....
Renee's eyes reflexively snapped open, and she pushed her body up into a sitting position. Her alarmed gaze seemed to settle after realizing she was in her home, at the dinner table, and that the nightmares of her past life were nothing short of a dream now.
She felt cold, eerily cold, and she subconsciously rubbed her shoulders to ease her distress.
She had nothing to feel nervous about, she still had her brother who remained loyal at her side, but sometimes, even the torment of one's life will always follow you to the present. Maybe not now, but eventually, she will suffice – it was not a choice, she has to if she has any wish of erasing the anguish of her past life.
"You will be fine, Renee." She whispered to herself, her hands reaching her cheeks to wipe away the tear-stains that lingered.
Recovering her sanity after the little emboldening session, she glanced at the clock on the wall, and her sleepy eyes could hardly believe it was past 12am.
She had slept at the dinner table for that long?
Pushing her chair back, its leg scraped against the floor as she rose from the table. With a tired yawn, she headed for the stairs, stretching her limbs as she climbed her way up to get some sleep, but just as she reached halfway point, a sudden knock on the door echoed through the quiet house, and she automatically stopped in her gait.
"Hmm?"
She heard the knock again.
Coming down the stairs and returning to the living room, Renee glanced at the time on the clock again, her curiosity piqued. With furrowed brows, she wondered who on earth would be knocking at someone's door at this hour. The thought alone had left her momentarily puzzled, and the idea that came in mind was to ignore the knocking and act like she never heard it.
Whoever it is can return on the day tomorrow.
As she turned her back to the door and made an attempt to climb the stairs, the third knock came. It sounded louder, more urgent than the first two knocks, as if whoever was knocking had the intention of breaking it down if no one answered. This made Renee's plan of 'ignorance is bliss' fall flat at her face, and she paused once more.
What if someone needed help and she was turning deaf ears to it?
"Who is it?" She asked, already reaching for her brother's golf stick he kept at the corner of the dining room. Her conscience was starting to overcome her wariness, and when she received no response, she tip-toed towards the peephole device.
"Huh?" A flicker of confusion danced in her ruby orbs after recognizing the ivy cap, and she knew immediately that it had to be uncle James. But what was he doing out here so late? And banging heavily on her door too? However, knowing it was him brought a sense of relief to her heart, but she still held onto the golf stick.
Wondering what urgent matter brought him back, Renee hesitated, but eventually opened the door cautiously. The drizzling had stopped, and the front porch lamp lights obscured his visuals in the shadows.
"Uncle, do you need something?" Renee asked in concern, shivering a bit from the night's cold air, but there was no reply from him.
"Uncle James? Are you in need of something–!!"
A quick chill ran down her spine when he lifted his head slowly, and she locked gaze with a pair of unnatural, eerie white orbs – clearly devoid of life and humanity. A chilling silence enveloped them, broken by the distant hum of the night, and Renee was instinctively prompted to take a step back from the door.
"Uncle James, your… your eyes… your eyes are.." in shock, she pointed at his eyes, trying to convey to him that something was terribly wrong. Before her brain could work properly, the man opened his mouth and growled menacingly, his two arms stretching abnormally in her direction in an attempt to clutch her with his fingers, and Renee soon found herself struggling to close the door.
What in the Lord's name was that?!!!
The inhumane growl and the endless struggle sent Renee's bones shivering in fright, she could not scream. Her human strength was no match for what she was suddenly dealing with, because the door was flung open with an otherworldly strength, and that sent Renee crashing to the floor.
Terror gripped her heart as she tried to comprehend the unsettling transformation taking place. The man, who looked nothing like the lovable uncle James, dragged his feet into her home, and his face, which looked familiar, yet unfamiliar to her, watched her with no signs of the fatherly love they once bore.
Instead, those lifeless eyes looked interested in taking a bite out of her flesh.
"What… what happened to you?"
