Page 112 of When Darkness Calls

And on these particularly rough kinds of days, this has become my routine. It might be a bit naive, but I swear it’s like I can feel her sitting here beside me, fingers running through my hair, complaining about needing a trim with the brightest smile on her face.

Pulling the blanket up higher on my chest, I burrow deeper into the cushions, transfixed on the screen as Marion Crane books it out of town.

From above me, I hear a slight creak of the wooden floor upstairs settling, like a weight has been placed on it.

My head turns in the direction of the stairs as I listen. Pausing the movie, I sat still, waiting. A faint ringing echoes through the silence of the house, and that’s when I hear it.

A step. Another creak. A groan of the wood bowing beneath a heavy body.

A smile plays at the corners of my lips, but I take a deep breath schooling my expression.

My phone rings, and I shake my head, answering without looking.

“You know, you don’t really have to hide from me anymore. You know I’m alone so why are you being all sneaky,” I deadpan.

He breathes heavily on the line, the connection is rough, crackling through the earpiece like the harsh rushing of wind. “Dani—” he says, panicked, cutting out.

“You could just come down here and talk to—”

“There’s someone inside the house!” He shouts.

I laugh humorlessly. “Yeah, I know. I’m talking to them right now. So come on down and— “

“Goddamn it, Dani, fucking listen to me! There’s someone in the fucking house. And it’s not me.”

My heart stops. My stomach churns and instantly the icy cold chill in my blood has returned. It’s so much worse than it ever was before.

“Get somewhere. NOW!”

I jump from the couch, feet wrapped around my blanket, and stumble through the hall just as the footsteps begin their way down the stairs. I pause, eyes searching frantically around the darkness of the stairs.

One breath.

Two breaths.

Three.

And he’s there. Barely. A shift in the shadows, shaped like a man.

My eyes widen, and I freeze. He’s not moving. Not speaking.

The shadow moves, one inch, a dark brown leather shoe coming into the hall light, followed by a leg covered in dark jeans, then a black zipper hoodie, and finally his head. No face, just a black ski mask, and a dark laugh that shakes me to my core.

He’s back.

The guy from the fucking Founder’s Fest.

Something snaps and I move. My feet hardly touched the floor as I ran down the hallway, heavy footfalls following close behind me. I pulled everything in the hall behind me to slow him down. Tables, pictures, a weird ass plant that I’m pretty sure is fake.

I just make it into Cade’s room with the door shut, when I hear his body slam against the wooden frame.

He laughs again, a dull hollow sound. “Tsk, tsk. Danielle,” the man sings. “You know what they say, hmm? Third time's a charm.”

My stomach rolls, bile surging up my throat.

Third? What does he mean third? And, like a train comes crashing through my house, I realize what he’s said.

Halloween night comes rushing back to me a million miles a second. The four guys at the park. In ski masks.