by Lukens, Mark
They bolted across the room and entered the sitting room which was decorated with reading chairs, an old phonograph on a table, bookcases crammed with books, a bank of windows on the far side of the room with a bench seat built underneath of them. They hid behind two of the chairs, watching the doorway. There was another doorway that led back out to the living room.
But Matt didn’t know where to go. They couldn’t run like this, from room to room, hiding behind furniture forever.
“I think we need to make our way to the kitchen,” Matt whispered at Gina. “And then to the garage. I think it will be our only chance. There’s a car out there. I saw it the other day.”
“You really think the car’s going to have keys in it?” Gina asked. Everything else had been a fake or a trap. Mr. Crow wasn’t giving them a sporting chance, he was just going to play with them like they were rats trapped in a maze until he got tired of the game and killed them. Or worse, he would wound them and then take them up to the skinning room.
“We need to go up to the third floor,” Gina whispered.
Matt stared at her in shock. “What? Why?”
“We need to get some of that evidence before we leave.”
Matt peeked around the corner of the chair, but he didn’t see anyone. He looked back at Gina. “It’s too risky. We need to get out of here and get the cops.”
“By that time he could get rid of the evidence.”
Matt shook his head.
“He won’t be expecting us to go back up there. Besides, he’s shooting at us from that way, blocking us off from the kitchen and the garage.”
Matt still looked undecided.
Matt poked his head out from behind the chair one more time and then looked back at Gina and nodded. “Okay. Maybe it’ll work.”
They were on their feet a second later. They ran through the living room, back the way they had come, and hurried towards the stairs. They didn’t even stop to look around; they bolted up the carpeted stairs and made it to the top before the arrows started flying. The arrows stabbed the wood paneling wall of the hallway. They tried to turn left towards the second floor stairs, but three arrows hit the wall, stopping their progress. They turned back and ran for their bedroom.
They just got inside their bedroom and slammed the door shut as an arrow hit their door. Matt locked the door and stepped back away from it.
They were trapped.
“We need to get up to the third floor,” Gina said.
“We wouldn’t have made it. You saw all those arrows.”
Matt stared at the bedroom door, breathing hard. He waited for the inevitable, for the hunter to break the door down. They waited as ten minutes passed, both of them standing in the same spot.
“Something’s wrong here,” Matt said in a low voice. “Why isn’t he barging in here? He’s got us trapped now.”
Gina didn’t say anything. She looked at their closet door—she thought she’d heard a noise in there.
“He’s hunted animals all over the world,” Matt said to himself as a thought occurred to him. “He could’ve hit us any time he wanted to. It’s like he’s herding us. Playing around with us.”
Gina kept her eyes on the closet door. “You hear that?”
Matt looked at the door, and he could hear the noise now—a thumping noise. It sounded like someone was inside the closet.
Gina ran for the heavy dresser against the wall near the closet door. “Help me,” she said.
Matt got beside her and helped her push the dresser in front of the closet door. Gina thought about the night she’d woken up and saw the man in their room. It hadn’t been in a nightmare, he’d really been there. Mr. Crow had stood in their bedroom and watched them sleep.
“There’s some kind of secret passageway in there,” Gina said, no longer bothering to keep her voice low.
The dresser was in front of the door now, blocking it, and they crouched down in front of it, their backs against the drawers, ready to push with their legs against the floor like they were on a leg press machine.
But then Gina got to her feet.
“What are you doing?” Matt whispered.
“This is our only chance,” she whispered into his ear. “We know where he is right now.”
Matt shook his head no but he felt the hunter slam against the closet door, he felt the dresser rock behind him and he dug the heels of his sneakers into the carpeting and he pushed with all of his might.
Gina hurried to their bedroom door.
“Keep pushing, Gina!!” Matt shouted like she was still right there beside him.
Gina realized what he was doing. She glanced at him once more and then she was out the door.
