Chapter 2

Slow, incessant inhales and exhales were the only sounds in my ears. They weren’t moving closer or farther away. They didn’t grow louder or softer. I heard them calmly going in and out of a mouth that wasn’t there.

My eyes failed to adjust to the black, empty stairway. There were no thoughts in my mind. There was just the breathing. A bead of sweat trickled from the crease under my arm ran down the length of my ribcage.

I was reminded of my rigid body. I was terrified of what would happen if I moved but I knew I had to.

I held my breath before shifting my weight to my back foot and gradually easing the heel of my front foot upward. I felt the blood rush through it. I exhaled. I held my breath again as I lifted the ball of my foot from the floor. The breathing continued. I balanced on my planted foot as I steadily brought the other to meet it on the second step. I planted my foot on the carpet and the breathing stopped abruptly.

I bolted. I nearly tripped when my body lurched forward before my feet. I tore through the dark storage room feeling the wall with my hand. The toes of my left foot buckled as they caught on the frame of the door but I felt no pain.
I made it to my bedroom and slammed the door behind me. There was just enough moonlight coming through the tiny window in the corner of the room to see the gleam of the door handle. I stared at it wide-eyed.

There was nowhere to go, nowhere to hide. Hide from what? What the fuck what the fuck what the fuck.

I stepped back until the back of my calf hit the bed. My eyes were glued to the shining handle, waiting for it to start turning.

My mind raced trying to think of what I should do and of what just happened. This can’t be happening. But it was. My heart pounded hard and fast in my chest.

I waited for movement but the house was silent again. There was nothing. The handle didn’t turn. I stepped back around the bed against the far wall.

Suddenly the silence was broken by the sound of vibrations. I looked up. Someone was trying to call me. I heard my phone vibrating in the kitchen directly above where I stood. My adrenaline spiked again. The intermittent sounds seemed to carry throughout the house. The phone vibrated a few more times before returning the house to silence. I looked back at the handle. It hadn’t moved. I realized I had been holding my breath and consciously inhaled. A visceral scream from above sent a feeling of dread through my entire body.

It was Stephanie. The scream came from the second floor.

The fear of what had just happened on the stairs was quickly replaced with an even deeper feeling of terror. I began crying involuntarily. I took a step toward the door, but I was too afraid to open it. I stepped back. Stephanie.

Tears were streaming down my face. I had to go. I had to get to her. I stepped softly closer to the door. I heard nothing. I took another step. The handle still didn’t move. My vision blurred as more tears came out.

I stepped until I was at the door and leaned my ear toward it. My hand was cupped firmly over my mouth as I tried to keep my own breathing quiet. Random images of Stephanie flashed through my mind. More tears rolled down my face as I reached for the handle.

I turned it millimeters at a time. It turned as far as it could and I started to open the door. I was expecting more breathing but there wasn’t.

I felt my body shaking as I slowly made tiny steps through the storage room. I stopped about ten feet before the bottom of the stairs. No breathing. I took another step and stopped. I continued this until I found myself at the base of the stairs again. The inhales and exhales and their mysterious source were gone. The door at the top of the top of the stairs was still closed.

I slowly took one step at a time hugging the wall of the staircase. I waited for the door to start opening on its own again but it was absolutely motionless. Part of me wished I would hear Stephanie scream again. The silence was excruciating.

I opened the door at the top of the stairs and I was finally able to see. There was no sign of anyone.

I stepped to the base of the stairs looking up to the second floor. There were no sounds of a struggle. There were no sounds at all.

As I got half way up the staircase I could see the top of Stephanie’s partially open bedroom door. I forced myself to proceed.

I leaned hard against the wall making my way down the right side of the hallway, passing my parents’ closed bedroom door. The fear was overwhelming but I kept going. Not a sound.

I felt a cold sweat over my body as I approached the right side of the door frame. I reached around and flipped the light switch. The light went on. I quickly turned and looked into the room.

Everything was in place. Even the pile of folded laundry I had placed on her floor that morning was untouched. Another feeling of dread went through me as I stood in the doorway. “Stephanie?” My voice sounded foreign to me. There was no sign that a person was or had been in the room.