A guttural growl escaped his throat, it sounded so alienated, and before her eyes, she watched as the skin of his head split in half by itself, revealing his brain, and a pungent odor emanated from him. Her uncle Jame's favorite ivy cap now lay on the floor, the reality of her situation spiraling out of control, and her eyes were instantly filled with tears.
Who did this?
It was only when he got close that Renee forced herself to move. She held on to her golf stick and whacked the mutant James hard in the face.
'Bang!'
His head turned the other way, and Renee used the opportunity she had to crawl out of his sight and run up the stairs, calling her brother's name at the same time.
"Cyrus! Cyrus! – Ah!!" Renee missed her footing when something grabbed her leg, making her drop to the floor of the stairs. Turning her head around to see what had held her back, the mutated James had stretched his elongated arms and was currently holding her by her ankle, his grip no different from being bound to a shackle.
"Let me go! Cyrus!" Renee struggled to free her leg from the inescapable grip, and she cried out when the monster dragged her body down the stairs, but she wisely held onto the railing, resisting its pull with all her strength.
"Cyrus!"
Just in time, her brother showed up at the top of the stairs, and with no explanation needed, he fired a gun at the creature's brain, putting the mutated James out of his wailing misery. The chaotic house immediately regained silence, and all that could be heard was Cyrus's heavy breathing.
"Renee!" Reaching for his sister who had freed her leg from the numb grasp of the dead monster, he helped her up to her trembling feet.
"Are you alright? Are you hurt?" His worried eyes scanned her body from head to toe, and he only relaxed when she nodded. Their attention was instantly diverted to the alarmed screams coming from the neighboring houses outside, and their faces turned aghast with pure terror.
People were running out of their homes with multiples of undead creatures, similar to what they just killed chasing after the civilians.
"Fuck!" Cyrus rushed downstairs, kicking aside the unmoved body of the creature and closing the door quickly. He locked it just in time before more monsters began to bang heavily on their door, and he bristled back.
"The back door! Is the back door locked?" He asked, but Renee was too speechless to respond. Not sure herself, her brother decided to go check, as all the doors in the house should be securely locked. However, he had barely taken four steps down the hall when a creaking sound could be heard coming from that direction, and the color on his face drained with apprehension.
He immediately retreated.
"Upstairs, go go go go!" Grabbing his sister's arm, he led her up the stairs, and the minute they vanished from the top stairs, another creature invaded their home. It made loud, creaking sounds, almost similar to that of a door, and its split up face was facing the stairs the sibling had taken.
"In here." Renee could hear her brother whisper when he took her into their parents room. He locked the metal door and requested her help to shift the bed to the door so the creature wouldn't come in. Renee hardly understood what was happening, her eardrums still vibrated from the earlier screams, but she did exactly as she was told.
Listen to instructions and question him later.
In no less than a minute, Renee could hear the same creaking noise just outside the door, and her brother shushed her up with a finger to his lips, prompting her to stay as silent as possible. The creaking noise lasted for more than five minutes before it started to lessen, conveying the creature's departure from the door, probably to go look for other victims.
When they heard it no more, Renee's brother slumped to the ground in relief, releasing a breath he barely knew he had been holding.
The whole situation was still very confusing and frightening for Renee. There were monsters in this world too?
"Oh." Renee hadn't realized she was walking backwards till her back hit the bookshelf, and a book in the middle shifted, wobbling and toppling off the racks. Renee was instantly filled with a new wave of panic when the bookshelves croaked and split in two, revealing a dark secret pathway that stunned her and brother.
"Holy Mary mother of Jesus."
Cyrus had risen to his feet to stand beside his sister, equally perplexed by what he was seeing.
Their awe didn't last long, because the croaking sound of the bookshelf had alerted the earlier creature, drawing it back to the room where they presently hid, and the metal door was viciously banged from outside.
"In there, now!" Cyrus grabbed her hand and dragged her into the secret room. The bookshelves closed just in time before the monster could barge in, but they were already gone.
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