I couldn't be without a gun right now. Maybe it's nothing, maybe it's just the dog roughhousing with the furniture or something, but whatever it was, I needed to check it out.
As I'm about to reach for both my phone and the revolver, I hear another thud somewhere downstairs. This time it sounded like it was closer. My heart stops as I look over to the entrance, gulping while I picked up the gun before walking a little closer to the door. Heart beating slow, I gradually peak my head out and look around, holding my breath. I inch out a little more and take a few steps towards the staircase. The sound of Shadow barking makes my blood run cold. I stop dead in my tracks.
The barking was just as menacing and sinister as before: raucous, angry snarling that sends shivers down my spine.
As I get to the staircase, urging myself to go down and check on Shadow, the sound of shattering glass catches me off-guard. The alarm goes off, an ear-splitting wailing reverberating throughout the house. Voices come up from the foyer and I gasp for breath as I sprint back into my room, Shadow barking over the sound of the alarm behind me. I throw the bedroom door shut, tears filling my eyes as I locked it and turned off the lights. I back away from the entrance, gun in hand, body trembling as my finger curls over the trigger.
Thoughts race through my head as I attempt to keep myself collected; this wasn't the time to break down. I stumble over to the bed for my phone, snatching it off the mattress as I knelt down and hit 'Call' under Josh's name, my heartbeat hammering faster than ever before within the confines of my ribcage.
The phone rings for a few seconds before he picks up. I can hear yelling, screaming, and shouting in the background, the sound of bodies hitting the floor, gagging.
"Hey, baby, I can't talk right now," he apologizes, sounding sincere. "Everything okay?"
"N-n-nooo," I cry into the device, trying to be quieter, but it was becoming difficult to do so as somewhere downstairs, I could hear doors opening and slamming shut, one after the other.
"Baby," he breathes, his tone shifting now, "what is it? Is that the alarm going off? What is it, what's wrong?"
"Th-there's someone in the— The h-house," I hiccup. "There's someone downstairs, the alarms- The alarms just w-went off, Jace. There's someone here."
The line goes silent.