SMASH!
And the back door.
“No, no, no, no, no,” she rocked back and forth, hoping to wake up from another nightmare.
SMASH! CRACK!
She wasn’t going to wake up.
She scurried to Hannah’s side and felt her forehead. She was hot and soaked and, most importantly, breathing. “Come on!” Kaitlyn muttered, hoping she wouldn’t draw more of those things to the house. “Hannah! Wake up!”
Hannah didn’t move.
Kaitlyn doubled over as she fought futilely to get air into her panicked lungs.
Through the smashed window she saw darker shapes coming closer. Growling, darker shapes.
Kaitlyn managed to control her breathing enough to croak out, “Hannah! Come on!” Still no reaction. They were out of time. Hannah felt like she barely weighed a thing as Kaitlyn lifted her up. She stood, Hannah’s head dangling limply to her side. Kaitlyn hoped she had just fainted. Maybe she got hit by ... She couldn’t finish the thought. She looked around the room and bolted to the stairs. At the bottom she looked through the front door.
They were all headed toward the house.
Soon they were coming through the broken window.
ALEX
BANG! BANG! BANG! … BANG!
The first impact woke them all up with a start.
The last one shook the whole building.
“What the hell was that?!” yelled Nicole.
“I dunno. I dunno. I dunno!” David babbled.
No light shone in from outside. Shadow, who at first was very silent, now ran around the room, barking in every direction as she went.
“Is everyone here?” Nicole asked.
“I’m here,” Alex said, squinting into the darkness hoping to see anyone else. “And so is Shadow,” he added when the dog kept barking.
“Clearly,” said Nicole. “Where’s David?”
“I’m ... here,” David said, gasping to catch his breath. “What was that?”
“Where’s Ryan?” Nicole asked, even more fear seeping into her voice. “Ryan, where are you?” Alex heard her quickly drop to the floor and dig through the mats that were Ryan’s fort. “Where’s Ryan?”
“I dunno,” Alex called back.
From the other side of the room, Alex heard more rummaging, then a sharp crack as something hit the ground. He screamed. “What was that? Is something in here?”
“Flashlight!” David exclaimed, as a cone of light suddenly appeared in the room. “It was the flashlight. I dropped it. It’s okay. Nothing else is in here, I don’t think.”
Alex sat on the floor hugging Shadow, watching the flashlight beam sweep the room.
“David, use that thing to find Ryan!” Nicole ordered.
The light swung shakily around the room. Alex felt a surge of panic as it went. Only the world inside the beam of light really existed. Everything else might as well not even be there. When the flashlight dropped again, all three yelped.
“David!” Nicole shouted into the darkness.
Shadow scrambled again as the flashlight clattered and rolled to bump Alex’s foot. Alex picked up the light. Swinging it around the room, he found David curled up on the floor, trying to catch his breath. He pointed it at Nicole and saw something standing behind her. Its hand reached for her.
“Behind you!” he said, just as the light went out.
Nicole screamed.
“Ryan!”
Alex shook the flashlight. Nothing. He banged it off his palm, and it flickered, then went on solidly. He pointed the beam where Nicole had been. She knelt, holding Ryan in her arms. Ryan just stared into the light. Tears streamed down his face, but he was not making a noise. Just shallow breaths.
“Is he okay?” Alex asked.
Nicole held on to the boy. “He’s fine. He’s scared. He’s okay.”
“What ... what was that?” David asked as he sat up.
Alex saw a weird look on David’s face; a look of realization mixed with pleasure and terror. It gave him the same idea. “The ... SMASHER?”
David nodded. “I think so.”
They both ran to the window, but was so dark outside, they couldn’t see a thing.
“Jesus!” Nicole yelled from across the room. “That thing scared the crap out of me! Did it just fall?”
“I don’t know,” David said, squinting and maneuvering to get a better view. “It might have been triggered, but I can’t—” He cut himself off. “Give me the flashlight, Alex.”
Alex handed it to him, and he shone it at the glass. The beam bounced back, temporarily blinding them. “Aah!” they both yelled in surprise.
“Open the window first,” Alex said.
David slid the window open. The ropes that held up the SMASHER! were pulled taut just past the window. That answers that question, Alex thought, though seeing it made him come up with a few new ones: what made it fall, and what effect did it have?
In answer to Alex’s unspoken questions, David pointed the beam straight down where the SMASHER! hung just a few feet away from the building. The wall behind it was heavily damaged. Pieces of siding lay around it. In front of it was more destruction, but not pieces of siding or brick. Standing upright several feet from the slightly swaying device was a leg. Still wearing a shoe and a sock.
He almost couldn’t understand it, it was so strange. Just a leg.
KAITLYN
Kaitlyn ran up the stairs, trying not to bump Hannah’s head against the wall. She remembered the layout of the Moores’ house and, hoping for the best, ran into the room that mirrored Hannah’s, slamming the door behind her. She placed Hannah on the bed and tried to drag a dresser in front of the door. The top-heavy piece of furniture tumbled over with a loud crash, but she wouldn’t stop. She dragged it to the door and pushed it against the frame. The intruders surely had to be inside the house—but they were not getting into this room.
As she sat against the dresser, trying to get her breath and her bearings, she saw Hannah sitting on the bed, staring at her. The little girl’s face was wet with tears.
“What’s happening?”
“I don’t know!” Kaitlyn almost sobbed. “I don’t know!”
“What’s that?”