Suddenly I felt cold. The temperature had dropped significantly. I felt sick. Directly behind me there was an exhale.

Chapter 1

Any second they would come: the infuriating sounds of an inconsiderate, younger sister. The careless slam of a cupboard door or the sound of ice being crushed—an act I have always thought was pointless. Cubed or crushed—what’s the damn difference?
She always seems to forget that some people actually have to get up early to go to work. She comes home late, usually with some of her idiot friends, and they wake me up in the middle of the night. Then I have to go to my happy place so as not to completely lose it when I calmly ask them to “keep it down”. While I loved the seclusion of living in the basement, it also meant hearing every sound coming from the main floor.

But I didn’t hear any signs of her, so she must have decided to stay at Katie’s. Thank god. I yawned and rolled over onto my side. Every night I tried not to look at the clock right before closing my eyes but I always did. It was 1:41.

So I began the familiar game of figuring out how many hours of sleep I would get if I fell asleep right now. It was never enough. Fortunately, I was so tired that it wasn’t long before I was drifting off. As I started to get lost in my thoughts, there was a huge slam!

My eyes shot open. It was one of the cupboard doors in the kitchen. Damn it, Stephanie. I laid still hoping she would go upstairs and I wouldn’t have to get out of bed. Give it ten seconds. One… two… three… four… five… six… seven… eight… nine… ten. Silence. I closed my eyes and sighed deeply. Then multiple doors started slamming open and closed.

You’ve got to be kidding me. I yanked my comforter back and sprang out of bed. This was too many slams to be just Stephanie. I reached out for the door handle and, just as I touched it, the slams stopped.

I half expected to hear an outburst of teenage laughter, but the house was still. Being so close to the door now I could hear the hum of the radiator down the hall but that was it. I know as soon as I get back in bed they are going to do it again. A surge of anger went through me and I wrenched the door open. I stomped through the storage room and started up the stairs.

I swung open the door leading into the living room. All of the lights were off and I still heard nothing. I stormed through the dining room and put my hand on the swinging kitchen door. Still nothing. I pushed the swinging kitchen door open and flipped on the light.

A few of the cabinet doors were ajar but nothing else was out of the ordinary. The sliding door leading to the deck outside was still locked from when I first came home. They must have gone upstairs already. I was relieved and yet more annoyed. I closed the cupboard doors firmly and turned the light off as I walked back into the dining room.

So help me if they don’t shut up. I got to the top of the basement stairs and shouted up toward the second floor, “I HAVE TO BE UP IN FIVE HOURS SO EITHER GO TO BED OR LEAVE!” I waited for a potential smart-ass retort but it didn’t come. Good. Stephanie can usually tell the difference between my ‘I’m slightly irritated’ tone and my ‘You’re about an inch from death’ tone.

I climbed back into bed and rolled onto my side. The clock read 1:59 as I shut my eyes. Four hours. I flipped my pillow over and settled my head back onto the cool cotton. Just one more day and then I have two days off. Stephanie better not have a cheer-leading tournament this weekend. If she does—-

Another slam. My eyes shot open. Seriously?! I flew out of bed and whipped the door open. I stomped through the storage room and flipped the light switch at the base of the stairs. The staircase illuminated and I could see the handle of the door at the top of the stairs was turning. I heard the click as the door unlatched but it stayed closed. I took one step up and the door began to open. I heard the long, slow creak as the door swung all the way open, but there was no one there. I continued up the steps slowly but still saw no one.

They must be behind the door. I don’t have time for this. I took another step up and as I began lifting my back foot the furnace in the storage room behind me shut off.
Now I could hear faint breathing. But it wasn’t coming from behind the door. My heart stopped. The breathing sounded like the person was one or two steps down from the top of the staircase. It was as if I was staring through an invisible person standing not five feet away. But there was nothing there. I stood frozen, my feet staggered between the second and third steps from the bottom.

The breathing was slow and relentless. Adrenaline was pumping through my veins and my heart was throbbing. I wanted to run but I was paralyzed with fear. I tried to swallow but my mouth was completely dry. The breathing continued. The door creaked as it began slowly closing. I felt a lump in the back of my throat.

Then the light went out.