13 Night Terrors

by D A Roach et al.

  Not knowing what else to do I left to finish my errands so I could get back to work on the house and try to process the new information.

  Chapter Eight

  The sun was setting in a spectacular show of oranges, pinks, purples, and yellows. I’d come home, checked the whole house for intruders or signs of intruders, and came up with nothing. Then I’d hung up a curtain on every single window in the house. I was finishing the mac and cheese I’d made for dinner when I heard a vehicle pulling up out front. I dropped the bowl, grabbed my gun off the counter, and tucked it into the back of my leggings, careful to cover it with my shirt. Peeking out the front window, relief flooded me when I didn’t see the shitty old van I’d been half expecting to see.

  It was a dark Chevy I didn’t recognize. The doorbell rang, and I took a shaky breath before opening the door a crack. Alex stood on the porch. He was in street clothes and sans hard hat, holding a basket in his hands.

  He lifted the basket. “House warming gift.”

  I could see bread, a variety of cheeses, wine, some wine glasses, and what looked like a tablecloth. I grinned. “You bring all of your clients cheese and wine?” I asked and opened the door to allow him in.

  His smile turned coy as he stepped in. “Only the cute ones.”

  “Uh huh, I’ll bet you do.” I took the basket he held out to me and went into the kitchen. “I was finishing up in here, so why don’t we have a glass of this wine, see if your taste is any good?”

  When I turned around, he was in the doorway looking around the house in wonder. “I can’t tonight, but I’d love a raincheck. You’re doing great. The entryway looks good.”

  I laughed. “All I’ve really done is clean the place and get rid of the old shitty furniture that time wasn’t kind to.”

  “Well, it’s coming along great. So I had ulterior motives for coming over.”

  I busied myself with unloading the basket to hide the blush I felt creeping up my neck. “What was that?”

  “I was hoping that maybe you’d be willing to go on a date with me. This weekend?”

  I bit down on my lip, trying not to answer too quickly or too eagerly, even though my heart was thudding against my chest. I took a deep breath and then cleared my throat. “I think that would be fun.”

  I finally looked back at him. His smile was open, genuine, and a mile wide. “I’d take you out tonight, but I have a longstanding poker game with some friends.”

  I started back toward the door to see him out. “That’s okay. I’m definitely not date ready tonight.”

  He took my hand into his, kissing the top of it. “I think you look stunning.”

  Heat spread up my neck again, and I knew I was blushing. I gently pulled my hand back. “Well, aren’t you a sweet talker?”

  He took two steps down the porch and then called back, “I call it how I see it.” With one last mischievous grin, he climbed into his truck and drove away. I waited until his taillights faded into the twilight before going in and closing the door. When I got back into the kitchen, I finished putting away the stuff he brought and then went to bed. Hopefully sleep wouldn’t be elusive tonight, and any pranksters would stay away.

  A maniacal laughter sounded from downstairs. I shot up in my bed, ice coursing through my veins. That was not my imagination, and I knew exactly who that laugh belonged to. I reached under my pillow for my gun and found nothing. Panic shot through me. I lifted the pillow, searching for where it could possibly be. Nothing at all. I knew I brought it up with me after Alex left.

  My heart was pounding so hard I feared they could hear me downstairs. A soft whimper left my lips, and I covered my mouth with my hand. Tears pricked at my eyelids. This was not happening. A stupid nightmare. I reached to the nightstand with my free hand, looking for my cell phone. It was gone, too.

  Something grazed my foot underneath the blanket, jolting me into action, and I flung my body from my bed and ran to the door. I yanked the door open, and music started downstairs. I could tell it was that damn record player. I hurried down the hall, trying to be as quiet as possible. My bedroom door slammed shut. I was shaking pretty hard, which I realized when I almost slipped on the stairs. I gripped the railing as tightly as I could to stay upright.

