Last Call

A Story by Compendium

A woman wakes into her final moments of fear and unknowing.

1:13am

My cell flashed with a newly missed call as I rose out of bed, floor as cold as ice as my faded blue nightgown draped caressingly around my ankles. Scraggly blonde hair draped over the front of my shoulders as I could see there was yet another power outage which wasn't really surprising considering I lived in the cozy mountainside of nowheresville where there wasn't a single store or neighbor for atleast 18 miles.

Rain beat upon the shingled roofing like a harmony of chaos, reminding me of a time when I was still knee high and waiting for the bus to take me away to my first day of school, you know, little 5 yr old girl, freckles across her nose, pink rubber booties and flowery rain coat with the hat to match, so wondrous and excited to see what lay over the hill and around the way as it was my first time going off on my own and finally leaving the nest to experience something just for me.

I felt so full of joy and wonderment, welcomed into a fray of strange and curious faces.

This wasn't one of those days...

The bedroom door laid wide open along with numerous clothes and personals scattered throughout the room. I knew I had locked it before I went to sleep and ive been single for the last 8 years since I was 27. No one lived anywhere near and the alarm system was state of the art, went off once when a stray cat tried to get in through a cracked window I forgot to lock in the kitchen and I never doubted the cost again.

The most unsettling feeling crept up my spine at that very moment, cold chills, bumps, hair standing on end and dead silence aside from the beating rain, the ever so novel flash through the drapes to brighten the hallway ahead leading to the stairs. Apart from the mess left around the room It could've been perfectly as I left it and Id still feel no less frightened.

Snatching the phone from my bedside drawer I clicked on the flashlight, waving it about the room frantically as I prayed nothing jumped out from the darkness. My breathing sped up as the slow groan and creak of weary overused stair boards echoed upwards and towards me, slowly and menacingly, I knew no one could be in my home yet it still kept creeping closer...

Wasting no time I raced to the door and felt my heartbeat quicken as did the steps beyond the hall, slamming the door shut I leaned with my back to it as I dropped to the floor and held the light to my chest.

Steps slowing as they grew closer, they sounded...off, like no steps I had ever heard, a gentle scrape and thud with each stride... I knew it wasn't an invader or some kind of robber, I could feel it in my bones this was something much worse.

Seconds felt as if they had stretched into minutes with nothing but silence as the rain slowed, the moment I pulled the phone away the light passed through the crack of the door sending the knob twisting and crackling furiously followed by harsh beating that nearly sent me flying from the force. Tears streaming, struggling to stifle my screams I punched erratically into the touch screen, going on pure instinct I dialed for the police and as the beating stopped the phone went to static as an eerily garbled message...(Dea...k...sh...rrggh...aa...)

It took everything that I had to not sling the phone across the room in panic, quickly I reached over, pulling and rearing back forcing my oak drawer over its side and blocking the door as I ran to the nearby window with still nothing but my nightgown on. As soon as I touched the locking clasp the door splintered open and nothing sounded but the bits of wood clattering onto the floor.

Hand trembling, light flickering across the room I was afraid to look at what was waiting at the frame yet...nothing waited, nothing at all stood there, only the hall laid ahead. Thinking not another moment I took to the stairs with arms in a flurry, head lowered so as not to see what had destroyed my home, several marks were upon the walls that were nearly just as unsettling, as if some form of unworldly animal or creature had somehow appeared within my home and made its nesting grounds off of plaster and pure terror.

The fabric of my gown tore as I reached the first floor and ran into the dining room, too afraid to look behind me I slammed the sliding doors closed and reached out for my car keys inside of my bowl at the chinaware cabinet. Running out I could see the front door but was stopped dead in my tracks as I was lifted from the ground by an unknown force.

Shutting my eyes as tears ran down my face I did the only thing that I felt had any meaning or power to save me, I prayed...

All those moments of my life, my struggles, my want for children gone in an instant without warning or meaning, I could feel the grip tightening as my mind raced through the possibilities only to open my eyes in want for the truth and see a ghastly figure of shroud, its eyes piercing and red as blood and as soon as the image was seared into me...it was gone.

Sent to the ground instantly I shuffled to my feet and before I could even stand straight I leaped through the dining room window across the way, ignoring the pressure and pain of glass cutting through skin. My heart pumping furiously as I yanked open the door of my Kia and dropped the keys in between the drivers seat.

Breathing hard and barely thinking I cut my hand as I pulled them through and shoved them into the ignition, eyes darting to the rear view for only an instant to spot nothing but my own frantic imaginings and being unsure still of what just happened. Never to return I drove onto the dirt road to search for help but still couldn't shake the shock as my once home was long gone and never to be seen again.

Pulling the phone from my gown pocket I finally looked to see my mystery caller, It was private but there was a message left on the answering service which I listened to intently...

Gasping and deepening the shock further it was my own mother, her voice hardly recognizable and clearly one of worry telling me to get out of the house, that it wasn't safe and that she knew what was coming... her words fell deaf as the oncoming lights of a truck further up the road started towards me over the rise. The phone fell from my hand and clapped onto the floorboard as I felt the enlightenment of salvation.

The nightmare was over I thought to myself as one last time I looked into the rear view and the feeling of dread soon overtook me once more, my eyes turning solid black in the reflection...the lights veered into my lane before disappearing into the night without a trace and I went shambling over an embankment head first into a tree...

My final thoughts drifted through my consciousness as my vision faded to black...My mother had died 3 years ago...I never knew why...only once the darkness finds you...your forever lost.