Elements

Chapter 3

Sorry, this is a bit of a short chapter, but the next one will be longer :) enjoy...

Lyla

         The rain was just beginning when Lyla went up to check on Joey. She brought his favorite sick meal with her: Chicken noodle soup, right out of the can. Joey was a weird kid; everyone knows that nobody actually eats chicken noodle soup when they’re sick, but Joey insisted on it every time.

         With a sigh, Lyla had poured it out of the can and warmed it up in the microwave. Then she had begun her long ascent up the many stairs in their house.

         Finally reaching the top, Lyla headed for the farthest door on the left side of the hallway: Joey’s room.

         When she was only about halfway there, she noticed something was wrong. Joey’s door was halfway open. He never left his door open. Ever. Upon further inspection, Lyla noticed that the door was not only open, it was hanging off its hinges, like someone had slammed into it.

         A bolt of pure panic shot right up her spine. Her arms started tingling and her breath was short. She quietly set the bowl of soup down on the floor and slowly crept for the door, cautiously reaching out a hand to open it. It wouldn’t budge. She tentatively slipped through the small space between the broken door and the frame.

         A gasp escaped her lips when she saw the room. The carpet and bedding had scratch marks all over them. The window was open and the curtains shredded. All the contents of the desk were scatted across the floor, and it looked like the closet had puked up dirty clothes. The first thought that flitted through Lyla’s head was an image of a giant clawed beast dragging Joey out of his bed and through the open window.

         Lyla stared dumbly at the room for a few seconds, not knowing what to do. A sudden gush of wind coming through the window cleared her head and allowed her to make a plan. She would go downstairs and call 911, and then she would call-

         A sudden crashing noise echoed from downstairs. She was out the door before her mind could even comprehend the sound, or its significance. She hurled down the stairs, taking them two at a time and finally crashing to a stop once she reached the bottom.

         She paused, listening for any noises that would lead her to Joey. She couldn’t hear anything over the roaring of the storm.

         Quietly, she crept over towards the phone that was resting on the counter top. She cautiously picked it up to dial 911 and was greeted by no dial tone. Great, the phone was out… This was just like every bad horror film she had seen. The clouds were covering up the sun, making it appear as though it were night.

         The wind howled across the side of the house, making it impossible for her to listen for Joey, or his captor. The more she panicked, the fiercer the wind seemed to become. Wind, Lyla thought, Calm down. I need to listen. Almost immediately, the wind ceased completely. Had Lyla not been so terror-stricken, she would have thought this an odd coincidence.

         She cocked her head, listening attentively for any noise that might indicate where her brother was. There was nothing.

         Lyla stood listening for several more seconds, trying to figure out what to do. If she could get out the door, she could go to her next-door neighbor’s house and use their phone, but that would mean leaving Joey with his captor.

         With no other solutions coming to her mind, the panic was close to consuming her. Just as she felt she was about to run out of the house screaming at the top of her lungs, the wind slammed the back door open with a loud bang.

         The loud shrieking noise that came from somewhere deep within Lyla was masked by the howling of the wind, which had returned in full force. After a few seconds of staring open-mouthed at the doorway, Lyla tentatively stepped towards the door.

         As she was stepping through the threshold, her eyes scanned the backyard for signs of anything. They fell on the shed, and the light that was on inside. Nobody had been in that shed in years, not since her mom had died when she was seven. She was surprised the light still worked at all. Joey had to be in there.

         Lyla walked slowly until she was right in front of the closed door. She was just thinking that there was no way she could open this door not knowing what she would find on the other side of it, when the wind slammed against the door, opening it for her.

         The breath whooshed out of her lungs, leaving her gasping. She contained her breath with some difficulty and stepped over the threshold.