Free The Open Door by Brian Brahm Page A

so desperately sought out: camera-two, which
aimed directly at the entrance to their room.
    At that point, they had no idea if this thing
was still in the basement, or if it had already made its way
upstairs to continue stalking them.
    Leaving the room was no longer an option.
They were stuck—waiting.
    Pouring with sweat, hair matted to his head,
and eyes about to pop out of his squinty eyelids; Cody nearly lost
his mind with anticipation until remembering that they had an
escape route. “The window!” Cody said, as he rushed to pull the
window open.
    Scott was too focused to respond to Cody’s
sudden glimpse of hope. He needed to keep watch on the visual aid
that guarded the gateway to their stowage.
    Camera-two still focused at the door they
barricaded. Scott watched its perspective, while from his
peripheral vision, he could see Cody shaking frantically with his
entire body, trying to pry the window open.
    He couldn’t bring himself to ask Cody what
was the matter, or if he needed any help. Scott’s senses were
distracted by what he feared was a dangerous if not deadly enemy
within the very dwelling he then occupied.
    “Scott! Help! The window is stuck!” Was all
Cody could muster in his panicked condition.
    Still focused on the monitor, Scott gave no
reply to Cody’s cries for help. He would have to find something to
smash the window with if it wouldn’t open, but Scott could not take
his eyes off of the monitor. He needed desperately to see what it
was he was dealing with. More than a morbid fascination, it was an
obsession.
    Exhausted, Cody took a moment to catch his
breath. Still waiting, motionless and silent, Scott watched for the
much anticipated arrival of what might explain the many unanswered
questions that festered in his brain. Reveal yourself to me; he thought over and over, as if by doing so he would summon the
entity for a face-to-face encounter.
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
     
    Pulling and pounding on the filthy web
covered window, Cody looked back at the monitor.
    “See anything? Let me know if you see
something! I’ll smash the window with the flashlight! I’m
serious!”
    “Nothing yet. Don’t worry, I’ll definitely
let you know.” Scott replied.
    Except for a breeze outside, the house was
quiet. The roof creaked, and the tree limb tapped an uneven beat on
the window, but there was nothing stirring outside the bedroom
door.
    Cody gave up on pulling the window open. It
had remained closed for too long, and was stuck.
    With flashlight in hand, Cody waited by the
window, catching his breath, and gathering his strength for when he
might need to smash his way outside.
    Over two hours had passed by, and still
nothing. They knew it was still in the house with them, but they
didn’t know where, and they weren’t about to investigate.
    They had two choices: stay in the room until
sunrise, or go through the window and into the backyard.
    “Cody?”
    “Yeah?”
    “Sorry man, I didn’t mean to ignore you
earlier. I was just focused.”
    “No sweat. Don’t worry about it. I—“
    Cody stopped mid sentence while looking at
the monitor. Looking to see what had stopped him cold, Scott too
was speechless. It had been rendered completely black. The camera
looked to be still functioning, but they could no longer make out
the hall or the door—everything was pitch-black.
    “It’s there, blocking the camera! We’ve gotta
go!” Said Cody.
    “Don’t smash the window! Not unless the door
moves! Just wait!”
    Not wanting to persuade the unknown entity
into entering our room, Scott thought it best to remain still and
not panic. Breaking the window prematurely may have caused it to
rush the bedroom door.
    With any luck, maybe it would leave them
alone. Then again, what if it could sense them? Smell them like a
half-starved wolf? What if its hearing was so intensely keen, that
it could hear their whispers, their