Summary: Melinda has been driven into the depts of hell within her mind... but is it just within her mind? Within her nightmares? Or is it...a reality?
Chapter 1: First Encounter
Calmly, a young woman awoke from her sleep and made her way down from her room on the second floor. Her deep royal blue stairs creaked beneath her feet as she carefully made her way down, with her hand sliding against her chocolate brown oak banister that curled slightly at the bottom. She curved with it and headed into her living room, towards her lounge chair, noticing it was still late out and that she had probably slept the entire day away.
The woman then rested herself against her gray leather lounge chair as the deep night pressed on. Her parents were sound asleep up in their rooms, hopefully for the entire night because she was thinking of some plans for the next day or later that night and she didn’t want to be disturbed.
Her T.V. was locked up in front of her because of her two younger brothers before her would have surely gotten up and gone to it even at midnight, though they were only eight and ten.
The room was an unsetting darkness; almost everything was shrouded in its shadow, with a deathly silence around it. Slowly, she lifted her gaze to her mother’s digital clock that was set carefully next to the cabinet that held the T.V. within it. Two large windows were on the sides of that cabinet, while it was placed in the corner of the room. She had a solid black polished oak grand piano on her left side, and as well as the side of the second window, with a blue decorated cushion benched just under the main keys that were covered by the thick wooden mantle that protected them.
Her graceful green eyes were still locked on the clock though, just waiting for each minute to slowly turn.
10:23PM
Silently, she then gently creased her hands to sides of the chair, on the padded arm sides and pushed herself up from it. The lounge chair, creaked ever so slightly as it continued to rock softly back and forth when her tender body left it’s warmth. She made her way from her living room into the shallow narrow hall nearby.
There was no door that lead out of the room, only an arched opening on each side of the living room that both lead into the same hall. Between the arches inside the living room, was a leather gray couch, covered by youngest brother’s warm sleeping body.
He snored almost silently as he laid there on his side, with his legs curled up to his stomach and his chocolate brown hair that was cut to his neck, flipping about the side of the couch which he used as a pillow. She slightly smiled to him as she watched him sleep peacefully away and then turned her gaze to the opposite side of the room next to the large fireplace.
The fire place and the T.V. cabinet were on the sides of the first window here so it was easy to have light in the room if it needed some when morning came around, but there was also another window between the fireplace and the second couch that held her second, to youngest brother upon it’s soft cushions.
Crack
The young woman shot her head up in shock as her eyes leveled to her air conditioner that had just kicked on. Relieved to see that it was only that, she took in a deep breath and leaned back against the nearby red wall, trying to slow her heart from it’s quickened pace.
As she finally took in her last breath a scratching noise came from behind her. Across the narrow hall lied the door to her basement stairs. Her eyes lit up, fearing for her two dogs that had been locked up down there earlier. A yellow lab and a small white and black Springer spaniel belonged to her and turned to face her door, shaking within the night’s darkness, not knowing what to do. The cage was simply unbreakable… it couldn’t be her dogs, they couldn’t have gotten out, or so she wanted to think.
Slowly, she made her way over to the door and slipped her hand over the cold black knob, still trying to think of another way to do this, but couldn’t, and carefully began to turn it.
Deep breathing coming from below stopped her though. The scratching had ceased and instead the dogs began to howl, wanting out of their basement prison, seeking for her to open the door.
She could no longer hear the breathing though so she continued to turn the doorknob until it could go no farther. Taking in a deep breath, she pulled the door open only as wide as the lab’s waist, closely followed by the Springer spaniel. Frighten of the dark though, she dared not look down the basement stairs so instead, as soon as the spaniel was out of the way, she quickly slammed the door shut and locked it up tightly. The two dogs scattered into the living room, the Springer running towards the youngest and jumping on the couch beside him, curled up on the blanket that was left over, and the lab did the same for the second youngest, both shaking fearfully.
The woman stood there in front of the locked door, and the breathing then started to return. The dogs shot both their heads up, and she quickly realized that they could hear it to, that it wasn’t just her imagination after all. They shut their mouths suddenly and buried the heads under their paws, seemingly for protection and the woman began to move herself away from the door quietly.
CRASH!
Quickly, she recognized the ear piercing shattering from below as she jumped back in fright. The pictures from the walls had fallen off their hooks it seemed by something striking them and they tumbled down the stairs, destroying the glass frames that surrounded their edges.
The second to youngest brother began to stir as the frames shattering echoed throughout the deafening home and she looked to him as he rubbed his eyes gently and then turned onto his other side, trying to fall back to sleep.
Thankful that he didn’t have to go through this hell like her, she took in a deep breath and then turned back to the door. Everything had died down now… even the air conditioner had shut itself off so the house began a deathly silence once more. It remained that way for only a few minutes until, it was suddenly broken, by the pounding of heavy feet against the basement stairs, charging towards the door fiercely.
An earth shattering screech exploded from the stairs as the thing rammed itself into her door creating an extremely loud bang, causing her to jump back in fright, but she didn’t notice the large toy truck that was resting on the floor behind her and she tripped over it, and struck into the floor forcefully behind her, and then smacked her head off the hard wooden part of the floor that lead into the kitchen, instantly knocking her out… leaving her there at the mercy of whatever might come through the door before her helpless body… |
Linear Mode