  Heavy boots sounded behind me. I looked back and saw a dark figure coming in my direction. Not caring any more if I fell, I cleared the stairs and swung into the dark living room, pressing myself against the wall. The footsteps stopped right behind me. I covered my nose and mouth with a hand, hoping he wouldn’t hear me breathing. The TV across the room switched on. I hadn’t even plugged it in yet.

  The screen flickered to an image that made my skin crawl. I was on screen sleeping. What was worse was that the old curtains were up in the background. My throat closed when a man walked over to the sleeping me on the screen. I couldn’t make out any details about him. He pulled something from his pocket…a knife. He held it with two fingers over my sleeping head, swinging it back and forth. With each stroke, he lowered his hand a little until the knife was almost touching my skin.

  The image of me sleeping froze with the knife nearly touching my skin. My throat was tight. The image finally changed to me sleeping again. The night I was tossing and turning. Then to an image of a group of people in masks standing around me, and finally to me sleeping in the nightgown I was wearing now with the group standing around my bed, each holding weapons. My heart clenched in panic. Someone wasn’t ready to leave their home, but it wasn’t the dead. Suddenly the story the old woman told didn’t sound outlandish or exaggerated. These people were fucking out of their minds.

  My mind was scrabbling. Tears streaked down my cheeks, and my nose started running. I was going to die here. I bought my dream house, and now I was going to die in it. “Angel Baby” by Rosie & The Originals started playing so loud it drowned out any other sound. I spun around, getting ready to run, but I was too slow. A hand wrapped around my throat. I tried to scream, but nothing could escape the death grip he had on my windpipe. He squeezed hard, and my feet left the ground. I clawed at his hand, trying to get some air. He held me until the edges of my vision started getting dark. Something hit me in the lower back from behind.

  The man released me, dropping me onto the floor with my back throbbing. Something hit my stomach, a boot. I coughed and tried to catch my breath. Heat radiated from my back. I managed to get to my feet. A high-pitched giggle rang in my ears like the gongs of death. Junie appeared in front of me. She wasn’t wearing a mask anymore; all she had on was a sheer nightgown, her long hair pulled into two French braids. She’d drawn freckles across her cheeks with eyeliner. She was as fast as a viper and struck me in the side of the head. I stumbled into the wall, holding onto it to stay upright. The pain was enough to make me want to throw up.

  She laughed again and then slapped my ass. “We’re gonna have a sleepover, you stupid little bitch!” She leaned in close and giggled. That was the last thing I remember before the world went black.

  I woke to the sound of water dripping and the smell of dirty water mingled with sewage. I tried to blink and found I couldn’t. Panic flooded every vein. Was I paralyzed? Someone was singing somewhere behind me. A man. My brain scrabbled trying to remember his name. A man appeared in front of me stark naked, fully erect.

  Something hit the side of my head, making me dizzy. I tried to swallow, but my throat was too dry. Everything on my body hurt so much it was hard to tell where the pain was actually coming from.

  “Please!” I cried, snot and drool dripping onto my bare legs. I was completely naked. “Please let me go!”

  He showed me a nail, placed it on top of my hand, and hammered it in. A scream ripped through me. The man before me was Starla’s son. He grinned, showing his badly yellowed teeth.

  “Let you go?” he yelled, inches from my face. Spit hit me, and I winced. “Let me go,” he said, mocking my voice this time. There was laughter from somewhere else in the room.

  Before I could react to
what was happening, a hot stream of piss hit my face, stinging my eyes. The odor was so strong it took everything in me not to throw up. I tried to move my head, but it was stuck. Ropes around my neck. If I pulled away, I would choke myself.

  “Girl, I’m gonna watch my sister fuck you with a knife, and then I’m going to cut your fucking tits off.”

  Chapter Nine

  He grabbed my hair and lifted my face until I was staring at his dick. I clenched my teeth together. He wrapped his hand around my chin and squeezed so tight it felt like my teeth were going to break under the pressure.

  “Open up, bitch,” he cooed.

  Tears slid down my cheeks as I clenched harder. He yanked back on my hair, and I felt some of it come out. Before I could register what was happening, his fist connected with my throat. I gasped, choking, feeling like a baseball was lodged in my throat.

