Chapter 10

AN: I've decided to go with the small family and their deal too good to be true. I'm still working on the group of teenagers in the campgrounds storyline. Also, this chapter was inspired by the man who played Mr. Wright on Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide, Meshach Taylor, and his ghost story on Celebrity Ghost Stories, as well as various

26 year old Allison was excited. She had just bought her first time with her long term boyfriend Ben who she had a promising future with. It was a nice, little three bedroom, one-and-a-half bath house on a nice sized piece of property for their little family of three. There was a blooming garden and lush green bushes in the front yard and the backyard, as well as a hand built deck that was perfect for entertaining. A horseshoe court was dug out and placed precisely along one side of the yard, and in the back beneath the tall and proud green trees stood a lawn swing.

The previous couple had been a retired, older couple with kids who lived on the opposite coast of them, and they were looking to move elsewhere; into a place with more people their age or closer to their age since they were mainly surrounded by younger people and younger families.

But what had once been Allison's dream home was quickly turning into a deal too good to be true. During the day, the sun shined through making the picture frames along the walls glow with life. When the windows were opened and the breeze picked up, the smell of the fully bloomed flowers and fresh cut lawn delighted the senses.

But when darkness fell, and the day turned into night, the cozy, warm atmosphere disappeared. The house went pitch black, the wood floors creaked, the windowless "L" shaped hallway felt even narrower that what it really was, and the hallway felt completely still and out of sync with the rest of the flow of the house. And it always felt like someone was around the corner silently watching and studying one's every move.

At night Allison swore up and down she saw the shadow of the footsteps walking around, up and down, the hallway from the soft glow of the LED nightlight plugged into the bathroom wall outlet. And it didn't help that the sound of slow moving, rhythmically placed foot-meets-floor steps followed the movement of the shadows.

Slowly the footsteps made their way up the hallway. Each creaking and squeaking of the wooden floor boards brought whoever it was closer to the opposite end of the hall; closer to the room where Allison and Ben's young and defenseless child, Tyler, slept within the comfort and familiarity of the tall white bars that made up his crib. No doubt he was on his belly, arms up by his turned head which always faced the door, his favorite blue pacifier placed in between his lips. He'd never see the unimaginable horror that was about to come. But whoever it was would have a glow of an image of the child sleeping peacefully in the baby blue sheet lined crib provided by the light of the moon.

But then, out of nowhere, when the footsteps finally did make their way to the family's end of the hallway, they'd stop, vanish, disappear like they were never there. The shadows would diminish as though someone or something had covered up their light source, and all was quiet. The heaviness that weighed in the air, the fear that polluted the space, died out and the house, once again, solely belonged to Allison and her family.

The first time she had seen and heard the footsteps Allison instantly thought that someone was in the house. She shook Ben awake and even hit him on the head once to pull him out of his slumber. She mentally cursed her frustrations on him being such a god forsaken heavy sleeper and pointed to the door. She asked him if Ben saw the shadow of the footsteps, and he did. He watched as they walked up and down for a few moments before he reached into his nightstand and pulled out the gun he kept handy. Ben also made a mental note to thank his luck for having grown up in a military-enthusiast family.

Quickly loading the gun and prepping it ready to take a shot at whoever challenged the thought of harming his family, he crept out of bed and locked his eyes on the door. He could still see the shadow and now hear the footsteps walking up and down the hallway.

Slowly reaching out for the doorknob time seemed to stand still between Ben's hand making contact with the doorknob and Ben ripping the door open and pointing the gun.

In the moment that the door flung to the side and nearly hit the wall everything went still. The footsteps stopped, the shadows disappeared, and the heaviness that filled the air lifted. But still Ben kept his guard up. He searched the entire house, every door, every nook, every cranny, every square inch of the property, but there was nothing to be found.

Allison swore up and down someone was there. She even reminded Ben that he saw and heard the footsteps too! Ben complied, nodding his head and tucking his gun away.

"I know. I know I saw and heard the footsteps, but there's no one here. Nothing was disturbed!" he said.

"Then how do you explain it?" Allison asked.

"Look, it's a new house, a new environment. As my father would say it's unfamiliar territory. It's probably just all the stress and natural distress of sleeping in an unfamiliar place."

Seemingly relaxed and thinking that stress and anxiety probably caused the event Allison agreed with Ben. But she couldn't let herself fall back asleep without seeing for herself that Tyler was alright. He was. He was belly down, head turned to the side, lying in his crib peacefully. And the next time the footsteps happened, Allison told herself to just shrug it off and blame it on stress.

But how can you possibly and continuously blame stress for the same, re-occurring thing? The reasonable thing would be to think that houses made strange noises and they breathe during the warmer weather. No doubt Allison and Ben left a few windows open to eliminate the overwhelming smell of a new environment. When they were living in their apartment they used to keep their windows open during the warmer weather. But the windows they kept open in this house were only opened just above a crack, and they were locked. There was no way someone would be able to cut the screen, reach their hand in and unlock the window. And the only window left open was the one in their bedroom…

There was no explaining anymore where the footsteps were coming from that would fall under the category of rational. They weren't supposed to be there, but there they were. Walking up and down the hallway only seen in shadow, and their rhythmic thump, thump, thumping pattern made it sound like someone was slowly pacing up and down the hall, like a killer looking for its hiding victim.

