The Visitors

Sample

Cleo started down her hallway. Her gait was slow as she neared her staircase. She rubbed her hip where she had incidentally fallen into Don's desk and grabbed the railing to support herself up the stairs when her doorbell suddenly chimed.

She quickly turned towards the door.

That's him already, she thought, as she stepped back onto the floor. Her anticipation had her practically skipping.

She swiftly unlocked it and swung the door open, a wide smile on her face, which quickly diminished when she had caught sight of her visitor.

"Please, please," The young boy panted. "I need help." He was out of breath as if he had been running for a while. His clothes were drenched and his black shoes were caked in mud.

"What happened..." Cleo began as her eyes scanned the boy.

He wore his black hood over his head, which put a shadow over his face, but Cleo noticed that he couldn't have been older than sixteen, for his voice was still high pitched and facial hair hadn't even begun to grow yet. However, he was much taller than her, who was only five foot three, and he clearly spent a lot of time in a gym.

"My mother's car broke down, down the road." He said frantically as he pointed back towards the road beyond her snaked driveway.

Cleo looked over his shoulder in the direction he had pointed in, but not a single car was in sight.

"Goodness," Cleo exclaimed, as she brought her hand to her chest. "Is she alright? How far down the road is she?"

"Yes, I told her I'd look for help. Her phone wouldn't work. I don't know if the storm knocked something out... Does yours work?" The boy continued.

"Yes, well I think so. I just used it at least." Cleo replied while clutching her satin robe closed in front of her chest to cover her silk babydoll gown that tightly hugged her curves and barely reached her thighs—something Piper had picked out.

"Can I please use yours?"

"Of course!" Cleo cried as she stepped back to let the young boy inside.

Before stepping past her carefully, he wiped his sneakers on her welcome mat and muttered "thank you." He took in her enormous home. In amazement, his eyes darted from the dining room closest to him on his right, and into the living room further to his left, as Cleo locked the door behind him.

"Does your mother need help? Should I go get her?" Cleo continued worryingly.

The boy was still peering in her living room, studying the immense stone fireplace in front of a glass coffee table and the large television sitting on a shelf in the corner of the room, adjacent to the sectional plush gray couch. The gray walls held beautifully painted canvases of abstract art and a black wooden bookshelf against the wall was filled with an assortment of books.

He snickered.

Cleo furrowed her brow when he suddenly registered her.

"She's fine," He finally replied as a crack of thunder unsettled the hanging frames in her home. "I just need a phone."

Cleo nodded, but she was beginning to feel uneasy.

She felt the pockets of her robe and muttered, "I'll go get it," She began to pass the boy. "You can have a seat, I'll be right back."

The boy stepped into her living room as Cleo started off towards her staircase again.

She felt it in the pit of her stomach as she began up the stairs. Her gut was attempting to tell her something, but she was convinced it was simply because she had a little too much to drink.

She rounded the railing and approached her bedroom door at the end of the hall. For a brief moment she paused, listening intently for the boy she left on the floor below her, but the sound of the heavy rain drowned out all of the noise in her home. She hoped that he was simply admiring her lovely decor. She pressed the door and stepped into her room.

She thought her cellphone was resting on the nightstand, where she usually left it, having completely forgotten she had used it only moments ago when she was in Don's office.

She brought the back of her right hand to her forehead and sighed. Now, she was regretting having drunk two glasses of wine. Cleo was weary and she was still holding the empty glass in her left hand, as she continued to search around her room.

"Where did I..." Cleo whispered to herself as she looked through the covers. She placed the glass on her nightstand and dropped to her knees to search beneath her bed, but it was only storage boxes, not a cell phone.

She stood again and looked towards her dresser that was littered with her things. Just as she was going to approach it, however, she heard a loud bang of a door opening in her home. She quickly turned toward her bedroom door listening to the sound of the heavy rain that was being drafted into the home by the hefty wind.

Before exiting her room, she simply stood, listening. Her heart thudding loudly in her chest, she shyly approached her bedroom door and eased from the room, hoping she would see her husband walking through the front door. Instead, she saw the front door was ajar, the storm noisily waiting for her.

Did he leave, Cleo wondered as she peered over the railing. She tried to crane her neck to catch a glimpse of her living room, but it was completely out of view from where she stood.

She tucked her hair behind her ears and wrapped her robe tighter across her body as she carefully descended, each step creaking beneath her weight.

He needed to check on his mother, Cleo was telling herself as she continued down the stairs, I was taking too long. But that was only to ease the true thoughts that were burgeoning in her mind. Thoughts like, why had I let in a stranger in, and, was there really even a 'mom'?

The door was wide and the rain was creating a pool at her front door, but Cleo stayed close to the wall as she reached the bottom of her stairs. She cautiously continued towards the front door, but as she approached the doorway of her living room, she peered inside. She expected to see the young boy on her couch, but he wasn't. He had gone, which she had suspected when she had heard her door open. He was just in a rush to get back, she was thinking.

She started back towards her front door, with a bit more speed. The storm before her was tumultuous. She watched as the gusty winds gathered leaves and blew them across her yard. She had to wrap her arms over her body as the winds blew back her satin robe.

It wasn't until Cleo was beginning to pass her dining room when she noticed why the door had really been left open.

A scream escaped her lips at the sight of two masked men waiting for her in her dining room.

The boy that had come looking for help now stood at the doorway of the dining room with his black hood pulled over his face, casting a shadow over a plastic white mask, leaving only the menacing smirk. The new visitor that sat at the head of the mahogany table for six was resting his hands on a gun. The eyes of the mask were hidden, but he allowed the smile to show for Cleo as well.

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If you want to know what happens next, this novel will be published and found on Apple Books and on my website https://www.arynthropology.com/ for purchase! Thanks for reading!