  “Arlo!” It was Starla’s voice.

  He dropped my head and stepped away from me. The ropes dug into my neck as I gasped for breath. My heart was beating so hard I was afraid it might actually explode.

  “What the fuck do you want, Starla? This is my time!”

  He stomped off in the direction of her voice. My hands were tied behind my back. I twisted my hands against the rope, looking for any slack. The rope burned like nothing I’d ever felt, but I almost had it. It couldn’t be worse than what these freaks had planned. Glancing around in my line of sight, I couldn’t see anyone.

  I pulled with everything I had. Gritting my teeth and with my eyes burning from not being able to blink, I tore one hand free. I could hear them arguing in the distance. I worked on freeing my other hand and then tore the tape off my eyelids. I started working on the binding of my ankles when I heard a shuffling noise in the dark.

  I froze, a chill coursing through me. One of the twins appeared from the darkness. She had wide eyes. She held a finger up to her lips. My stomach rolled, whether from the smell down here or being confronted with one of them I wasn’t sure. She took a tentative step forward and then paused to point at the ropes on my ankles.

  I was blinking so much I couldn’t focus on anything. There was no way that I trusted her, but I made no moves, holding as still as I could. Moving slowly, she untied my ankles and then the ropes around my neck. The fear was overwhelming when it occurred to me that maybe she was the sister Arlo said was going to assault me with a knife.

  “Let’s get you out of here before Arlo gets back with Rebel,” she whispered, pulling me to my feet. I grab onto her, taking a good look around. It looked like a basement…but there was no basement in my house.

  Where was I? I looked at the woman leading me out and wondered if it was actually the best idea. “Why?”

  She looked at me, her eyes wide with surprise, like the question had never occurred to her before. She shrugged. “It’s just what they do. Once we get outside, I will get you as far from the house as I can, but if they notice I’m missing, I’ll be punished.”

  She pulled off her t-shirt and pulled it over my head. She still had on a tank top, and I was grateful for the coverage. She led me through a series of tunnels, and finally we came to a huge metal door that looked rusted beyond use, yet when she pulled it out, it swung open with ease. My heart plummeted. Of course. This was how those freaks were getting into my house. I looked around the unfamiliar dark wooded area outside. She led me out into the tree line.

  “You can go straight from here and get to the road.”

  I ran a couple of feet and realized she wasn’t with me. I turned around to thank her, and my breath caught in my throat. A tall figure stood behind her, his big hand wrapped around her throat. The sound of a gun pulled my attention away from them. When I turned around, three of them were standing there in masks. At least it looked like Arlo had put on pants.

  The sound of my heart pounding was overwhelming and soothing all at once. At least I knew I was still alive. Though for how long was another story.

  The one I presumed was Junie because of the long pigtails pulled a cord on the chainsaw in her hand, once, twice, and it finally caught. My heart leapt into my throat.

  She laughed that laugh that was like nails on a chalkboard. “All right, you stupid bitch, we’ll give you a head start!”

  The twin said to go straight and I’d run into the road. Then it wasn’t far to the neighbors. Junie revved the chainsaw, and I ran. My legs were shaky and weak, and it took everything in me to keep from stumbling, but I ran as hard as they would take me. There was another gunshot behind me and a lot of excited whooping.

  I didn’t slow down until I couldn’t hear them very well. Then and only then did I dare look back. I leaned against a tree to gather my bearings. I hadn’t lived here long enough to know these acres I bought, though I had a feeling they knew them like the backs of their hands.

  I just had to get to the road—flag a car down and then get to the police. I swallowed, and my throat burned like there was hellfire poured down it. I could hear them getting closer so I moved slowly from one tree to another. I could see headlights in the distance. I was close.

  Chapter Ten

  I could hear their taunts and cackling somewhere behind me. The road grew closer and closer. The old woman at the library popped into my head. I should’ve believed her. Someone tapped me on the shoulder, and I whirled around. The twin who’d helped me stood there smiling. It was unnerving the way it looked frozen on her face. I didn’t even see the knife in her hand until it was buried in my thigh.

