Chapter Eight



It was midnight when Randy was awakened by the howling of a dog; Randy sighed as he got out of bed to see where the howling dog was. He wasn't upset at the dog for waking him because he had really been sleeping. Every time he closed his eyes he saw Cassie's body lying in her casket.
Randy walked over to his window and peered outside; there, right under his window, was a large black dog that Randy had never seen before. The dog stopped howling and looked up at Randy; his eyes were dark and void and appeared as though they could see straight through Randy. Randy felt chills run down his spine as he shook that thought from his mind.
Randy shut his window to drown out the howls of dog but Randy didn't return to bed. Instead he walked out of his room, quietly so not to wake anyone up, and headed downstairs to get a glass of water. As Randy entered the kitchen his noise was greeted by the smell of flowers; however, upon looking around Randy couldn't see any flowers. Maybe the smell was coming from outside, Randy thought as he walked to refrigerator.
After getting himself a glass of water, Randy walked to one of the "junk draws" and opened it to get a candle. He didn't want to turn on the kitchen light because it was so bright and it might wake someone up.
He pulled out a candle and a match and carried both back to the kitchen table; he struck the match and lit the candle. There was a brief flicker and the candle began to burn.
As Randy sat down at the table, sipping absently from his water, the flame on the candle blew out. Randy stared at the candle as white, wispy smoke trailed off from black wick.
Randy couldn't figure out what had blown the candle out; he looked up at the ceiling fan. The fan was still, the long cords dangled from between the light bulbs.
Randy sighed and returned to the draw to get another match; he carried the match to the table and struck it. He held the match up to the wick; the wick lit but as quickly as it lit it blew out again. Randy attempted to the light the candle three more times but each time the light blew out as quickly as it lit.
Sighing, Randy threw the match away and put the candle back in the draw; he would have to turn on the kitchen light and hope no one woke up. He walked over to the light switch and flicked it.
Nothing happened; Randy continued clicking the switch but the light refused to come on. Randy, now as confused as ever, walked over to the table and climbed atop it to see what the problem was with the light. Maybe the bulbs were burned out; however, they had worked perfectly earlier at dinner.
Randy peered upward at the bulbs; they seemed fine just by looking at them. Randy began to unscrew one of the bulbs; he didn't notice one of the brass cords that could be used to switch the fan or light on and off without a light switch, had fallen down his back by way of his shirt collar.
Suddenly the fanlights came on, as did the fan. "Jesus!" Randy cried as the lights momentarily blinded him.
Randy shielded his eyes as he peered down to see who had clicked the light switch; no one was standing in the foyer or anywhere around the kitchen, the house was silent except for the noise that the fan blades made.

Upstairs, everything was silent; Annabel lay in her bed, not in a deep sleep but at least she was sleeping. A light breeze blew through her room, brushing against her cheek and rustling papers on her computer desk.
Annabel was startled by a sound that sounded like breaking glass; Annabel opened her eyes and lifted her head from her pillow. There, lying on the ground was a picture, face down and surrounded by shards of glass. The picture was of Annabel and her brothers at the zoo; it was a rather old picture, Annabel was only eight and they were all holding baby animals of some kind. Annabel liked that picture because she didn't have very many pictures of her and her brothers together; it was taken right before Billy "changed" and everything seemed to change with him. The picture had been rested on her dresser along with semi-important objects.
"Damnit." Annabel muttered as she stepped out of bed to clean up the mess. She would have to get another frame tomorrow. "The wind must have knocked it over." Annabel muttered to herself. She looked over at her window but it was shut and locked. Annabel frowned and looked away from the window.
She knelt down and gingerly picked up the picture frame from behind; the picture fluttered out of it. Annabel set the broken frame aside and picked up the picture; she turned it over to look at it.
Annabel gasped as she looked at the picture; in the picture, Randy was standing beside her but instead of looking the way he had when that picture was taken, Randy looked the way he did now. And around his neck was an imprint of what looked like where a cord had wrapped around his neck; the imprint was deep and raw. Annabel looked up at her brother's face and his eyes were black and void like Cassie's eyes had been. Annabel gasped and dropped the picture, standing up and backing away from where the picture had fallen.

Downstairs, Randy was just about to step off the table and turn off the light when he felt something tighten around his neck. The brass cord from the fan was wrapping around his neck, due to the shaking of the fan; Randy reached to pull the cord off his neck but as soon as his fingers touched the cord it got tighter. There was no way the fan could have done that; Randy felt the cord getting tighter. He reached for the cord and attempted to pull the cord off but it grew tighter.
Randy gasped as the cord began to strangle him; Randy desperately pulled at the cord and gasped for breath. He couched and gasped as he fought to get breath.
Randy tried as heard as he could to unwrap the cord from around his neck but it was no use, every time he cried the cord got tighter.
Randy struggled to pull away, as though that would unwrap the cord his neck. Randy's foot slipped off the edge of the table as did his other foot; the cord, however, held him tighter. When he slipped off, the effect was like being hung; Randy let out a small sigh and a gasp as the cord tightened for the last time.
Randy's body became still and his eyes became dark and void, almost peaceful. The fan blades stopped moving and the lights switched off, leaving Randy's corpse in the darkness.

NOTE: I know that that was the same way Tod in the first one but give me a break, there's only so many ways that someone can die where it looks like suicide and it really wasn't.