And then, just after the footsteps disappeared and all had been quiet and peaceful for a few minutes, and Allison laid her weary head back on her pillow, like a well oiled machine the slow paced, heavy set footsteps would start again, starting at the family's end of the hall, just outside the master bedroom door adjacent to the room where little Tyler slept. As slow as they crept up the hall was as slow as they made their way down the hall and around the corner of the "L" shaped hallway once more. And then they'd disappear, not to be heard from again until whoever, or whatever, it was decided to walk back up and down the hallway once more.

Eventually the footsteps stopped. Allison was able to sleep peacefully for one night with no disturbances. But the footsteps had been replaced with a new disturbance.

It was just after 2:30 in the morning on a clear, brightly lit moonlighted night when the sound of something scratching against the screen of a window bounced off the walls and echoed throughout the master bedroom. Allison stirred awake from her sleep just as the sound went from a window screen being scratched to a voice whispering, "Psst!"

Allison reached over to Ben's side of the bed but instead of her hand meeting his shoulder, it made contact with the mattress. And it was in that moment that Allison remembered that Ben was covering his co-worker's night shift tonight.

Slowly Allison turned to face the window. Seen only by the moonlight stood a tall, dark, male figure that began scratching the screen on the window once again with his finger.

"Psst! Allison!" the figure called in a distanced hushed tone.

Allison froze in fear as the figure called to her once more. Even in hushed tone, she still recognized that voice.

"I can see you're awake. Don't try to pretend you're asleep on me!"

The goose bumps raised on Allison's arm, the hairs on the back of her neck stood up. She shook her head, thinking and muttering, "No…" as she stared at the shadowed figure.

"Allison! Come here a sec!"

"No…no, I'm done with you! I swore on it! You can't be here!"

"I'm not gonna hurt you this time. I just wanna talk to you, really."

"How did you find me?"

"I know you, Allison. I remember the day you told me you wanted to live here. That it was such a beautiful place, quiet suburbs but not too isolated from city-like life. It also reminded you of your grandparents' old neighborhood where you practically grew up and felt more at home than in your actual home. But I gotta say, I always pictured the two of us here."

"The only place you would have us tougher forever was either in jail or underground!"

"Nah," even in the dark Allison could clearly see the figure shaking his head. "I told you, if you didn't scream and followed my lead you'd be just fine. I've done it before and only got caught once. And even then, I slipped away with just a slap on the wrist."

As the clouds in the sky began to move and shift, the brought glow of the mood shined more intensely on the shadowed figure revealing his cold, pale facial features, blood tinted face, and blood stained shirt. It was only for a second when a car went by, and its headlights flashed on the figure, but Allison could clearly see her ex's blood soaked white t-shirt clinging to his upper body. The tears and dirt on the shirt told the story.

"Get out of here!" Allison demanded even as she trembled like a tiny little leaf. "Now!"

"Don't let my appearance get to you. I only did what I had to. The bitch wouldn't stop screaming….Now," he picked his hand up, raised one finger and slowly lowered it so he was pointing to the locked latch. "Open the window!" he said quickly.

"No."

"Allison. Open. The. Window!" he said more irritated.

"No!"

Allison's ex began breathing heavily, his face twisted, his eyes narrowed, his brows down, and all he saw was red. He began to grunt almost like an irritated bull before he screamed. His voice was low, deep, demanding, and almost demonic, just like Allison remembered, as her ex screamed, "Open the window! Open the window!" over and over again.

Allison trembled and shook with fear. In her mind her house was shaking as hard as her heart was pounding. And all she kept hearing was an endless verse of, "Open the window! Open the window! Open the window now or I'll kill the kid!"

"You stay away from him!" Allison tore the sheets off her body and threw herself out of bed before she ran for her bedroom door, then across the hall and into Tyler's nursery. She grabbed her 10 month old sleeping son, startling him awake, and ran out of the room.

The first door Allison saw was the one she pulled open and locked herself and her son inside. She thought it was odd that the living room closet had a key lock on it when she first saw it, but now she was flat-out grateful!

Tyler's blood curdling cries were amplified in the confided small space he and his mom were hiding in. Allison tried her best to calm down her son, but she'd never be able to do that if she couldn't even calm down her own racing mind that was trapped in panic mode.

She reached into the diaper bag that was kept handy in the closet and pulled out one of Tyler's spare pacifiers, or as Ben called it "the mute button," and popped it into his mouth, knowing that it always calmed him down. Tyler accepted it and sucked on the pacifier with a vengeance.

The heavy footsteps that Allison continuously heard that mysteriously didn't seem to have a source were now being heard coming down the hall over Tyler's small, muffled cries.

"You can't hide from me, Allison! I KNOW you! I know you a lot better than you think!"

The footsteps rounded the corner of the hallway as Allison's psycho ex-boyfriend walked into the living room. A memory that took Allison years to repress now flashed in her mind like the brightest star in the sky: her ex ALWAYS more heavy set, steel toed boots.

Time stood still and Allison held her breath as a pound on the door slammed into hers and Tyler's ears and her ex-boyfriend grabbed a hold of Allison's neck. Now she understood why he always more steel toed boots.