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You're home alone, minding your own business, when you hear the distinct sounds of doors closing and footsteps moving around the house. Upon investigation (should you choose to), you find nothing out of sorts…but the footsteps and doors continue to make noise every time you give up the search. This happens all night, and you can almost swear you see things out of the corner of your eye. It's a restless night, but come morning everything seems back to normal--except, you still have no idea what was going on.
For once, KD had nothing going on. She'd been to a few parties lately, for Halloween, and one terrifyingly awesome rave. She was taking a night in tonight before the big day because she pretty much knew she was staying out until dawn on Halloween night. What hadn't been determined yet was whether her boyfriend or her brother was coming along for that particular ride. Usually one of them liked to stay with her to keep her safe but Arias was out tonight and her boyfriend was with his family. She was home alone in her cute little apartment. She liked nights like this and had been playing a new scary video game she got on Steam in celebration of the season. It was great, super spooky and immersive, but as her eyes began to blur she knew it was time to go to bed.
“Oh, man,” she murmured, stretching. She heard a few pops up her spine and shuddered. Maybe she’d been sitting in one position too long. “Spunky?”
Usually the little pup would not hesitate to come to her call but she didn’t hear his nails clicking on the wood floors and the jingle of his name tag. In fact, she didn’t hear much of anything. She shrugged, thinking the dog was probably asleep somewhere and hadn’t heard her. It wasn’t common, but it wasn’t unheard of, either. She clicked off the lamps, her eyes not used to the lack of light. She was blinded for a few moments, standing still waiting for them to adjust before she made her way to the bedroom. It wasn’t far and she knew the place pretty well but stubbing your toe in the dark was the worst and she didn’t want to risk it by forgetting where Spunky left his toys.
As soon as her eyes adjusted she made her way to her bedroom, settling in bed with her water bottle and stuffed sheepy. She was drifting off when she heard a door close. She bolted awake and sat up, gathering the sheets around her.
“Westley?”
He had a key, of course, but usually he called when he wanted to come by. Besides, the door sounded much closer than the front of the apartment. Maybe Spunky had locked himself in a room on accident? He sometimes pushed doors closed, trying to open them. She got up and went to go look, finding the bathroom door open and the door to the guest bedroom open as well. She closed both doors and shook her head, thinking it might be a dream until she heard another door slam. She jumped ten feet in the air and whirled around – seeing her bedroom door still open – the only open door in the house.
“Hello? Spunky? Where are you, girl?”
Her voice began to tremble a little, now worried for the small, usually affectionate dog. She went back to her bedroom and found her curled up on her dog bed, fast asleep.
“Ok, chill KD,” she chided. “You were playing a hella scary video game all night. It was a dream, just a dream.”
She picked up her phone and noticed it was dead when she tried to see if her boyfriend had called to say he was stopping by. It was absurdly late, nearly three thirty, but maybe… She plugged it in and a battery symbol helpfully popped up to say it was charging, but did not power on. Lacking explanation, she laid back down and left her door open – a straight line of sight down the hall was visible outside her bedroom. Her heart was thundering too hard for her to fall asleep so she stayed awake, staring. A shadow streaked across the hall and she thought she heard footsteps.
“Westley? Arias? You guys are freaking me out!”
Her boyfriend might think of a prank like this, considering how they met, but her brother certainly did not have that kind of humor. Besides, by now Willie would have laughed at her and made her feel better. She’d also just searched the house and hadn’t seen signs of anyone. Nothing. But yet there were footsteps. She sat up and called to her dog who reluctantly woke and climbed her pet stairs up onto her bed. She held the sleepy white dog to her chest and pet her, trying not to think all of the creepy things that had happened in her video game coming to life. She didn’t see anything else, staring down the hallway, but she continued to hear footsteps and doors in the part of the house she couldn’t see. She reached for her phone to call the police only to notice the charger had been tugged out somehow and the phone was dead again. If there were going to be police involved she was going to have to make it out the door and down to her car before she could get to help. That didn’t seem likely if there was someone in her living room waiting to ambush her as she made a break for the front door.
KD moved to hug her knees, not thinking this was funny. She hadn’t been scared since she was a child: not when she watched Temple of Doom when she was little or when Scott Peterson brought a tarantula in for show and tell. She was rarely scared of anything and that she was scared now was bizarre and unwelcome.
She continued to hug Spunky to her chest, despite the half whined protests from the sleepy pup. There was nothing to do but wait it out and remain vigilant, despite how afraid she was. Luckily, she didn’t see anything more but she continued to hear the footsteps echoing through her apartment. Just as the sun was peeking through her window she decided that it had to have been the video game and a particularly active night for her upstairs neighbors. The sounds stopped near dawn and she was finally able to drift off for a much needed night’s sleep.
word count - 1005 words
