“Where are you…” I whispered to myself, a bead of sweat rolling down my spine. I continued down the hall and stared out over the railing at the foyer below. Everything remained silent and still, not a whisper or sound.
“Back up is on its way,” Henry called softy from behind me. I turned, and retreated back to the bedroom. We needed to get the hell out of this house.
I clicked my light off and knelt down beside Henry and the little girl. He shifted her in his arms and passed her to me. I gently accepted the girl, staring down at her bloody, pale face. She looked like she was dead. Tears suddenly budded in my eyes and I squeezed them shut, shaking my head.
“I know…” Henry whispered, his voice cracking. “Did you see him out there? Did you see Mary? Where did they go?”
A voice answered from the end of the hall, from the bedroom where the husband was impaled.
“I’m afraid she had an accident…”
Henry and I jumped at the sudden noise and turned our heads to stare out into the dark. Two blue eyes glowed at us from the end of the hall, shining like cobalt diamonds.
“Mary tumbled down the basement stairs and broke her neck,” Tommy cooed, chuckling. “This whole night is turning into a disaster I’m afraid.”
Before I could say anything, Henry was on his feet, snarling and pulling his pistol free. He lunged forward and pulled off three shots toward where the eyes were. Darkness swallowed up the blue and we heard the bastard still chuckling from the other room.
“Stay here,” Henry growled. He stepped out into the hall and closed the bedroom door behind him, enveloping me in complete black. Before the door swung shut, I saw the red and blue light of our back-up arrive and spill into the house from downstairs.
Henry’s footsteps thudded down the hall and I heard him yelling in fury for Tommy. His voice became muffled as he entered the far bedroom and then complete silence swept the house once again, so sudden that I sucked in my breath like it was trying to escape.
I counted the drum of my heart beat….one….two…three….four…f-
The bedroom door before me exploded in a shower of splinters as Henry was hurled through it, face first. He soundlessly crunched into the opposite wall and I heard the fatal snap of his spine severing. I cried out, horrified, my breath rushing back into my lungs in a wave of terror.
Get out, get out, get out…
I gripped the little girl in my arms and stood, sweat staining the collar of my shirt. I licked my dry lips and grit my teeth as I heard the creak of wood as Tommy descended the stairs again, his voice floating back up at me.
“Officer down…officer down…hehehehe…”
I crept down the hall and saw through the front windows over the railing that the two officers who had been sent were now approaching the front door.
Before I could call out, Tommy had flung the door open, a smile plastered to his face.
“What seems to be the trouble?” He asked casually, swinging the door closed behind him, obscuring my view.
Knowing I had precious seconds, I hoisted the unconscious girl over my shoulder and flew down the stairs. From outside, I could already hear someone screaming.
I turned in the darkness and fled to the kitchen, blinking back sweat as panic grasped my throat with an iron grip. I bumped into a wall and felt my shoulder wince in pain, but I ignored it, desperately searching for a back exit.
There!
A sliding glass door!
