He nods, but it's unconvincing; his eyes filter around the room. “Are you sure?” she asked, her voice cold and nervous. 

“No, I'm positive there is no way anyone is here,” he said, attempting to reassure Gianna. 

“ You made sure everything was locked, didn't you?” she asked, as she cautiously reached her hand up to the doorknob to the door that her back was pressed against. As she was slowly turning the knob till she heard the click that reassured her that it was in fact, locked.

“See, I told you, nothing to worry about; there is one way in and one way out. Nothing is getting in here; just calm down–” CRASH, the sound of glass breaking, makes him go silent. “Shoot!” he whispered under his breath, gripping the rusty crowbar. Not the best thing to defend yourself when you don't know what you are expecting, but it was the closest thing he could grab in his panic.

 “Cadman…. do you think it could get in here?’ Gianna said, her voice starting to quiver.

 “This is a storage closet; no one is going to get in here without us being able to hear it coming, and we know how to protect ourselves. He says, gesturing to the crowbar and the sharp kitchen knife Gianna was smart enough to grab.

 “What's that?” she gasped. A rustling sound came from behind a stack of boxes in the corner of the closet. Cadman's face went pale, and he choked out the words they were both thinking. 

“Oh crap, there's more than one.” He slowly gets up and crawls cautiously up to the boxes, carefully moving them out of the way, careful not to make any unnecessary sound. He shines his dim flashlight that can barely light up anything a foot in front of him. To both their horror it reveals a vent. Not a big one, just big enough for a small person to fit. “We have to go,” he said quietly but with urgency in his voice. 

“Where?” she asked. 

“I’m going to count to three and open the door you are going to run to the crawl space under the stars, stay down the couch should cover you, and whatever you do DO NOT look up. Ok, we have to go NOW, I'll be right behind you.”

 with silent tears streaming down her face, she nods. He holds up his fingers to signal the count down, 1….2….3. He unhooks the latch and they sprint to our staying as low as they can. She tries to keep her eyes ahead but curiosity gets the best of her and she glances to the side for a second but just long enough to catch a glimpse of a humanoid figure crouched over something. She quickly looked away and kept moving, she didn't have to ask what it was devouring, she could see a little fluffy tail, and judging by the whimpering she heard earlier she knew it was her puppy Juney. 

With one swift motion, Cadman opens the crawl space door and in seconds they are inside. She curls up into a ball with her knees to her chest and begins to sob. Cadman shuts the door and is trying to latch it. 

“No, no, no, no,” he says as he begins jamming the latch to the bolt on the wall. “It won’t go back in,” he says in a panic turning around to see a broken Gianna rocking back and forth on the dirt floor in between sobs she manages to get a question that he knew was coming but wasn't prepared to answer.

 “Are we gonna die?” 

“No. We are going to be fine, we just have to get out, OK? Here's what is going to happen. We are going to keep going down this tunnel till we get to a hatch in the wall. Ok, I'll explain when we get there.” He gestures to the opening opposite the door, and he begins to move. Gianna follows close behind. About halfway through the tunnel, his flashlight gave in to the darkness. He tosses it to the side and continues a little slower this time. The palms of their hands are caked in mud and there are spider webs covering the ceiling keeping them from sitting straight up.

After what feels like hours of crawling in the damp dark tunnel Cadman feels a wood post in front of him “We’re here” he says out of breath 

“Thank God!” she says with the first glimpse of excitement he had heard come out of her since the knocking started on the walls that morning. They open the door to reveal a small 4-step staircase slumped down from the water that was looking to the trap door above them. As they opened it, crossed their fingers, and stood up, the cool breeze hitting their faces, it all went dark. 

They wake up hearing knocking on the walls “Hey Cadman, did you hear that?”