Don't Get Eaten

Chapter Thirty Three

I carefully step up on the porch, trying to make as little noise as possible. So far, nothing seems to be out of the ordinary, if you didn't count the eerie silence that is. Leo was the first one to the door. Getting his weapon ready he looks to Jacob, who went to the other side, preparing himself.

The adrenaline starts to course through my veins as the apprehensiveness of what we could find on the other side starts filling my mind. They both look to each other and on a silent count of three Leo carefully opens the door and lets it swing wide open.

I hold my breath as Jacob takes his axe and knocks on the side panel to get whatever is in there, if there was anything, attention. Silence is what meets us, and I release the pent-up breath I was holding longer than I should.

"I'll go first." Leo whispers.

He was about to take a step inside when Jacob stops him. "You should let me. I know what to look for in case one of them is in there. Some of them can be smart."

At first, he looked like he wanted to argue, but nods his head in agreement. "But I'll be right behind you." He whispers sternly.

I slip Rissa in between me and Zared, who looked slightly annoyed that I was going in ahead of him. I ignore his look and head inside, not wanting to deal with that right now. The place smelled musky like it hadn't been lived in for quite some time.

Frowning, I was doubting that we had the right house as dust laid everywhere. Nothing was disturbed, but the house was large with a second story. It's possible whoever it was could only restricted themselves in one area of the place to keep as little attention as possible.

I tap Jacob's shoulder to get his attention. Once he looks over, I point in the direction of the living room. His eyes turned worried, but he nods anyways. Lifting my weapon, I turn right while him and Leo continue down the hall where the kitchen was, I assumed.

We slowly move into the room, looking around. It was semi dark with half the curtains closed. The air was stale, and the sudden feeling of an oncoming sneeze was near being caused by all the dust particles in the air. And I'm one of those loud sneezers, which is a complete causality to have in this place.

But there was nothing that could be done about it.

I brace myself as the tingling starts at the base of my nose, making my eyes water automatically and quickly raising my arm up to cover my face I sneeze, hoping the noise was muffled. But the thing about loud sneezers is that we can't help yelling out as we sneeze.

It was loud, louder than I expected or maybe its because we were all trying hard to be quiet. I don't know, but we all froze. No one moves as we wait to see if anything happens. When nothing does, we all exhale at the same time in relief.

I turn to look at the two of them, both watching me with expressions of that relief. We continue to look around and once we deem it clear of any monsters, I felt like I could breathe a little better.

"That was intense." Rissa whispers as if she was still afraid that if she spoke any louder, they would be able to hear from the other buildings.

"I don't think we're going to find anyone here." Zared states as he peers into the den area.

"We still have upstairs to look at." I point out just as both Leo and Jacob came around another corner of the kitchen.

"Maybe we're in the wrong house? Doesn't seem like anyone has been here for a while." Leo asks as he starts heading for the second landing.

"It's possible they're trying to keep it that way or maybe they were just posted on the roof that day and was actually coming from somewhere else." Jacob looks around the house as he says this.

He might be right and for all I know that person is long gone by now if they're traveling just to stay alive. Which means we're wasting our time being here. Ready to give up and head back outside I grab Zared and Rissa's attention and motion with a nod to head for the door.

They both nod in return and we start leaving when I noticed that Leo wasn't moving. In fact, he just stood there on the first two steps of the stairs staring up at the landing. When the others noticed they turned to look at him and frowned along with me.

"Leo? What's wrong?" Jacob asks as he takes a step closer to him.

The guy holds out his hand to indicate for us to stop and be quiet. My heart rate speeds up at the way he was acting. Did he hear something? See something? Maybe noticed something the rest of us didn't? Or was he being paranoid and cautious?

Either way he was freaking me the hell out and I don't think I was the only one. Rissa nearly plasters herself to my side just behind me while Zared took it upon himself to slightly block me from the stairs. He brandished his own weapon with a look of dead seriousness upon his face. I mean it was both hot and a bit annoying.

We all just stood there, not moving, not saying a word, not making a single sound. After a long period of time, I was done waiting. I was about to open my mouth when Zared beats me to the punch.

"What are we waiting for, Leo? Nothing's happening." He sounded a bit perplexed, which I didn't blame him since the jackass was scaring us for no reason at all.

"I thought I had heard something up there but wasn't sure. Guess it was nothing." He mumbles, moving away from the stairs.

"Should we check?" Rissa speaks up with a tremble to her voice.

"Well, I figure if they were up there, they would have showed themselves by now." He tells her, reaching us.

We go to head out when suddenly a loud bang pierced through the house making me jump. Rissa screams and both Zared and Leo curse in shock. We all turn back to the upstairs landing. My eyes widen from the unexpected sound.

"That sounded like a door was slammed shut." Jacob went back to whispering. "And I don't think a person would just do that."

"Unless they're trying to scare us off." I point out.

"That means they don't want us here, so we should just go." Rissa quickly states, starting to pull on my arm now.

But everyone else doesn't move and I wasn't sure on what they all wanted to do. Although I wanted to check it out, Rissa was my priority right now. She was scared and I didn't blame her. Nor was I going to risk her life just because I was curious. That was the thing I refused to do.

I reach over and gently take a hold of Zared's shirt sleeve to get his attention. He tears his gaze away from the landing and frowns at me. I indicate my head to Rissa, and he immediately understands.

"I say we leave. If it's them, then they want us gone. If it's not, then we shouldn't bother the risk."

With that said all three of us turn to leave the house but we don't even get to turn the doorknob when the entire foundation shook like an earthquake, making us lose our balance. Picture frames crash to the ground, the television unhinges from the wall smashing to the floor. A loud crunch sounded just overhead.

I quickly look up and my eyes widen in dread as the large overhanging chandelier comes surging towards us right over heads.