Alone

Alone

Sam rolled over and looked at her bedside clock. It was 2:00 a.m. What was she doing awake? She shook her head and rolled back over. That's when she heard a noise, something sounded like it fell downstairs. She listened a moment more. Her parents were out of town in Maine for the week. Were they come home early? Why wouldn't they have mentioned it when they called earlier?

She heard it again. It was an indistinct sort of noise, like something scraping on the hardwood floor. No, even if they had come home early there was no way they could be home by now. Maybe it's a burglar she thought as she sat up on her bed listening. What would a burglar be doing here? This was in the middle of nowhere. Hell, her closest neighbor was twenty minutes away.

She heard it again, nothing discernable, no talking or walking just the same scraping noise. She was panicking. There was a chill down her spine. The police, she had to call the police. But she was so far in the country it would take them at least forty minutes to get there. She cried silently with the realization that the only phone was downstairs. She had been begging her parents for a cell phone, but they said there was no sense. They were miles from the closest cell towers.

Still the noise echoed through the house every few minutes. What was she going to do? It felt like an eternity she sat on her bed listening but, she finally plucked up enough courage to do something. She slowly tossed off her covers and put her feet on the floor. She was shaking with fear.

Slowly she slid onto the floor and reached under her bed. She knew she had a baseball bat under there from when she played in high school, but she hadn't seen it in years. It had to be under there though. She felt around in the darkness until her fingers touched something metallic and cold. She grabbed her only lifeline and she yanked it from under the bed. The bat's movement causing more noise than she had anticipated.

She kneeled silently not moving or breathing. Listening for the noise again in hopes it hadn't heard her. The noise came again. A sigh of relief escaped her. Slowly and quietly she stood up and crept to her door, clutching the bat for dear life. She pressed her ear to the door and listened. She could still hear it downstairs.

She cracked the door and peered out; it was pitch black. She pulled the door the rest of the way open and stepped into the hall. Silently she crept down the stairs, pausing often to listen. Trying to place where the noise was coming from. It sounded like it was coming from the living room. But with a big empty house it could be echoing from anywhere.

She reached the bottom of the stairs and as her foot touched the floor, the noises stopped. Oh no she thought, that's it they know I'm here. She stood there, eyes clenched shut expecting the worst. Nothing came. Nothing happened.

She peered around the room, her eyes seeing well in the dark. She looked to the other side of the room, there it was, there was the phone on its cradle. She just needed to reach it. Slowly she took a step closer. She looked to her left to see the cellar door open. Oh my god did they go down to the basement. Her heart leapt with hope.

If she could reach the door, maybe she could lock them down there and call the police. With her new plan she crept closer to the door and as she reached it, she had a terrible thought. What if they had already come back upstairs? She listened carefully and to her delight she heard movement from below. Her heart racing, she leaned around the corner and looked down the stairs.

Terror struck her and she froze. From the bottom of the stairs she could see it peering up from the darkness, it's glowing red eyes and wolfish face. It growled at the sight of her and slowly began to crawl up the stairs toward her.

Her terror increasing with each step it came. Finally, she was able to free herself from fear. She slammed the door shut and locked it. She sighed and turned to get the phone just in time to see the claws from the second monster come down on her cutting through her chest. Everything went black.

Sam sat up on her bed drenched with sweat shaking and breathing heavy. It was a dream, just a dream. She slowed her breath and laid back with a sigh. She looked at her clock, 2:00 a.m. She heard the faint scraping noise from downstairs.