Chapter 32
Alexandra Georgopoulos was sitting on her bed painting her toenails when the ringing of her telephone interrupted her pedicure. Careful not to smudge the freshly applied lacquer, she tottered on her heels from to her dresser where her cordless phone rested in its charging cradle. Grabbing the handset, she immediately recognized Melissa Martin’s number on the phone’s caller identification feature. After the third ring, she answered.
“Hey bitch,” Alexandra greeted.
“Alexandra! Thank God you’re home! Listen to me. You need to get out of the house, now!” Melissa ordered.
“Are you high or something?” Alexandra asked snippily as thunder rumbled, shaking the house briefly.
“No I am not high!” Melissa retorted, her voice shrill with panic. “Gabriel called me and told me that we’re in danger, and none of us–me, you, and Daniella–should be home. Daniella is going to the mall. She said she can pick you up after she drops me off at the school.”
“You guys are fucking with me. Don’t think I’m going to fall for it this time,” Alexandra chided. “Besides, my brothers will be home in, like, an hour. If what you’re saying is true, which I don’t think it is, I would feel bad for anyone who came here trying to hurt me.”
“Alex, this is not a joke! Get out of the damn house!” Melissa screamed.
“Yeah, sure. Whatever,” Alexandra antagonized. “By the way Melissa, your acting has gotten much better since last time. Bravo.”
With that, Alexandra ended the phone call.
“Idiots,” she muttered to herself smiling.
Her best friends, particularly Melissa, often attempted playing practical jokes on her throughout their many years of friendship. She had yet to fall for any of them and was not about to start now. Though she had to admit, Melissa had upped the ante with this most recent phone call. Her frantic and pressured speech pattern was convincing; almost. She was impressed with her friend’s acting skills. She briefly envisioned Melissa moving out West and pursuing an acting career, then laughed aloud at the absurdity of her wild imaginings. Still smiling to herself, she crossed her room and placed the phone in the charger on her dresser.
She paused and looked out her window and saw a chaotic display. Winds whipped through trees littering the ground below with splashes of vibrantly hued leaves. Rain poured in sheets, limited her visibility to her property.
As she continued watch nature’s elaborate show, she was startled by a loud noise from downstairs. A thunderous sound crashed inside her home. The crackle of wood shattering and splintering sounded as though the backdoor leading from the yard into the kitchen had imploded.
Frantically, Alexandra raced out of her bedroom to the hallway. Peering over the balustrade offered her a partial view of the kitchen.
Fragments of wood were strewn across the floor. The doorframe laid in shards and slivers on the ceramic tiles.
Gripped by panic, Alexandra returned to her room, shutting her door behind her as silently as possible. Surveying the area hurriedly, she searched for a quick exit from her second-story bedroom. She immediately realized there was none. She was trapped.
Her heart pounded frenziedly in her chest as the staircase groaned and creaked, divulging stealthy footsteps on it. Then, almost as suddenly as they began, the groaning stopped. The footfalls ceased. Whoever had broken into her home had halted outside the threshold of her bedroom.
With nowhere else to go, Alexandra scanned her bedroom, her pulse thundering, before finding refuge in her closet.
Through slatted louvers, she peered out and saw the door to her room opening slowly.
A hulking figure stalked through her room, picking up and sniffing strewn clothes that cluttered his path. Taller and broader than any man she had ever seen, the colossal being filled the room.
Alexandra involuntarily whimpered then covered her mouth to suppress a scream as he trained his gaze in her direction. His eyes were an unnatural yellow hue and were spaced widely from each other, his nose wide and flat, sloped to a thin line where lips should have sat, but didn’t. His face was hideous, inhuman.
He sensed her presence, looked directly at her.
Her pulse rate quickened, resounded in her ears. Her breaths became short and shallow, threatened hyperventilation. Rivulets of perspiration trickled down between her shoulder blades, beads of sweat stippled her forehead. She crouched, alone and defenseless in her closet as the gruesome beast swung the wooden closet doors open violently. He stood before her, glowering down at her huddled and trembling form.
Every nuance of his demeanor suggested an inherent need to tear her limb from limb. Alexandra was confronted with her impending demise. She turned her head to one side and squeezed her eyes shut. Tears escaped her closed eyes as visions of her life flashed before her.
The behemoth creature advanced.
Though she refused to look at him, she felt the heat of his body as he loomed over her, his ragged inhalations and exhalations upon her. Her mind raced faster than ever. Her thoughts made little sense; except one. She was going to die. It was a certainty. She would never see her family again. She would not graduate or go to college. She would never marry nor have children. Instead, she would be murdered in her closet.
Her heart rate accelerated dangerously. She prayed a heart attack would claim her before the killer did.
Suddenly, the house phone began ringing. It alarmed her further, though she could not imagine how that was remotely possible. It rang loudly until the fourth sound chimed and a recorded message indicated the Georgopoulos family was not available but would return any incoming calls at their soonest convenience.
Daniella’s voice echoed from the machine.
“Hey, Alexandra. Listen, Gabriel is having me drop Melissa at school by the entrance of the woods. Something is going on. She wasn’t kidding. I’m glad you left. I hope you’re meeting me at the mall. I should be there in a few minutes. I’ll try you on your cell. Bye.”
The answering machine beeped to signal that the message had ended.
Though the fiend was briefly distracted, Alexandra did not dare open her eyes; terror did not permit her to do so. They remained tightly shut as she silently implored God for a miracle.
Seconds passed. The monster did not strike.
Alexandra cautiously opened one eye, then the other. To her surprise, no one stood before her. The beast was gone. Her prayers had been answered.