Hidden Down Under

   Joan and Charlie are recent empty nesters still living in their first house. With their children grown, the couple considered downsizing.  Joan dreamed of living in the city, while Charlie wanted to stay in town.
Regardless, they spend their days following their same routine; Joan does her best as a housewife with keeping up with the chores so they could sell it someday, while Charlie just watches TV after getting off from work.
   One night, the two were having dinner when Joan heard a sinister laughter come from underneath them.
"What was that?" She whispered to Charlie, fear filling her eyes.
Charlie looked up from his plate.
"What was what?" He said,with a mouth full of food, confused. 
She heard it again.
"That!" She said louder.
This time Charlie finally heard the laughter.
A serious look appeared on his face. He grabbed a flashlight and opened the door leading to the basement.
"Stay here."
Looking down at the darkness, he started downstairs.
Joan, fearing her husband's life not knowing what was lurking down there, went against Charlie's wishes and slowly creeped down. She bumped into Charlie, the both of them letting out a shriek.
"The fuck are you doing here!" Charlie whispered loudly.
"I'm worried something might happen to you."
Charlie shrugged, put his finger to his lip , and waved the flashlight around every corner of the basement.
It was heavily creepy, but they heard nothing.
The two searched some more but no sign of laughter.
Going upstairs they heard it again. They turned around and
Charlie pointed his flashlight to  show a tall, stick figure-like man, covered in dust and debris from the crawl space.  A mallet dropped by his feet. Charlie and Joan figured the man used it to dig himself a hole in the basement floor to get out.   The man looked like he was in his forties or fifties. Two bright red circles filled the whites of his eyes. Fear overshadowed the couple as he widened his mouth to show his jagged blood soaked teeth; with a rat corpse in between them. He let out another sinister laugh; then ran up to them, and started devouring Charlie. 
"Well done, Tom," Joan said to the figure, who took off his mask, revealing a normal looking face. She came down the rest of the stairs.
"No problem, Joan," he said.
She then waltzed over to Charlie's disassembled dead body, and bended down
"You see dear husband, Tom is an actor I hired to take you out so that I could get away from you lazy piece of shit. I know a divorce could have been in the cards, but every time I bring it up, you brush it off. I had to do this." She said as she rolled her eyes.
"Can we talk about my payment?" asked Tom.
"How much?" She asked, getting up.
"Forty five dollars. Make it an extra hundred and I won't tell anyone where you got those teeth for the mask." He said, putting out his hand.
"Or",  Joan said in a menacing voice, "I could just kill you; instead."
She backed into a corner and Tom could see in the darkness she was picking up a pistol off a table.
"No, no, no, no, let's not make any rash decisions."
Tom started to back up planning to make a run for it through the basement's hatchway. 
"There's no way to hide."
She shot a bullet as Tom jumped and ducked behind a panel.  She shot another bullet just missing Tom's ear.
"It's now or never." Thought Tom. 
He flew the panel at Joan knocking her down and the pistol out of her hand.
He ran out the hatchway, and bolted down the road; not looking back. Through the trees he could hear Joan screaming to him. 
"I'LL GET YOU, TOM! YOU THINK YOU'VE SEEN THE LAST OF ME BUT YOUR DEAD WRONG!"
Her voice faded as Tom ran further and further down the street.