Night of Terror

The human mind is truly the scariest monster of all. It's weak and susceptible to manipulation, allowing inhuman things to crawl inside and fester there; waiting, biding their time until just the right moment to fracture souls and break down even the strongest of beings.

Sarah always thought she was a strong person, yet now she found herself cowering under her bed, her hand firmly over her mouth to muffle the sound of her breathing.

In the hallway she heard a scream, then an ominous thud as something hit the ground and rolled down the hallway coming to a stop directly in front of the room Sarah hid in. Sarah didn't want to think of what the object was, but the scream that preceded it conjured images of severed heads rolling like bowling balls in the dimly lit hallway. Heavy footsteps clomped down the hall, closer and closer until a shadow appeared under the door.

"Sarah," the unhinged, sing-song way her name was spoken in was wrong. It sent a chill down her spine and Sarah wished the floor would swallow her up and take her somewhere else. Anywhere but inside this nightmare sounded good right about now, but no matter how many times she blinked she still found herself in her darkened room cowering on the dusty wooden floor beneath her bed.

"Come out, come out, wherever you are," the voice taunted sounding like it was right in her ear.

Sarah curled into herself, hoping, wishing that he would give up and move on. Her head hurt from trying to mentally will him away and she felt her heart in her throat as her surroundings became heavy with the sound of dreadful expectation.

Sarah thought perhaps her wishes had been answered and that the monster on the other side of the door had moved on – until she felt breath upon her neck causing her hair to dance.

"Got you," the unhinged monster said gleefully as he ripped Sarah from her hiding place feet first.

The man that physically resembled her brother but was no longer the boy she'd grown up with threw her onto her back on the hard floor and leered at her. Light from the hallway caught the blade of the rusty meat cleaver primed and ready to strike in his left hand as her brother held her down.

Sarah's mouth opened to sputter a thousand different pleas but they died on her lips as she beheld the wild look in her brother's eyes. Whatever was inside her brother did not carry an ounce of humanity. A scream tore from her lips as his arm swung down and as Sarah clung to her last seconds she wished again that they'd never found that cursed box in the attic.