  She giggled, and I realized it was the same laughter I’d heard when the house was egged. She put two fingers in her mouth and whistled loudly. When she yanked the knife out, searing hot pain coursed through me. There was no way I could run. I knew the others were coming. I wanted to live. She raised the knife over one shoulder, my survival instincts kicked in, and I lunged at her. We tumbled to the ground. The white hot pain in my leg made me dizzy, maybe from blood loss?

  We wrestled around, and she flipped me over onto my back. Her knife wasn’t in her hand. Her fist connected with my jaw, and I saw stars. I clung to her hand and pulled it to my mouth. I couldn’t even tell what I was biting, but I didn’t stop until my teeth sank through her skin and bones until they were clenched together. She howled in agony, losing her position on me.

  She flopped back, and I spit out what was in my mouth. While she cradled her hand, I wasted no time climbing on top of her. I swung and swung until she stopped moving. My breath was coming in shallow gasps, and I could taste blood. My fingers searched around her still frame until they landed on a big rock. I lifted it over my head and swung it down onto her skull. A sickening crack echoed back to me. I hit her with the rock until there was only blood, hair, loose bone matter, and tissue where her head used to be.

  A loud scream sounded from a few feet away, and I looked up into the rage-filled eyes of her twin. She had a hammer clenched in her hand. The moonlight shone like a beacon onto the knife she’d stabbed me with a foot to my left. I lunged, wrapping my fingers around the handle.

  I flipped over in time to see the hammer swinging toward my head. I threw my arm up in time to take the impact. Sharp pain rocketed up my arm. My stomach lurched, and I threw up. She stumbled with the weight of her swing, and I managed to swing the knife up and into her neck. I yanked it back out, and hot blood hit my face, eliciting more bile at the back of my throat. I climbed to my feet, holding onto a nearby tree while her body shook violently as she bled out.

  I waited until she stopped moving and then took her clothes. I wrapped her shirt around the bleeding wound on my leg and pulled her shorts on. They were a little loose on me, but it beat being butt naked from the waist down. I looked back at the road as more headlights passed.

  I hobbled toward the road, and then a horrible thought occurred to me. Could I ever feel safe again knowing there were still some of them alive? Deep inside, I knew I couldn’t. I looked at the dead twins. I scooped up the hammer and tucked it into the waistband of the shorts I stol
e from a dead body.

  A chainsaw revved not far away. Tears ran hot down my cheeks. I wasn’t even sure what I was crying about now. The pain? The death? I tucked myself against the nearest tree and waited for them to come for me.

  The sound of the saw drew closer. I clenched the knife as hard as I could.

  “Come out, come out, little bitch!!!” Junie yelled over the sound of the chainsaw. She entered the clearing and spotted her sisters. Instead of crying out at the sight, she giggled. “Crafty little bitch. You won’t get out of here. Ya might as well come out!”

  I tried to control the trembling in my hand and waited until she was closer to the tree I was hiding behind. I flung myself at her, and she swung around the chainsaw, barely missing my head. I instantly felt the cool night air where she’d take off some of my hair.

  In a blur of blood and something else, I plunged the knife into her side. Her hand wrapped around mine where the knife stuck out. The chainsaw fell to the ground. She smiled at me in the dark. “I’m gonna take this knife and shove it right up your ass,” she vowed with an evil grin. “Then I’m gonna let my brother fuck your mutilated ass until you wish you were dead.”

  Her brother stepped out from behind a tree. I couldn’t see what he had in his hands. Something lit up the clearing, and time slowed. He shot at me. I twisted my body. I felt the impact of the bullet but not the pain.

  Junie coughed blood into my face and smiled one last time. “You’re fucked now.”

  Another gunshot lit up the clearing, and my body took over. I was running. I didn’t know where to, but I didn’t stop. Not until my house came into the clearing.