Night Terrors

The Carver

"All because I forgot to lock the door," Mary thought.

Surely forgetting to do something that simple couldn't lead to this, but there it was. She sat in the chair at the kitchen table covered in sweat and blood, and pretty much unable to move. The knuckles of her left hand were bone white as she held the butcher knife in a death grip, its blood coated blade resting against her leg. Her right hand, pretty much unusable at this point. She could see him staggering through the front yard, getting closer to the front door but still she didn't move. She watched him like a hawk. Her eyes stung with sweat but she couldn't be bothered to wipe it away. He was on the front porch now, he sang as he got closer to the door. How he could still be singing at this point Mary did not know. What she did know was that it was dark and sinister.

"I like to cut with my knife, I like to cut deep. Now be a good little girl, and don't make a peep,"


She felt the blood still running out of her right hand, warm and sticky. Then to make matters worse her bladder let go. Still she didn't move. She just waited for him to come and looked back on how this normal babysitting job had went terribly wrong tonight.

3 Hours ago

Mary was looking forward to a nice quiet night alone with the television. She had put the boy to bed about an hour ago and the parents never gave a set time for when they were going to be home. The forty-six inch High Definition television in the living room was an excellent perk that she got to enjoy as the babysitter. She pulled back the curtain on the front room window and looked outside. It was still snowing, had been ever since before she got here. She looked over at her tiny, blue car and saw that it was covered. If this kept up it wouldn't matter what time the parents got home because she would be spending the night. Behind her the phone rang. She turned from the window and headed for the kitchen, brushing her black bangs out of her face as she went. She picked up the phone and noticed that the pot of water she had put on the stove was boiling.

"Hello," she said.
She listened while the person on the other end of the line spoke.

"Is it really that bad there? It isn't quite that bad here yet. Don't worry I can do that, it is not a problem. Okay, I'll see you tomorrow sometime," she said and hung up.

She picked up the phone and dialed another number.

"Mom," Mary said when she answered.

"I'm not going to be home tonight. The Ritter's are stranded at the conference because of the storm. It is starting to get a little bad out this way too. So, I will see you tomorrow sometime ok, bye mom," she said and hung up.

Mary turned from the phone and went back over to the stove. She opened the box of spaghetti noodles she had sitting on the counter and added it to the pot of boiling water.

"Ten minutes until spaghetti," She thought to herself as she went into the living room and turned on the television. As she settled in to find something to watch she thought she faintly heard sirens in the distance. She couldn't tell if they were coming closer or moving farther away. She decided that it didn't matter either way as she started clicking through the channels.

Now

Mary could see that he was still standing on the front porch just outside of the front door. She didn't know what he was waiting for but part of her just wanted him to come on so they could get it over with. She looked over at the clock on the wall and struggled to stay conscious.
"That's right. Come on in so we can end this," she thought to herself.

"You know there is only one of two ways this can end right?" Her own voice replied.

"One of us or maybe both of us die," she thought back.