“Guys honestly! It was just a movie! Do you really think that something like that could happen in Baltimore?!” Janet yelled at her friends, who were looking uncertainly around the half empty parking lot. They were just coming out of the movie theater, after seeing a horror film. “If Baltimore, Ohio isn’t safe, then no where is!”

“Yeah, but I don’t live in Baltimore. I live in Thurston.” Mandy said in a phony scared voice.

“Same thing!” Janet exclaimed as everyone got into Sarah’s car.

“Just because nothing happens doesn’t mean nothing could happen.” Kathy argued from the back seat.

“Kathy shut up!” Janet and Sarah yelled from the front seat.

“Why does everyone always tell me to shut up?” Kathy sighed as everyone else laughed.

“Cause you always make stupid comments.” Sarah explained.

“She doesn’t always make stupid comments, only most of the time.” Mandy joked.

“Well thanks.” Kathy said rolling her eyes. “But seriously guys! Look at the movie it was set in a small town, where nothing ever happened!”

“That’s the thing Kathy it was a movie!” Sarah exclaimed.

“Sarah you were just as scared as Kathy if not more. You were the one who screamed at that one part, where he jumped out and grabbed her.” Mandy pointed out.

“That was during the movie though. I’m not scared anymore.”

“Uh-huh sure.” Janet disagreed.

“I’m not!”

“Whatever.” Janet said nonchalantly.

“I’m not and if you don’t believe me you can just get out of my car!” Sarah yelled jokingly pulling off to the side of the abandoned road.

“Fine!” Janet met the challenge; unbuckling her seat belt, opening the door, and stepping out. When Janet shut the door, Sarah took off driving and then pulled over again a few feet away from Janet. Janet walked up to the door and opened it sticking her head in. “Can I come back now?”

“Yeah I missed you! I only had these two to talk to!” Sarah joked.

“OH MY GOD! You poor thing!”

“Yeah you know what’s worse?” Kathy asked. “Having to talk to you two!”

“Kathy shut up!” Janet and Sarah yelled again, causing everyone to laugh.

It didn’t take them long to get to Janet’s house, where everyone assembled just hours before. Sarah pulled her car up to Mandy’s, the only other car, in Janet’s long curvy driveway. They all got out to say goodbye to each other.

“Are you guys sure you don’t want to come over to my house and stay the night?” Kathy asked.

“I can’t, I have to work in the morning.” Sarah groaned.

“And I have my soccer tournament tomorrow.” Janet said.

“And I can’t either.” Mandy sighed.

“I can’t believe I finally get my room clean so you guys can come over and no one can even come!” Kathy complained.

“Well maybe another time. If you think you can keep it clean.” Janet said.

“I guess that means we’ll never get to come over.” Sarah laughed.

“Fine, I guess I’ll just go home and write about how my friends hate me,” Kathy pouted.

“God, you and your writing.” Janet laughed.

“I suppose I’ll have to read it.” Sarah guessed.

“Well duh.” Kathy grinned.

The girls said their goodbyes as Janet went inside her house, Sarah returned to her car, and Mandy and Kathy got in Mandy’s car.
Mandy began backing out of the twisted path unsuccessfully by going in the grass. “Oh my God! I cannot back out of this driveway to save my life!” Mandy laughed.
“At least you’re somewhat on the path. I would have been going in the yard.” Kathy giggled hysterically.
“So what happened to your car again?” Mandy asked, trying to change the subject.

“I don’t know! I was driving and the hood began to smoke and it just stopped moving!” Kathy explained.

“Yeah that sounds like your car.” Mandy laughed.

“It’s not funny! I don’t have a car now.” Kathy pouted.

“Yeah it is!” Mandy continued laughing.

“So why can’t you stay the night again?” Kathy said changing the subject.

“I told you, I have to watch Shawna.”

“Oh yeah. How is your cousin?”

“Good, she won the softball tournament and was really excited about that.”

“That’s cool.”

“Yeah, but now she won’t shut up about it. I think she forgot that I was there!”

Kathy laughed as they pulled in her driveway. “Well thanks for driving me home.”

“Yeah no problem.” Mandy called out as she drove away.

Kathy stood outside in her front yard noticing the night for the first time. The sky was jet black with small white specks spread out all around the crescent moon. Kathy normally loved nights like this where everything seemed calm and peaceful, but after seeing the movie she felt uncertain and anxious. She shook off the feeling and hurried inside her house. The hallway light was left on and a note was taped on the banister for her.

Kathy,
Your brother, Conner, is working the nightshift,
so remember to lock the door. Wake
us up when you get home so we know
you made it home safe.
Love,
Mom


Kathy sighed. Her parents are way over-protective and seriously she knew who her brother was! She locked the door and went up the stairs opening the first door on the left, her parents’ room. The room was completely dark and silent, so she didn’t see the man in the corner of the room.

