Footsteps

Katie and her friend Jamie were staying at a rental house on Lake Benton over Halloween Weekend. They had managed to convince their parents to let them go with no one over the age of 30. What their parents didn't know was that the girls' boyfriends were also spending the weekend. The boys were coming on Friday and Katie and Jamie got there on Thursday to clean up and get ready for the guys.

Katie walked in and shivered.

"Brrrr! It's freezing in here!" She told Jamie. She went over to the thermostat and turned the heat on and up. Jamie walked down a hallway to find a kitchen, bathroom, bedroom, and what looked like and office with a desk and ancient computer in it. She walked back out to the den and looked at the kitchen/dining room. The den had a set of stairs that led up into two seperate rooms and attached by a wooden breezeway. One was a bedroom that looked nice and the other bedroom was completely trashed. The bed looked slept in and the sheets soiled. The floor had mud all over it and crumbs had attracted every kind of bug imaginable.

"Kate! The guys are gonna love this place.....once we get it cleaned up!" Jamie called.

The girls began to clean up in seperate rooms and after a few hours they were almost done. Kate was just scrubbing at a last stain when she looked up. Jamie was walking across the breezeway. The wind had picked up and storm clouds were gathering. Kate could hear Jamie's footsteps inside the room.

"Jamie quit stomping!!" She called out. Jamie must not have heard her because she kept walking that way and got into the room. "Jamie, was it really necessary to stomp all the-" She abruptly stopped talking. Because, Jamie wasn't moving. And, she still heard the footsteps. From down below. Jamie began talking and Kate cut her off.

"Hush...you hear that?" Kate said.

"What?" Jamie looked at her with a confused expression.

"The stomping. Don't you hear it?"

"No. Kate. I don't hear anything. Besides how would you hear anything like that with that wind and the fact we have a cement floor in this place..."

"Yeah I guess you're right." Jamie begins to help Kate with her work in the dirty room and after a while Kate hears the stomping again. It's slow and deliberate.

Thump.....thump......thump......

"Jamie listen!" Jamie stops her work and faintly, oh so faintly, she also hears stomping.

"What's going on here!?" Kate whimpers. Jamie, the calm one, takes charge.

"Katie you're fine. Look, we'll go to bed now. You're probably tired and smelling too many chemicals....I know I am. And, if you want we can even sleep together tonight.." Jamie comforts her friend.

"Ok." Kate seems satisfied. The girls shower and get ready for bed and climb up the stairs to the bedroom. Katie instantly falls asleep and Jamie is not far behind her.

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Kate wakes up a while later to a wave of cold air in her face. Then she hears it......slow footsteps, something that sounds like a groan. She tries to wake Jamie up but has no luck. The footsteps get closer and closer and Katie begins to panic.

"Jamie...Jamie! Oh God wake up!...WAKE UP!!" Jame begins to stir and the footsteps stop just outside the door...

Jamie bolts upright in the bed.

"Jamie!" Katie stutters to explain but Jamie understands nothing. She sees and hears for herself. Jamie gets up and pulls Katie to the closet. She quietly shuts the dor and puts her hand over Katie's mouth.

The bedroom door opens and the footsteps come towards the closet. Katie begins to breath harder and tears are running down her face and over Jamie's fingers.

The knob on the closet door slowly turns.......

and clicks back into place.

The footsteps start away from the door and soon they are gone. With her hand still over Kate's mouth Jamieb begins to explain what they are going to do.

"I am going to open the door. Now when I do that we are going to run as fast as we can to my car. Don't grab anything. Don't stop. Ready? Now....on 3 go...1......2.......3!" The girls burst out of the closet and out the door down the stairs. Katie just behind Jamie, screaming. The girls get outside and run to the car. Jamie throws the car door open and gets inside and jams the keys in the ignition. She turns the key and.....nothing. No click. Just, nothing.

Then out of no where a massive black thing is thrown down on her hood. Her car battery.

"Katie! GO BACK INSIDE!!" She screams. They run back into the cabin to find all the lights out. Jamie turns back to Katie to find her limp and hanging from the porch rafters. She chokes on a sob and runs upstairs. She's crossing the breezeway when a force sends her flying over the railing. She crashes through the skylight and into the den. She cries out as she hears the bones in her body crack when she hits the floor. She gets to her feet......or tries to...and falls back down to the ground. The footsteps come right up behind her and she feels it's breath against her neck. She screams to no one and tries to pull away but is pulled back by her hair.

"Oh....such a shame isn't it? Such a pretty girl....." The man whispers. She turns and in the pitch black of the night sees just a hint of a glimmer in the man's eyes. She screams. And everything goes black.

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The boys arrive the next day and walk up to the house. Thomas knocks on the door and no one answers so the boys enter. They stop in their track and Thomas sinks to the ground. Casey gags.

"What happened here!?" Casey screams.