The young woman smiled cheerily as she danced down the hallway to her friend's apartment door, excited for the night to come. As she finally reached her friend's door the thought of how eerie the darkened hallway seemed crossed her mind. Shaking her head at the silly thought she went to knock on the door.
She rapped a little pattern before singing a jovial "Do you want to build a snowman?" quoting one of the newer animated films their group of friends had watched together. The tiny woman bounced on her toes as she waited for her friend to answer the door, when all of a sudden a chill crept up her back.
A sickening whisper sounded right behind her, "Why... yes... I would." The voice was absolutely terrifying, grating on every nerve like nails on a chalk board, what was worse was that the young woman could feel the breath of whatever was behind her.
The woman kept staring at the wood grain of the door, knowing that the thing behind her was definitely not human. She knew that the hallway was too dark! She should have turned on a light, or brought a flashlight at the least. Now she was stuck. The creature behind her had her trapped. She knew if she turned around it would kill her, but she couldn't stay like this forever.
Tears started to well in the young woman's eyes, slipping down her cheeks as she heard the demonic laugh of the creature behind her. A predator that knew that it had its prey trapped, one that wanted to play with its food. It's horrible laugh continued on, consuming all the air in the room, and making the small woman feel as though she couldn't breathe.
She clutched at her chest, her heart was beating so fast that it hurt. Where was her friend? Why wasn't she home? Couldn't she hear the awful noise the thing behind her was making? The tears were freely falling now, but she refused to make any noise. She had a feeling that whatever was behind her would just find it oh-so-wonderful to know she was that terrified.
It probably already knew just how terrified she was, but she still refused to make any noise.
As the time ticked on she could feel it scrape its nails down her hair, the other hand, if you could call it that, resting on the wall to her right. It was playing with her. She knew that. But still she couldn't do anything, it was waiting for her to make a mistake, to turn around.
Just as the woman thought there was nothing left for her she heard a noise behind her friends door. Terrified for her friend she tried to shout out, to warn her of the thing that was torturing her emotions, playing with her mind.
The door of her friend's apartment swung open, bumping the small woman back onto her backside.
"Ellie!" her friend called out, coming over to her to help her up
"We need to get inside!" she said, her voice just a shaky whisper. "Please." she croaked
Her friend looked around them, and down the hallway and nodded quietly. They walked into her friend's apartment, neither of them noticing the oddly shaped shadow that was on the wall behind where Ellie had been knocked down.
As the apartment door closed a quiet, raspy laugh echoed through the hallways, a promise of more fun to come.