• • •
Gina ran down the hall and bolted up the stairs to the third floor. She was inside Mr. Crow’s living quarters seconds later. The first room she ran to was the office off of the living room. She saw that the computer monitors had been smashed, all of them destroyed. She tried the phone, but there was no dial tone.
Shit, she thought, and then she ran into the bedroom. She grabbed a pillow from the bed and ripped the pillow case off. And then she hurried to the skinning room, even though she had no desire to see those things again.
But she had to get some evidence. If they made it out of here, then she had to stop this monster from doing this again. She opened the top drawer, plucked out the skull, and threw it into the pillow case. She also threw a few of the teeth in there, too. She didn’t want to touch any of the other dried body parts, but she grabbed the finger with the ring on it. Maybe a fingerprint could be lifted from the finger. She dropped it into the pillow case and ran back into the bedroom. She was about to bolt for the door and go back down to their bedroom, but then she spotted the closet. There were wallets and purses in there—victims’ IDs.
She entered the closet.
• • •
Matt felt the door slam again, and the dresser rocked and smashed into his back. This man was very strong—Matt wasn’t sure how long he could hold him back.
Then Matt heard the unmistakable sound of a shotgun being pumped from behind the closet door. A second later the blast erupted just above the dresser and Matt saw the explosion of wood fragments and splinters flying in the air just above him.
“Gina!” Matt screamed, still pretending like she was in the room with him. “Keep pushing!”
Matt heard the sound of something crashing against the shattered wood of the door, it sounded like the butt of the shotgun. The hunter would be through the door in seconds. He didn’t know what to do. Should he run? Should he go up to the third floor and try to find Gina?
He wished they hadn’t split up.
Then suddenly everything became silent.
Why? What was he doing?
Matt waited, his back frozen to the dresser drawers. He was sure that the hunter was going to smash the rest of the door apart and crawl on top of the dresser, aim his shotgun down at the top of his head and pull the trigger.
But none of that happened.
And then Matt heard the faint thumping noises they’d heard before. And then he realized what the hunter was doing.
“Come on in here!” he shouted at the hunter. “Come and get us, you piece of shit!”
No reaction from the hunter.
“Oh shit,” Matt said as he realized the hunter was back inside the walls, crawling through his secret passageways back up to the third floor.
• • •
Gina found several wallets and purses. She threw two of the wallets into the pillowcase and then opened the third wallet. She saw the driver’s license inside. She recognized the face and the name. Scott Anderson—the man who had disappeared a few weeks ago, the one the police couldn’t find.
Because he’s been here in this house the whole time, she thought. Or what was left of him has been in this house.
Just then she heard a thumping sound from right behind the closet walls.
Mr. Crow was coming!
There was no
time to run out of the closet. She dropped down to her hands and knees and crawled among the shoes and hid behind the line of clothing, crouched next to one of the built-in dressers. She wasn’t hidden perfectly, but it was better than running for the door and getting shot in the back.
She watched through the clothes and saw the hunter’s dark pants legs which were tight around his muscular legs and his combat boots that didn’t make a sound as he crept through the closet.
She held her breath.
The hunter stopped. He seemed to be turning her way.
And just then Gina heard a sound from the second floor. It was Matt! He was yelling.
“It’s our only chance, Gina!” Matt yelled from downstairs. “He’s up on the third floor. Run for the garage!”
The hunter turned and moved like a jungle cat, running for the closet door. He was gone in a flash.
Gina let out a breath that she’d been holding. She didn’t move just yet. She made herself wait twenty seconds longer, counting out the seconds in her mind, and then she crawled out of her hiding place and ran to the closet door, her pillow case clenched in her hand.
She flew through the bedroom and into the living area, her head on a swivel, trying to look everywhere at once, expecting to see the man in dark clothing waiting for her, his shotgun or crossbow aimed at her.
But he wasn’t there.
