairs.
Getting the creature down on the ground wasn't as easy as he thought it would be. Matthew prepared to fire at it instantaneously, preventing it from trying any tricks. However, he was swiftly interrupted before he could even lay his finger on the trigger, let alone take aim at the creature.
At the sight of the weapon, the beast violently leapt at him, swinging its bat towards Matthew's head. It successfully struck Matthew at the side of his head, but he kept his grip tightly on the firearm. As he slid across the ground, he attempted to aim at the animal from down below.
Unfortunately, the creature initiated another attack, charging at him and swinging his bat once more. This time, Matthew leapt to the side, avoiding another injury. Nonetheless, this caused him to let go of the gun, which slipped across the floor to the other side of the room. Struggling to regain balance, he crawled towards the weapon slowly.
However, as soon as he noticed the creature rushing towards him again, he slid agilely towards the pistol. Getting a grip of it, he pushed himself up quickly and aimed at the vicious monster. "I guess the story ends here," he remarked before firing two bullets at it.
The creature took the bullets to its chest, slumping onto the ground unconsciously. It continued to whine and whimper for a moment, bleeding to his slow death.
He quickly brought out the hammer he had gotten earlier and smacked the wooden boards harshly. Using the motivation and triumph he had obtained from the experience, he used one last blow to knock off the same side of both boards at once.
He took a massive breath of outdoor air and closed his eyes for a moment to ignore the ugly scenery and the house behind him. He was finally out of the house. He was finally free.
For now.
* * *
As a solo police officer with barely any evidence, Matthew couldn't really do anything to prove the encounters he had experienced in the house he had escaped. Thus, he picked up Daniel, Megan, and Emma to back him up and help him explain his story to the police officers at his allocated precinct in Allentown.
"Yes, I'm going to meet with all of you. I need you to support my story during the police report later. Just say that you checked the house out yourself. We'll get them to investigate the house themselves too. Yeah, see you," Matthew said on the phone to his friends on a group call before hanging up.
He picked his friends up at the motel they were staying at. They had a quick breakfast to be fresh and energetic before heading over to the police station.
"What's with that blood on your head?" Daniel asked him worriedly.
"Oh," Matthew responded as he smeared off a fresh drop of blood trickling down his forehead. "I just got thwacked in the head two times by some razorback creature," he replied.
"Only two? Is this why you're asking us to help you report this? Because you've gone mad from this concussion?" Megan questioned him puzzledly.
"I—," Matthew said halfway before getting cut off.
"If you're serious, we're going to the police station immediately. Well, after we get you treated," Daniel said.
"You won't believe me, though. Some kind of boar-like humanoid was trying to murder me in the Pace's house. I-I just can't believe what I saw," Matthew testified.
"You're right, because I don't quite believe that part. Let's say it was a psychotic mad lad?" Emma added.
"I'm serious. I almost died!" Matthew protested.
"That's it. We're going now." Daniel yelled at his friends, throwing down his burger.
With that, Matthew's friends accompanied him to the hospital first for treatment, before he would soon end up back at the precinct for another mind-numbing and torturous experience...