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Electricity was all that Esther could feel as she tore from the basement and into the hallway. It didn't feel like she was physically moving, but rather her soul was screaming and racing away from the horrors she had discovered down in the dank basement. The electric feeling didn't go away as she pushed the coat rack to the floor, in a feeble attempt to slow down the predator that was stalking her; goose-bumps prickled her skin, leaving the fine hairs on her arms to stand on end.
Jacks thundering footsteps accompanied the lightening that Esther could swear had shocked her. He bounded up the basement stairs after her, his booming shouts shaking the entire house – making the old wooden bones wail and howl.
Esther stopped in her tracks for a moment, despite the obvious closeness of Jacks footsteps the front door which was swinging wide open sent a new flurry of panic through Esther's being. She hadn't left that open. She was sure of it; she was sure she had shut and locked it when Regan had come in.
She didn't have long to stall though; she sent a weary glance towards the front door before swinging herself round the end of the bannister and running up the stairs as fast as she possibly could. She couldn't help but wish she was back in LA and back in one of her precious 10 second cars – there were no psychopathic murderers in street races.
"Come on Esther, you know girls like you don't last long in horror movies!" jack called from the bottom of the stair case, the long black shawl hung loosely from his frame and in his left hand he held a dagger like knife, dark and slick with blood.
"Good thing I plan on being in the sequel!" Esther screamed back, almost tripping on a rug as she quickly jammed herself inside her bedroom. She pushed the dresser in front of it and then stood back, panting slightly before then looking for escape routes.
She cursed under her breath – the room was tiny, and her only viable escape was through an equally tiny window which she was pretty certain led to an at least fifteen-foot drop.
She wasn't about to fall out of a window and die – not after all of this.
Esther paced the room, raking her fingers through her now greasy hair, when was the last time she washed it? God when was the last time she showered? She couldn't be sure, but she was sure that she must've looked disgusting.
Her skin was sweaty and sticky as she continued to pace the room, she just had to wait them out – that would be easy enough. She could just wait in this room until Spencer got here and then she would be safe, and Jack would be taken to jail, and she could forget this whole thing ever happened.
Only if she could somehow get the bloodstains out of the carpet, of course.
She sighed and shook her head. Waiting around for Spencer was hopeful wishing at best – at worst it was a death sentence.
She slunk down the wall beside the dresser, so far Jack hadn't attempted to force his way into her bedroom but she supposed it was only a matter of time before he grew impatient or he found some other way in.
"Jack?" She called, her voice weak. She could feel how chapped her lips were as she spoke; she was sure they had cracked and bled with all her screaming.
"Yes?" his gruff voice replied from the other side of the door. Even now Esther couldn't place that voice as the same one at the other end of the phone.
"Why are you doing this?" she asked.
"The Exorcist was one, it got me thinkin' of you" He almost mumbled.
"so, you decided to kill people?" the hysteria had entered her voice again, making it take on that shrill tone that rang in her own ears.
"No, we decided to kill bastard who deserved it."
"We?" Esther's voice trembled.
Jack laughed from the other side of the door, a deep rumbling chuckle turned into shrill and hysterical laughter as Esther looked around her room in panic.
A dark mass shifted from beneath the bed. The shadows rippled like the ocean in the middle of the night as it crawled out from the darkness. Long bony fingers emerged from beneath the waves and dragged itself forward and towards Esther. As it crawled further and further out of the shadows and into the middle of the tiny room, a bright white face seemed to appear and contrast the pitch black, it was twisted and distorted – huge, gaping holes where the eyes and mouth should be and its lower jaw was so far down that it looked unhinged.
Esther gasped, suddenly all the air in the world wouldn't be enough for her to catch her breath. She scrambled in the spot, backing herself up even further against the wall she had been leaning on.
"What's the matter Es? You look like you've seen a ghost." The familiar, deep, and almost robotic voice shook Esther to her very core.
A scream tore through her throat, a painful scream that she was sure could be heard from miles around.
Lightening seemed to shock her again and she was running on electricity, all of her movements were autonomous. She yanked the dresser out of the way of the door much faster than she ever would've been able to do it before.
Once the dresser had been moved enough to open the door, she yanked the handle so hard she was sure that the door nearly came of its hinges.
Behind the door Jack sat still laughing hysterically to himself. The dagger sat on his lap – still dark and shiny with Regan's blood.
Something seemed to come over Esther in that moment, she wasn't able to describe what it was, she was certain she didn't even have a thought about it but suddenly the dagger was in her hand and then just as suddenly, it was imbedded into Jacks gut; his white t-shirt now stained red with his own blood.
He stopped laughing. He slumped against the wall for a second and looked down at his stomach, he lifted his fingers and pressed them into the wound – wincing slightly before breaking out into hysterical laughter yet again.
Esther was stunned. She could only watch as he continued laughing and the masked man stood in the doorway of her bedroom, Esther guessed that they probably had a similar expression on their face behind the gnarled mask.
"This is why we saved you for last." Jack said, once his laughter had calmed down again. Then he stood, easily, as if Esther hadn't tried to gut him mere moments ago.