She got to the double doors that led out to the short hall and then the stairs that would take her back down to the second floor hall, but she hesitated before opening it.
What if he was right behind the door, waiting for her?
She couldn’t wait much longer. She had to take a chance.
Gina opened the door and no one was there. She ran down the hall, poked her head around the corner, and then shuffled down the steps. She poked her head around the corner and stared down the second floor hall. She could see the top of the stairway from here. Everything looked okay so far.
She hurried across the dark red carpeting to the top of the stairway, searching the foyer below for any movement.
• • •
Below Gina, in a dark cubbyhole beneath the stairs, the hunter waited for her, his crossbow ready. He had left his shotgun behind—he would get them with the crossbow, it was all he needed.
He could hear Gina at the top of the stairs. He could hear her breathing. When she got to the bottom of the stairs, he would put an arrow in her back, right at the base of her spine, paralyzing her legs. She would scream and her boyfriend would come to help her.
He was going to have some fun with them after that.
These two had been fun, more of a challenge than he had expected. But he was growing weary, and he wanted to get to the real fun: cutting body parts off, skinning the hides, bleaching the bones, preparing his trophies.
• • •
Gina hurried down the stairs, but then she stopped after she had come down only three steps. Something was wrong, she was sure of it. It was like she could feel the hunter again. She couldn’t see or hear him, but she could feel him, like an evil blanketing her mind.
He was near. He was waiting for her.
But she needed to get to Matt. Where was he? He had to be down here. He had yelled at her to go to the garage. Was that where he was? She couldn’t wait here forever. She had to take a chance.
Just then a smoke alarm blared from the kitchen. The noise forced Gina into action and she hurried back up the steps and hid behind the railing—not the best of shields, but she could run back to their bedroom door if she needed to.
She saw the hunter bolt out from under the stairs and race across the foyer towards the dining room. It was her first good look at him. He was dressed in tight, black clothing and he had a hood and mask over his face. She didn’t see the shotgun on him; he only had a crossbow with an arrow already loaded and a quiver of arrows strapped tightly to his back. He was quick, he looked strong, and he didn’t make a sound when he ran.
And he never looked back at Gina.
But he knows I’m here.
But the smoke alarm had alerted him. Was the alarm hooked up to 911? She wasn’t sure, but she hoped to God it was.
• • •
The hunter raced for the kitchen, the smoke alarm blaring throughout the house. He knew Gina was up on the second floor somewhere, but he would get to her later. Right now he needed to shut that alarm off. It wasn’t hooked up to any kind of system that would alert emergency crews, but if it was going off then there must be fire somewhere. He could already smell the smoke in the air even from the dining room.
He couldn’t help smiling a little to himself. A fire. He had underestimated these two a little. He couldn’t play around anymore. These two were proving to be too resourceful.
It was time to end this.
He entered the kitchen, his crossbow up and aimed. He saw the source of the smoke and the reason for the alarm. In the middle of the kitchen a big trashcan was on fire, the smoke rolling up out of it.
He didn’t see Matt anywhere, but the smoke was getting thicker and thicker.
The hunter ignored the smoke and he turned and shot the smoke alarm high up on the wall with an arrow. The plastic smoke alarm blasted apart and went silent.
He loaded another arrow with lightning speed. Now he wished he’d brought his shotgun with him. But it was too late for that. He had a hunting knife on him. He would find Matt, cut his spinal cord at the back of his neck, and let him wait while he took his time finding Gina.
Oh God, he was going to make them pay.
A noise from behind him startled him and he turned to see a kitchen timer going off, blaring out an annoying noise. He shot the timer and the plastic blew apart as the arrow knifed right through it. He grabbed an arrow from his quiver and loaded it onto the crossbow, pulling the string back.
The sprinkler system on the ceiling above him turned on and water shot out of the sprinkler heads. He figured that was going to happen soon, the room had almost filled up with smoke now.
