by Rick Hautala
And then the first body slammed against the door. The impact was hard enough to jolt Holly, but she gritted her teeth and held on, pressing her back flat against the door.
Will it hold? She wondered.
She remembered her daddy saying one time that one of the things he liked about this house when they bought it was that the doors were made of good, solid, old-fashioned oak doors, not the cheap kind you find in most houses.
Is this door oak?
Would it be strong enough to hold until daylight came, and the creatures would be afraid and have to return to the darkness?
Holly’s tears burned her eyes as she stared out the kitchen window at the gradually brightening sky. The storm clouds were blowing away fast, now that the storm was over, and the dark gray of dawn was steadily lightening. Her heart hammered in her chest, making her neck throb. The door, no more than an inch thick, was all that separated her from the creatures with their horrible, ugly faces and their terrible claws. From the other side, she could hear the steady rasping sound as they scarped and tore into the wood.
Will it hold?
Pressure was building up on the other side. She could feel it as more and more creatures came up the stairs and pressed their weight against the door, clawing at the wood. Every now and then the doorknob jiggled in her hand, but they didn’t try to force it. Holly guessed they were just dumb animals, too stupid to know how to use it. Kicking off her slippers so she could get better traction on the cold linoleum floor, she braced her shaking legs and leaned ever harder against the door as the frantic scratching sounds and the squealing from the other side got steadily louder.
Will it hold?...
Will it hold?
That thought kept pounding in her head like the steady hammering that came from the other side of the thin oak door. If she could hang on long enough, if she could just keep them down in the cellar until dawn, Holly knew she might have a chance.
She might not die.
But how soon would the sun come up now that the snowstorm had blown away, and how strong was the door?
Would it hold them back long enough so, as morning light filled the cellar, they would be forced back into their hole? Or had the snow piled up high enough so it would block out the daylight, and they would continue to beat and tear at the door until it finally gave way, and they poured into the kitchen? By then, would there be enough daylight to scare them back down into the cellar, or would they do to her what they had done to her daddy and her momma and the oilman?
Holly choked back her tears and squeezed her eyes shut so tightly they hurt as she leaned her full weight against the cellar door.
She had to hold on.
She had to be strong and keep these things from getting her.
And no matter what, she had to be brave so her daddy would be proud of her.
THE END
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About the author:
Rick Hautala has more than thirty published books to his credit, including the million copy, international best-seller Nightstone, as well as Twilight Time, Little Brothers, Cold Whisper, Impulse, and The Wildman. He has also published four novels—The White Room, Looking Glass, Unbroken, and Follow—using the pseudonym A. J. Matthews. His more than sixty published short stories have appeared in national and international anthologies and magazines. His short story collection Bedbugs was selected as one of the best horror books of the year in 2003.
A novella titled Reunion was published by PS Publications in December, 2009; and Occasional Demons, a short story collection, is due in 2010 from CD Publications. He wrote the screenplays for several short films, including the multiple award-winning The Ugly Film, based on the short story by Ed Gorman, as well as Peekers, based on a short story by Kealan Patrick Burke, and Dead @ 17, based on the graphic novel by Josh Howard.
A graduate of the University of Maine in Orono with a Master of Art in English Literature (Renaissance and Medieval Literature), Hautala lives in southern Maine. His three sons have all grown up and (mostly) moved out of the house. He served terms as Vice President and Trustee for the Horror Writers Association.
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www.ghostwiterpublications.com
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