The night lay silent on June Carter Street as the shadow moved through the woods. The wind blew gently, bending the flowers in Mrs. Johnson’s garden. Theirs was the last house on the street. The house had been uninhabited for years before the Johnsons bought it. Mr. Johnson had been quite happy buying the house at a cheap price; he had given the realtor a generous tip.
The shadow moved towards the house, called by the movie Mrs. Johnson watched in the living room. Outside the house, the street lay quiet. The neighbor’s dog cowered in fear. The animal could sense the dark presence settle around them.
It was happening again. It was happening because nobody warned them. The neighbors had watched the Johnsons move into the house but nobody warned them about the events that usually took place in it.
The shadow moved through the woods and stopped by the trunk of the tree next to the house. From there, it watched the house in silence. The street light cast its beam around the street but its light went nowhere near the woods.
The wind began to blow slightly harder as the shadow began to move with it. A mist moving under the cover of the dark; the street lights went off as it drew near the house.
In the living room, Mrs. Johnson watched the movie she had seen in the basement. She had found it while cleaning the basement the day after they moved in. She turned towards the stairs.
“Evelyn, could you please check the food on the fire,” she called.
The shadow moved through the boundary wall, to the walls of the house. From there, it stared at Mrs. Johnson through the living room window.
There was something similar about the movie she was watching. The house looked the same with the one she was in. She watched on, looking closely as the camera panned to show someone peeping into the house in the movie. Mrs. Johnson turned towards the living room window in time to see a shadow move across it. She stood to her feet. The movie was beginning to seem real and it scared her. She had to turn it off before things got weird.
Walking towards the television, a disfigured face suddenly appeared on the screen with a devilish smile. She stepped back, gasping. Two hands came out of the screen to the side of the television, holding it as the creature dragged itself out. Mrs. Johnson shrieked in terror as the lights went off. She began walking backwards to the door.
Lightning struck, lighting the living room, followed by the rumble of thunder. The creature was no more. Mrs. Johnson looked around her in fear. She was just being paranoid, she tried to convince herself. It was just the movie.
Lightening struck again as she turned to face the door. Before her stood the creature she had seen crawl out of the television. She screamed in terror but her scream did not last long. She fell down to the floor, a body of charred flesh.
***
Mr. Johnson was on his way out of his study when he heard his wife scream. He stepped back to his study table and reached underneath it for the gun he usually kept there. With it in his hand he stepped out of his study. He saw the creature as it stood next to his wife’s dead body. He raised the gun and fired at it. The bullet passed through the creature and hit the living room wall. The creature turned towards him; a scarred face and bruised limbs masked by the shadows that wrapped it in.
Mr. Johnson heard Rita’s voice. He heard her cry as she did on the night of her death.
“You left me to die,” Rita cried. “Daddy, you left me to die.”
He lowered his gun, crying as he saw Rita walk towards him. He fell on his knees apologizing.
It began to rain outside, as the creature walked to Mr. Johnson. It got to him and tore his head off his shoulders with one quick swipe. Blood splattered on the walls as his body fell headless to the floor. His head rolled down the hallway, before stopping by the stairs.
***
Evelyn had been helping Sam with his assignment when her mother called her. She was leaving his room when the lights went off. She had gone back into Sam’s room to get her phone when she heard her mother’s scream. She hid Sam in the closet and waited quietly. A few minutes later, she heard the sound of her father’s gun. She had to find out what was happening.
She tiptoed to the bedroom door and opened it. She peered down the stairs but didn’t hear any movement. She gradually descended the stairs, hoping that nothing evil had happened.
Evelyn saw her father’s headless body lying in the hallway and the creature kneeling beside him. She screamed. Her scream echoed round the house as the creature stood and ran through her, ripping her heart out. Evelyn fell to her knees before rolling down the stairs to the floor, dead.
***
On the stair railing, her fingernails could be seen, scratching the railing as she climbed up. She opened the bedroom door and entered.
From his hiding place in the closet, Sam could see the torn black jeans and the long black leather jacket, as the creature walked into the room. It walked round the room searching for him, and then it walked out of the room, closing the door behind it.
Sam, sighed as he held unto the flashlight that Evelyn had left with him. Beside him in the closet, he suddenly heard a voice sing.
“Twinkle twinkle little star, how I wonder what you are.”
With shaky hands, Sam turned on the flashlight and cast its beam to his side. The beam rested on the creature’s face as it sat next to him. It smiled; a disfigured face with a set of discolored teeth.
“Puff,” the creature said and the flashlight went off. Sam’s scream was the last thing that was heard.
End
BIO: Fictafic lives in Lagos, Nigeria with his family, an annoying but vigilant cat, and a striving legal practice.