She had barely even glanced in when she yelled, “I’m home!” Closing the door before she heard a reply. Kathy walked past her little brother’s room and then her older brother’s room until she finally reached her newly clean room and threw her purse on top of her bed and crossed the hall to her bathroom. The man opened her parents’ room and noticed the bathroom door was now shut and another door was opened. He silently went into the room where he would wait for her.

Kathy took her time brushing her teeth and combing her hair. When all her tasks were done, she went back to her room and ransacked her drawers looking for her pajamas. Kathy glanced up at her mirror above her dresser and saw him. A tall man dressed in black who stood a couple feet behind her holding a butcher knife. Kathy opened her mouth to scream, but her throat closed up pushing down the cry for help. Kathy only froze for a second, and then she sprinted to her parents’ room slamming the door and switching on the light. The man took his time going after her, enjoying the new target in his game. Kathy turned around seeing her parents were still in their bed, which confused her since she made such a racket. She felt her self steadily walk to the bedside, afraid of what she might see. Her hand shakily reached for the blanket draped over them and she pulled it off. Blood was everywhere. Kathy turned her head just in time as she threw up. She fell to the floor crying. The murderer began ramming into the door, trying to knock it down. Kathy took a deep breath and calmed herself to the best of her abilities; after all, she still had to save her little brother, if he wasn’t dead already.