And from the haze, Matt emerged from behind the hunter armed with a giant can of green beans. He slammed the can down into the back of the hunter’s head just as he turned around.
The crossbow flew out of the hunter’s hands and clattered to the tile floor.
The hunter was dazed for a second, but he turned and grabbed Matt as he tried to tackle him. He pushed Matt back across the wet tile floor. The hunter’s boots grabbed traction on the wet floor—Matt’s worn-out sneakers did not.
The hunter pushed Matt back into a wall. He heard the breath forced from Matt’s lungs, he saw Matt’s eyes go fuzzy for a moment. He had him now. He yanked out his hunting knife from his belt and brought it up, ready to stab down at Matt while he held his throat with his other hand, his fingers clenched so tight that Matt’s breathing had stopped.
Matt saw dark spots floating in front of his eyes, and he felt the man’s hand crushing his throat. He needed to breathe! He tried to force himself away from the man, but his sneakers slipped helplessly on the wet floor. He saw the man raise the giant knife up in the air, ready to stab it down. He saw the water flooding down from the sprinklers, but everything seemed like it was moving in slow motion, he swore he could see each droplet of water coming down, some of them hitting the blade of the knife as it hovered up in the air for an impossibly long second.
Oh God, Matt thought. This is it. He’s going to stab me over and over again. I’ll be dead. I won’t be able to protect Gina or our child.
A sudden rage boiled up inside of Matt. He couldn’t let this man kill him.
As the hunter swung his knife down, Matt raised his left arm up and caught the hunter’s wrist so hard that he almost lost his grip on the knife. But he held onto the knife. Matt held the hunter’s arm back for a moment, but he was losing the battle. The hunter was incredibly strong.
Matt lost his grip on the hunter’s wrist and the knife slashed down, but he was off-target and the knife’s blade sliced Matt’s arm, tearing the sleeve o
f his sweatshirt. In a flash, the hunter brought his hand back up, the knife poised again, ready to stab down, ready to find its target this time.
I’m sorry, Gina, Matt said to himself. I tried so hard …
Before the hunter could bring his knife down, his eyes bulged with pain and surprise as the tip of an arrow exploded out of the middle of his chest. The arrow had shot so far through the hunter’s chest that the tip of it almost touched Matt’s chest.
The hunter’s hand loosened from around Matt’s throat, and the knife slipped out of his gloved fingers. His body seemed to crumple before Matt’s eyes and he dropped down to the floor onto his back which shoved the arrow up out of his chest even farther, blood spraying out and mixing with the sprinkler water that was puddled on the floor now.
Matt held his throat as he forced in a breath—the air was smoky, but it had never felt so sweet in all of his life. He could breathe again. It hurt, but he could breathe again.
Gina came out of the raining water and haze with the crossbow in her hands. She lowered it and it slipped out of her wet fingers and clattered down to the floor.
He rushed over to her and held her. Tears flowed from Gina’s eyes, mixing in with the water that rained down on them from the sprinkler heads.
“It’s okay,” Matt whispered. “You got him. You did it.”
Gina nodded and sobbed even harder. She sobbed with fear, with relief, with happiness.
Matt turned and hurried back over to the man on the floor. He picked up the hunting knife from the floor and held it, just in case this man was still alive. But he looked dead.
Matt kneeled down and pulled the mask off of the man.
Gina stared at the man’s face and saw the same man she’d seen in the painting upstairs—it was Mr. Crow. The hunter. The man who had hunted every animal on this planet. His mouth was partially open and blood dribbled out of it. His eyes were wide open, and they already seemed glazed over. He was dead, but Matt felt for a pulse in the side of his neck just to be sure.
Matt felt through the man’s pockets and found a set of keys. They looked like car keys. He held them up and looked at Gina.
They ran to the garage and Matt saw the car he’d seen before—a black Lexus sitting alone in the middle of the gigantic garage, the nose of the car pointed towards one of the many garage doors only thirty feet away.
