Never Alone

In a house nearly 30 miles from the nearest town sat a girl. She was in her own form of misery as she sat in her home alone flipping through the cable channels. Nothing was on, like always, and she felt a sigh making it's way out of her lungs. Maggie was grounded, no cell phone, computer, and she wasn't supposed to be watching TV but her parents couldn't really lock up the 32 inch flat screen up in the safe like they did her cell phone and laptop.

With the silent and dark house bearing down on Maggie she stood quickly from the couch and walked over to snap on the lamp that lit up the living room at night. It cast it's dull glow throughout the wide space, dark shadows of chairs and knick knacks became distorted from the light casting fearful looking monsters on the yellow walls that Maggie promptly ignored as she walked down the hallway towards her parents bedroom. She spread her arms out and let her fingertips ghost along the walls, rising to meet light switches and picture frames that had been placed all along the hallway's purple walls. She had to use the bathroom but she didn't think it necessary to hike all the way upstairs to use the guest bathroom so she had opted for her parents' en-suite that was located just down the hall from the living room.

The door creaked open, the noise deafening in the seemingly quiet house. The master bedroom was dark but Maggie could make out the bathroom door across the room. It was open a crack, moonlight from the skylight that was in the middle of the bathroom ceiling streamed down into the room and gave it an eerie glow. She jumped a foot in the air when the grandfather clock in the hall started chiming, telling her it was ten. She had gotten so used to that clock ringing every hour on the hour but tonight it sounded foreign to her ears. She glanced back out of the bedroom and peered down the hallway at the clock, she could barely make out the instrument in the darkness and she began wondering why she hadn't flipped on some more lights on her way here.

Maggie passed her thoughts off as nerves, she wasn't used to being home alone a lot. Things just looked different because she was scared of the large house she had come to know with three occupants instead of one. She shook her head and quickly walked into her parent's bedroom closing the door and, after a bit of debate, locked the door.

Maggie stepped away from the door, staring at it for a moment though she couldn't very well make it out, she strained her ears to hear anything in the house but couldn‘t hear anything worth hearing. Then she flicked on the table lamp that was on top of the bedside table and it lit up a small circle of the room, pushing the shadows back. She strolled across the room and entered the bathroom, kicking the door closed.

After doing her business she stood at the sink washing her hands and examining her features in the mirror. She glanced to her left in the mirror and looked at the blinds that were pulled open. Maggie felt as if something in the dark was glaring at her through the window and she shuddered.

"It's just your imagination." The girl grumbled to herself. But just to be sure, she walked over and pulled the blind that covered all three windows down. She shook her head and turned to leave but froze.

The door stood wide open, had she opened it before she went over to close the blinds? She hadn’t even looked at the door after she had turned to the windows. But there it was standing open; her parents' gloomy bedroom just past the doorway invited her to walk out and realize someone was in the shadows after it was too late.

"Been watching too many horror movies." She laughed out loud at how stupid she was being and walked out of the bathroom, flicking off the lamp and heading for the bedroom door. She had obviously opened it before she had turned back to close the blinds.

Maggie turned off the lamp as she pulled open the bedroom door, her world being sent into darkness once again. She felt more nagging thoughts at the back of her mind but she ignored it as she entered the silent kitchen, the skylight in that room lighting it up like it was nearly daylight. She looked up at the moon that was directly overhead and watched some clouds drift past for a moment. A tick made her stop and gaze around the area but nothing caught her attention.

After she had went on and pulled out the ice cream she happily grabbed a spoon out of the drawer they've always been kept in and started for the living room, not even glancing at the hallway as she plopped down on the couch and reached for the remote. That nagging thing in the back of her mind came screeching to the front of her thoughts.

She had locked the bedroom door.

Maggie felt sick to her stomach as that fact ran through her head like a banner. She had pulled the bedroom door open on her way out and it was unlocked.

Her chest twisted as she stood from the couch, hyperventilating as she looked around the room rapidly. She had locked that door, she hadn't opened the bathroom door. Something was going on in the house and she was home alone with it.

Millions of things were screaming for Maggie's attention in her head but she only listened to one. Call her parents. The phone was right there, the slip of yellow paper from the pad in the drawer with all the numbers written on it was next to it. But Maggie cowered from the phone in fear. What if something was on the line just waiting for her to pick it up so she could realize how screwed she really was.

She didn’t have time to think much about it because there was a crash from her parent’s room. A scream was inches from erupting but Maggie held it back and quickly turned off the ceiling fan light that illuminated her form in the room, sending her into a darkness that swallowed her whole.

She stood silently and waited as she heard creaking from the hallway. The grandfather clock started ringing.