In a few minutes, I had the engine to my car revved up and I pulled out of the parking space of the hotel. It was already late in the evening, and the sun's last rays of light were casting long and dark shadows in an attempt to get a last glimpse of this side of the Earth before rising on the other.

The night was brisk, but was still fairly decent temperature, so I wore my dark jeans and cropped jacket comfortably. I was still excited to get to my parent's house, and in being so, I realized I was exceeding the speed limit when I saw the familiar colours and lettering of a cop car up ahead.

There was no way in Hell I was getting a speeding ticket tonight. Not when there's a herd of familiar faces waiting for me just a few miles up ahead. I told myself to calm down, it wasn't a big deal, and eased the pressure I was putting on the gas pedal.

When the cops made a right at an intersection, I zoomed past traffic once the green light blinked on and decided to stop at a food shop over a bridge. My party would have to wait a minute, because I did not have coffee today, and I couldn't put up with my dad's corny old jokes on a caffeine-free diet. Call me a coffee addict, if you please.

Once I acquired my favorite scalding beverage and boarded my car once again, I was on the road to my childhood home in less than 5 minutes.

The old and familiar houses of my neighborhood brought a wave of nostalgia over me, and I replayed fond memories of good times I had playing on this street, or riding my bike on that street, or fighting the neighborhood bitch in her backyard and winning. I sighed wistfully as my car crawled to a stop in front of my destination.

But something was wrong. I sensed it in the air as I climbed out of the car and slung my purse over my shoulder. The curtains were drawn, and the lights inside were dim. My mom hated dim lights when company was present in her house, and surely someone would leave the curtains open to check when I arrived?

Coffee in hand, I dug in my purse to check the time on my iPhone. The glowing screen showed 8:47 PM. Whoa. How long has it been since I hung up? I didn't take that much time to pick out my clothes, did I? I only tried on 3 different shirts this time, not 5.

No way, maybe I took too long driving or getting my coffee. This was weird...

I shove my phone back into my purse and slammed my car door shut. In the silence of the street, it sounded like a gunshot.

My Apple Bottom heels clicked on the flagstones as I made my way up the lawn I practically memorized from at least 5 different angles in my childhood.

Before, the lawn was more or less welcoming. Now, it was giving me the feeling of dread.

I climbed up the porch steps and was about to ring the doorbell when I noticed the door was slightly ajar.

My mental alarms wailed loudly and I took a step back. Dad always shuts the door firmly, and encourages others to do so. So even if someone wanted to leave the door open for me for a second, he would have doggedly argue about the dangers of the outside world at this time of the day, even though we lived in a good neighborhood.

It was a long and boring lecture I had to go through listening to many times before, but now his words of caution rang in my head as I gawked at the open door.

No way. I had to check this out. Either my dad wasn't in the house, or something was definitely wrong.

I pushed open the door with my fingertips cautiously, and the door creaked eerily as it swung open. This felt like a classic horror movie scene... The unsuspecting victim takes the bait as she enters the killing grounds.

Every bone in my body warned me not to go in, but my body resisted the gut feeling. I stepped in and scanned the snazzily furnished living room quickly. To my untrained eye, everything looked fine. No furniture was toppled over, but there was a creepy dark stain on the wall further from me... and everyone was just... gone.

I left the front door wide open as I inched closer and closer to the couches, holding my breath. I saw the shoulder of someone lying on a loveseat, and I strained my neck to get a closer look. Who was it? A sleeping family member? This was just getting more and more bizarre by the minute...

I tiptoed (well, as much as I could in high heels) toward the couch and set my coffee on the small side table which held a vase of flowers. I leaned over the back of the seat and slowly reached over to nudge the person awake. She looked very familiar...

The body rolled over and and I almost screamed in shock. Instead, I stifled my scream with my hand and backed up to get out of there as quickly as possible. The image of a scarred, carved face covered in blood burned into my mind and I squeezed my eyes shut. What's worse is that it was Erica, mutilated to the point of being almost unrecognizable.

I bumped into someone at the doorway and just as I whirled around to see who it was, a hard, sharp thing struck me on the face and sent me sprawling backwards onto the wooden floor. I moaned with pain, and I cracked open an eye to see who the fuck it was that whaled on me for no reason. I only saw a silhouette of a man with a knife in his hand as he padded slowly toward me against the full moon outside the open door. What horrified me the most was that his eyes glowed brilliantly in the darkness of the room.