Chapter 14 - You close your eyes and hope that this is just imagination

"I'm the one who killed your father!" A voice said from the shadows.

Keely gulped. She looked around. Mandy was lying on the ground, Phil lying with her. Keely was the only one left. "What do you want to do with me?"

"What do you mean, what do I want to do with you?" the voice laughed. "You must be pretty stupid, not to be able to figure it out. Then again, your father wasn't the brightest bulb on the Christmas tree either. And you mother…well she was just plain thick."

Keely shook her head, backing away from the faceless figure. "No. Don't say that about my mom. She wasn't thick. And neither was my dad."

"He didn't know when to stop. He had no idea when to give up. He had killed one of his unborn children. He had hit his wife over, and over. He had destroyed his career and he still kept on taking the drugs. And getting more and more in debt. Which is why he had to pay with his life. Because I don't mess around Keely. I will not be played," the man advanced.

Keely panicked. "How the heck do you know my name?"

"I know everything about you. You have a best friend called Phil Diffy. Or, you did have a best friend called Phil Diffy. You loved him, but weren't sure if he loved you back. Your other best friend, Tia moved town. Then you met Via. And Owen. I know more about you than you know about yourself. Scared yet?"

Keely tried to shake her head, but her expression gave her fear away.

The intruder laughed. A laugh that is usually associated with those villains on Disney animated movies. But this wasn't a movie. And good didn't triumph over evil in this scenario.

Keely reached the wall behind her, and whimpered. There was nowhere else to run. She had been backing away from the door, and not towards it.

"I'm so sorry Keely. It's really nothing personal…"

The knife was raised, glinting silver…

And then…

"No!" Keely screamed, and opened her eyes.

No knife-welding maniac. It was as dark as her dream had been, but she was sitting on the couch. Next to Phil. Who was breathing. And her mom was breathing too.

Keely took deep breaths, trying to calm her nerves. The dream had been so vivid, so real…

She lay for a few more minutes, trying desperately to sleep. But the dream was too raw in her mind.

The person who killed her father had known everything about her. What if he actually did? What if he had been stalking her from Day 1, and now he was going to kill her?

She shook her head, trying to rid the nasty thoughts from it.

I had just been a dream, and dreams never came true. Well not bad dreams anyway. They weren't meant to come true.

She decided it was hopeless to try to fall back asleep, so she got up, and padded into the kitchen for a glass of water.

The light over the counter was on.

She squinted. She was sure her mother had turned it off.

"Let's turn this off before we go and watch the movie. Don't want to attract any attention to ourselves, do we?"

Keely shook her head. She must have been mistaken. Getting a glass and filling it with water, she turned the light off and walked back into the living room.

She walked over to the window, and snuck a glance out of it. The police patrol car wasn't there.

"Oh, and there will be a patrol car outside. They're making sure no one sneaks in at night."

Her heart thudded. Why wasn't the police car there? Surely it was supposed to stay all night, and not just when the occupants of the house had fallen asleep.

Maybe not. Maybe they had more important things to do than babysit her mom, Phil and her.

She didn't want to wake the other two, so she put on the TV but turned the volume right down. There was only a buzzing sound coming from the set however. No picture was being transmitted.

But Titanic had worked, only an hour ago…hadn't it?

"Let's watch Titanic!"

"Great, I love that movie!"

Keely frowned. She distinctly remembered watching at least, the start of Titanic.

So why didn't the TV work now?

Something caught her eye, in the corner, and she tried to work out what it was.

The wire had been cut.

The wire, connecting the TV to the electrical mains had been cut. And it could only be cut, if someone was standing in that very room.

Keely began to panic once more. This wasn't a dream. This was real. Scarily real.

She looked around the room, but nobody was there. Nobody that shouldn't have been there anyway…

"I'm imagining things. It's all in my head. Nobody cut the wire. Nobody turned on the light. It's all a figment of my overactive imagination. Everybody's saying I have one. Just take deep breaths," Keely tried to calm herself down. "It's all okay…it's all okay…it's all…"

But she didn't manage to get the rest of the words out. In their place, was an ear-splitting scream.

Must be the shortest chapter yet, but I had to end it there. Why? Simply because I'm in an evil mood. Ha ha ha!

I was getting scared as I was writing it, but that's probably just because I get scared easily. You probably think I'm crazy now, but I assure you, I'm not. I don't think…

The faster you review, the faster I will put you out of your misery…