Chapter 2 - The Midnight Crawl
The footsteps stopped on the middle landing. My heart hammered against my ribs like a trapped bird, each thud echoing in my ears with deafening volume. I held my breath, burying my face against the sticky kitchen tiles, praying that Andrew had merely gone down to the fridge for a glass of water.
For three excruciating minutes, the house remained dead silent except for the drumming rain outside. Then, the floorboards groaned as the footsteps retreated back upstairs.
I exhaled a shuddering breath that burned my throat. My left leg felt like it was encased in molten lava; the swelling beneath my jeans was so tight I feared the fabric would split. But terror is a potent anesthetic. With shaking, blood-streaked fingers, I jammed the flat edge of the rusty bottle opener into the slot of the first corroded screw on the lower ventilation grate.
Screeech.
The sound was microscopic, but in the midnight quiet, it felt like a gunshot. I froze, waiting. Nothing.
Applying downward pressure with my palm, I turned the screw counterclockwise. Rust flakes rained down onto my knuckles. One screw out. Three to go. My wrists throbbed with fatigue, and cold sweat dripped from my temples, stinging my eyes.
By 1:15 AM, all four screws lay in my palm.
I popped the metal grate free and shone the sliver of moonlight filtering through the kitchen window into the dark cavity. Inside the crawlspace beneath the back door lay a manual emergency latch override—a wire loop installed by the previous owners in case of a fire.
Reaching my arm inside, my fingers scraped against insulation and dust until, finally, they hooked the cold steel wire. I pulled hard.
Click.
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The deadbolt retracted with a heavy, satisfying sound.
Pushing the heavy wooden door with my shoulder, I inched it open just enough for my body to squeeze through. The cool night air hit my fevered skin like a blessing. I didn't care about the mud, the pouring rain, or the gravel tearing into my bare arms. I pulled myself out onto the back patio, leaving a smeared trail of blood and rainwater behind me, and dragged myself toward the dark protection of the neighborhood tree line.
