By: Ethan Dillon
Chapter 1: Home
Walking home from school is always the best part of the day. "Man, I can't wait to get home." I say to myself. Just as I cross the street Eli runs up behind me and says "Hey Sam!". I clumsily take my earbuds out. "Oh, hey." I say. "Where have you been? No one's seen you all week and you're just gonna say 'oh, hey' like everyone supposed to know where you've been?" she says upset. "Sorry I was out of town with my dad doing research up in the mountains." I say. "Now that makes sense.". We keep walking. Just like that the awkward silence hits like a tidal wave. I start to fidget. She sees. I feel my face burn with embarrassment. "So, Sam, I'm gonna need help with the homework." says Eli. I start to relax. "What homework is that?". "Biology, Math, and French.". "You always need help with that." I snort. "Cause I never understand it." she says. I laugh. "It's not funny.". "I can't stop laughing." I managed to say. "Stop laughing!" she laughs. After that she talked about what happened at school and I talked about what I did with my dad. Home, finally. "Well, are we going to do the homework in my house?" I ask, she hesitates "Yeah, sure, fine. I guess that's okay. You?" she asked, embarrassed. "Uh, yeah that's fine." I say. As I walk up to the door I see that the door is open. The door is never left open. That's when I saw the door knob on the ground and shredded to pieces. My heart races. I sprint to the door. I slowly open the door. Silence. I start to relax. Then I hear it, something hits the floor. I grab the sword mounted on the wall. I point it in the direction the noise came from. Something moves in the dark. It jumps at me, I swing. I miss. I feel a sharp pain in my shoulder. I scream. I stab the sword into its stomach. It wails. It jumps off me and runs toward Eli. I'm quick to stand. The pain in my shoulder is unbearable now. Eli screams. The creature jumps. I throw the sword like a spear and it finds its mark into the creature's spine. A piercing scream hits the air, then it runs toward the back door. There's a loud crash as the back door is broken from its hinges. Silence. I stumble and pass out.
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I wake up sweating. I open my eyes, "Ah, bright!" I wince. Everything is blurred around me. My shoulder feels stiff when I sit up. As I slide over to the edge of the bed, my shoulder starts to bleed through my shirt. "Dang it!". I quickly grab the tissue beside me. Too late, my blood drips onto the floor. As it slowly starts to seep into the cracks, I realize that the blood will drip into the living room below. As I run to the bathroom, I hear a scream from downstairs "There's blood dripping from the ceiling!" my sister cries. "Sam! Sam, can you hear me? I'm coming buddy!" my dad yells. I hear the door slam open as my dad rushes in. "Sam?" he whispers. "Hey." I say. "Hungry?" He says casually "Cause there's pancakes, bacon, and eggs.". "YES!" I shout. "Sorry." I whisper.