I enjoy writing short stories. Here’s one of them.
Joan and Charlie are recent empty nesters still living in their first house. With their children grown, the couple considered downsizing. Joan dreamed of living in the city, while Charlie wanted to stay in town.
Regardless, they spend their day following the same boring routine; Joan does her best as a housewife with keeping up with the house so they could sell it someday. While Charlie just watches TV after getting off from work.
One night, the two were having dinner when Joan heard a sinister laughter come from underneath them
“What was that?” She whispered to Charlie, her eyes widened.
Charlie looked up from his plate.
“What was what?” He said,with a mouth full of food, confused.
She heard it again.
“That!” She said louder.
This time, Charlie finally heard the laughter.
A serious look appeared on his face. He grabbed a flashlight and opened the door leading to the basement.
“Stay here.”
Looking down at the darkness, he started downstairs.
Joan, fearing her husband’s life not knowing what was lurking down there, went against Charlie’s wishes and slowly creeped down. She bumped into Charlie, the both of them letting out a shriek.
“The fuck are you doing here!” Charlie whispered loudly.
“I’m worried something might happen to you.”
Charlie shrugged, put his finger to his lip , and waved the flashlight around every corner of the basement.
Nothing.
The two searched some more but no sign of anything.
Going upstairs they heard it again. They turned around and
Charlie pointed his flashlight to a tall, stick figure-like man, who came from the crawl space. Charlie and Joan figured the man dug himself a hole in the basement floor to get out. The man looked like he was in his forties or fifties. Two bright red circles filled the whites of his eyes. Fear overshadowed the couple as he widened his mouth to show his jagged blood soaked teeth. He let out another sinister laugh;then ran up to them, and started devouring Charlie.
“Well done, Tom,” Joan said to the figure, who took off his mask, revealing a normal looking face.
“No problem, Joan,” he said.
She then waltzed over to Charlie’s disassembled dead body, and bended down
“You see dear husband, Tom is an actor I hired to take you out so that I could get out of this god forsaken town.” She said as she rolled her eyes.
“Can we talk about my payment?” asked Tom.
“How much?” She asked.
“45 dollars. Make it an extra hundred and I won’t tell anyone where you got those teeth for the mask.” He said, putting out his hand.
“Or”, Joan said in a menacing voice, “I could just kill you instead.”
She backed into a corner and Tom could see in the darkness she was picking up a pistol off a table .
“No, no, no, no, let’s not make any rash decisions.”
Tom started to back up planning to make a run for it through the basement’s hatchway.
“There’s no way to hide.”
She shot a bullet as Tom jumped and ducked behind a panel. She shot another bullet just missing Tom’s ear.
“It’s now or never.” Thought Tom.
He threw the panel at Joan, knocking her down, and the pistol out of her hand.
He ran out the hatchway, and bolted down the road;not looking back. Through the trees he could hear Joan screaming to him.
“I'LL GET YOU, TOM! YOU THINK YOU'VE SEEN THE LAST OF ME BUT YOUR DEAD WRONG!”
Her voice faded as Tom ran further and further down the street.