Silently, they waited behind the door. Lying in wait for the basilisk to come. Melinda was clutching onto her paddle as tightly as she could, while Larry was ready to sprint any moment.
"Linda, listen. Whatever happens, don't look straight into its eyes," he whispered to her.
"Got it."
The hissing was becoming louder. It was coming in their direction really fast.
"It's here," Melinda whispered. And then the window in the bedroom flew with a bang, an enormous reptile slithered inside. It has glistening silver scales and golden eyes with vertical pupils. Its tongue coming in and out of its mouth. Its fangs were half a foot long, saliva dripping from them.
"Run! Linda, run!" Larry shouts as they frantically squeeze themselves into the door that refuses to open any wider than a foot.
That shout only caught the basilisk's attention and it slithered in their direction.
"No! No! No, Linda! We're not getting into any of the houses. We're only getting ourselves trapped," Larry told her when Melinda was about to run off to one of the houses.
"Where are we supposed to go then?" she asked while still running.
"I don't know! Just keep running! Keep moving forward!"
"I don't think we can run faster than it, Larry. It's fast!"
"I know and I am thinking, Linda. And please, stop looking back! You don't wanna turn to stone, do you?"
"Of course, not. Why would I?"
They ran as fast as they could. They don't really have a destination in mind. Getting away from the basilisk was their priority. But it was clear as day that if they'd just keep doing what they were doing, the basilisk was bound to catch up to them.
"Meooooow!" It was Ginger. It was facing the space between the two houses. And probably getting what the cat was trying to say, Melinda's mouth turned into an "O" and then she exclaimed, "You're a genius, Ginger!"
"Larry, this way!" she exclaimed and pulled him by the wrist.
"What are you thinking, lady? Haven't I just told you no houses?"
"We're not getting in, you dumbass! But do we really have to run in a straight direction?"
Larry allowed her to drag him along with her. Garry was running two steps behind him. After probably taking a turn thrice, they stopped. Hiding in between the two brick houses. Just enough distance from the basilisk.
"Wait for a bit. Ha — Let me… catch my breath," Melinda said. Her breast heaving rapidly, bending with her hands on her knees. Her thick dark hair was in disarray. "Why… does it have to… be a freakin' basilisk? Haaaaa — this game was supposed to be fun."
"Can you still run?"
"Gimme five seconds."
"Okay, five seconds it is."
Meanwhile, the basilisk was slithering between the two houses. The space was wide enough for its large body. Its eyes were scanning left and right, trying to locate where its prey had run off to.
"No, not there. This one here is narrower," Larry said while pointing to the left. But exactly as soon as they turned left, the basilisk just happened to pass but didn't notice them. They sucked in a lot of air. Had they turned even a second earlier, it would've surely seen them.
"That was close," Melinda whispered.
"Let's move ahead. I don't think it's gonna turn back."
It was night and there was no one else in that village at that moment aside from them making it so quiet, magnifying the hissing of the basilisk and the sound it creates as it glides to the dirt. And they're making use of that sound to know its location.
But the basilisk was beginning to get annoyed and it started thrashing its tail, whipping it across the wall nearest to it.
It only took that one tail whip to crush that wall to smithereens, sending debris to the other side. One brick landed right where Larry and Melinda were, nearly hitting her by the head. And it let out a numbingly, ear-piercing high-pitched cry, violently hitting any wall it comes across — mercilessly destroying them with its tail.
"No good! No good! We're gonna die here. Run! Run! Run!" Larry whispered, almost shouting amidst the loud booming in his chest. He glanced at his right arm, it had a small cut from that one plank of wood that flew in his direction and grazed him. It stings.