Tap, Tap

• Mariah Fauolo, Grade 7
• Short Story
• 2018

Tap, tap.
I quivered in fear, as the monster peered through the opaque windows.
“Do you think it’ll stop?” Sam signed to me, her dripping mascara drying up. I shook my head and held a finger to my lips. Suddenly, it stopped. I tensed.
“It stopped,” I whispered to my mute friend.
Tap, tap.
I trembled. The monster was in the house now. We really shouldn’t have opened that door, I thought to myself. After investigating my new house, we discovered a large steel-reinforced door underneath the property. ‘DO NOT OPEN’ were written in red spray paint with various blood stains displayed across walls. I remembered my father saying upon our arrival at the new house - ‘don’t open doors if you don’t know what’s behind, Cece. Especially in this house. Being the ignorant teengagers we were, we opened it to discover nothing but a dusty old room. There was a painting a being, a monster of inhumane to kill, destroy, to raze. We thought it was fake. Not real. So we left the door open to the mystery room. Now my parents had to pay the ultimate price.
Tap, tap.
I froze up. It sounded closer than before. Sam glanced at me from across the bedroom, hands gripped on the closet handle beside her.
Tap, tap.
It was coming from the room next to us, through the wall. Without a second thought, Sam dove into the wardrobe, shutting the door quietly behind her. Tears rolled down my dirt-covered face. I had already lost my parents. I didn’t want to lose a friend too.
Tap, tap.
I covered my mouth to stop me from gagging. It smelled of a graveyard if we didn’t insist burying bodies. All I could see was its leathery feet, dyed red from tearing through past victims. Like my parents, I thought to myself.
Tap, tap.
The monster stood right next to the bed. Up close, I could her the low growl that escaped it’s jaw every now and again. It walked around the room, leaving blood-coloured footprints everywhere he walked. It stood in front of the mirror. I could finally get a look at it. I almost screamed in fear. His face was contorted in a visible scream, its jaw lined with razor-sharp teeth. It had various holes all over his body that would give anyone with tropophobia a heart attack. It stood there for a few moments before walking out of my view.
Tap, tap.
It was further away from me now. I sighed in relief. The closet door creaked. A scream ripped through the eerie night. My heart stopped. My worst fears were confirmed when I caught the monster throwing Sam’s dead body in front of the bed, right before my eyes.