Kathy looked around her parents’ room, looking for a place to hide. There was no place to really hide except the bathroom and walk-in closet. She chose the closet because it was closer to the door and you see the bathroom before you see the closet. So she closed the bathroom door, turned off the lights, and left the closet open so it looked as it had before. As she hid in the shadows, she heard the pounding at the door and prayed to be able to get to her brother. There was a deafening snap as the door flung open. Kathy covered her mouth with her hands to keep from crying as she heard him walk to the bathroom. He opened it and walked inside.
Kathy then sprung into action, running noiselessly to her brother’s room shutting it so everything looked the same. The room was dark, but her eyes easily adjusted. She saw that his bed was still made, which meant he never went to bed. She walked through the room looking, but didn’t see him. Not knowing what to do, she sat on his bed. A hand reached out and grabbed her leg. Kathy gasped, not daring to scream. The hand was small meaning it had to be her brother’s. She laid on the floor and peered under the bed. She stared into her brother’s frightened eyes and it was then, that Kathy vowed to herself that she’d keep him safe. She signaled for them to be quiet and whispered, “Stay under here, don’t come out, no matter what you hear. I’m going to try to get help.” He grabbed her hand begging her not to go and it took everything she had, not to curl up under the bed with him.
She stood and silently crept to the door, opening it an inch. The coast was clear so she noiselessly shut the door and ran down the stairs. She went to her living room avoiding the furniture. She grabbed the cordless phone from its hook and pressed the talk button, but the line was dead. He must have cut the line. She reached in her pocket for her cell phone, only to realize it was in her purse upstairs on her bed. She wanted to curse herself for not carrying it with her. Kathy edged to the hallway. She peeked around the corner seeing him at the top of the steps walking out of her parents’ room he looked down the hallway and then looked down the stairs. Kathy jerked away before he saw her, but it didn’t matter because he was still coming down the stairs. Kathy quickly ran to the kitchen and went to the silverware drawer and pulled out a skinny, long, sharp knife. Then she sprinted to the basement opening the door and shutting it behind her. She flew down the stairs over to the window. She climbed up on a table and was trying to open the window, when the door, leading to the basement, opened. Kathy crawled off of the table and looked for a place to hide. The man turned on the light and began leisurely down the stairs. Kathy went over to the storage area of the basement and found an empty tub on the bottom ledge of their enormous shelves. She curled up, pulled the lid on top, and readied her knife. She could hear the man looking around and shoving things around. He searched for about five minutes, but to Kathy it felt like five hours. She finally heard him walking toward the steps.
The man walked up the stairs, turned off the light, and opened and shut the door, but he didn’t leave the basement, instead he silently went back down the stairs and waited for Kathy to come out. Kathy, thinking the coast was clear, got out of the tub and went back to the window. She was working on opening it when she saw in it’s reflection that the man was behind her. She swiftly turned and swung her knife forward. The knife sliced the man’s arm, making him scream. This bought Kathy enough time to get away.
She scrambled up the stairway and down the hallway and up another flight of stairs. The man was mad now; he was losing at his own game. He hustled after her, but she was way ahead. Kathy made it to her room and locked her door. She snatched her purse from her bed and dumped its contents on the floor, but her phone wasn’t there. She knew it had to be there, unless someone took it. The man began to crash into her door, so she knew she would only have a few minutes to come up with a plan. She swiftly went to the window and pushed it open. She ripped the screen and threw her knife out first. Kathy took a deep breath preparing herself. The man broke the door and started for her before she could think twice about it she jumped. She hit the grass knowing she broke her leg and probably more bones, but she had no time to figure out which ones. The man raced down the steps and out the door in the search for her.
Kathy was limping towards her neighbor’s house. The man saw her before she saw him and he swooped in on her before she could even react. He stabbed her in the shoulder and Kathy’s scream rang throughout the neighborhood, but no one seemed to come to her rescue. He then stabbed the thigh of her bad leg making her screech even louder. The man was laughing enjoying her suffering. That’s when Jake, Kathy’s little brother, came up behind the man and hit him over the head with a bat. The man fell forward on top of Kathy. Jake dropped the bat and with Kathy’s help, managed to shove him off and they sprinted to their neighbor’s. They banged on the door, but no one came, so Kathy broke a window beside the door and unlocked the door. They both knew the house pretty well since they both water their plants and feed their gold fish in the summer when they go away on vacation; so they knew exactly where a good place to hide would be and where the phone was. She took Jake and hurried to the garage.
She hid Jake in a trash can and then whispered, “I’m going to go call the police. You stay here.” Kathy limped to the kitchen toward the phone. She shakily dialed 911; telling them where she was, when the phone and electric went out. She knew the man was the one who did it and she hoped the police had enough information to find her. She heard the man coming in through the entrance of the house he was following the trail of blood she left behind. He was headed to the garage. Kathy got up hastily dropping her knife and tried to get there before him, by using a different route. But since she was injured, he got there first and found her brother cowering in the trash can.
Kathy made it to the garage in time to watch the man stab her brother several times. He screamed thrashing around, the killer stabbed until Jake grew still and silent. He had killed her brother, whom she swore she’d protect. The man turned around giving her a wicked smile and tossed the boy’s limp body onto the ground like it was a rag doll.
He started toward her, but at that point Kathy didn’t care if she lived or died, she only cared if he did. She began to quickly limp back to the kitchen to retrieve her knife. She had only gotten to the living room when the man grabbed her good arm, and drew her close and in a low husky voice said, “I’m going to draw out your death. I’m going to make it slow and painful. And in the end, your going to wish death will come.” Then he stabbed her bad arm again and threw her to the ground. Kathy kicked as hard as she could between his legs and the man groaned in agony as he fell to the ground. Kathy strived to crawl away but the man grabbed her bad leg making her shriek in pain. “No you don’t,” he said pulling her back to him. She struggled to break free, which caused her agonizing pain, but it seemed to be working until he stabbed the calf of her good leg. As he was rapidly reeling her in, she passed a glass case full of figurines. She broke the case causing her knuckles to bleed and grabbed the heaviest looking ones and hurled them at his head. He let go of her and she dragged herself back to the broken glass case and threw more. The man was getting sick of her little games and started towards her meaning to finish her off, but one of the figurines hit his forehead, breaking, and the glass trickled down and fell into his eye. He drew back, blinking and rubbing his eye. Kathy picked up a long piece of glass and stabbed the man. She kept stabbing long after he stopped screeching and thrashing.
Outside, several police cars arrived. They swarmed in looking for a killer to fight, but instead, they found a little boy’s body crippled on the ground of the garage, a man in the living room, who was stabbed so badly that the only way to identify him was to use his dental records, and a girl hysterically laughing in the corner holding a piece of glass too tightly.
* * *

Two months have passed since the tragedy and Kathy’s friends are going to visit her.

“Guys I don’t know if I can do this.” Sarah says hesitating in the hallway.

“We all feel that way, but we’re her friends and Conner said that this would be good for her. So let’s go.” Mandy says.
They walk into her room and she’s sitting at her desk writing, almost like the old Kathy.
“Hey Kathy.” Mandy smiles nervously. Kathy doesn’t turn or say anything she only nods.
“What are you writing?” Sarah asks. Kathy closes her notebook and turns still not saying anything, she hands it to Sarah. Sarah opens it and gasps. She flips through every page, which holds words being repeated over and over. Words like: Death, Murder, Kill, Blood, and Stab.
Janet looked over Sarah’s shoulder and says, “You’ll be safe in here.”
A man dressed in all white comes in and says, “Visiting time is over.”
Sarah put the notebook back on the desk and everyone is about to walk out the door when Kathy states in a hollow voice, “Janet, you are wrong. Nowhere is safe.” Then she turned back around and began a new page in her notebook.


The End.