I looked over at my Dad’s phone while he was driving us home from getting ice cream. This was years ago, I was fifteen I believe. It was a text from my Mom.
“Dad, Mom texted you,” I said from the front seat, my little brother was in the back eating a vanilla chocolate swirl.
He didn’t want to look at his phone while driving so he asked me what she said.
I looked down and read the message quickly, I didn’t really understand and was confused but I said it anyway.
“It says ‘Hun, it’s coming back’,” his back went straight and a look of shock came over his face.
“Are you and your brother buckled in?” he said, scrambling for the clutch. I knew I was, I checked my brother, he was also.
“Yeah we are,” I said, in the same instant my Dad smashed into the gas and pinned me back to my seat.
“Listen,” my Dad said loudly, getting me and my brother’s attention. “Something is coming, I can’t tell you what, and I’m not exactly sure when, but when we get to the house I want you to hide in the basement with your brother while I and your mother do something upstairs and come down after,” his face was panicked and filled with worry as we flew down the highway and within five minutes back home.
Once we arrived my dad practically forced me and my brother out of the car, I grabbed him and ran to the basement, I had never seen my dad like that before, it was scaring me. We quickly passed by my Mom, she was praying at the shrine to my older brother, he died when he was fifteen before I could remember what happened, and whenever my parents were near it they always had worried looks on their faces.
Once me and my brother were in the basement I laid down blankets for us so we could sit down and wait for our parents. The noise from upstairs was hectic, it sounded like my parents were running from place to place, slamming things shut, I heard my Dad’s gun safe open in their room, and within a minute they both made their way into the basement.
They didn’t say what was happening, my Dad had his hunting shotgun at his hip and my Mom had a large butcher’s knife that we had in the kitchen.
“Mommy, Daddy, what’s going on?” my brother said from my arms.
My Mom came up to us and started trying to comfort my brother.
“Don’t worry baby, we’re only going to be here for a little bit then we go back upstairs, okay,” her voice was trying to be calm and comforting, but her cracks and nervous stutter gave me the opposite effect, even if it helped my brother.
We stayed there, in that position, my brother and I sitting on the blanket, and my parents pacing around, worried, My Mom was almost holding back tears. Everything was quiet until I heard a sudden and loud bang come from where the front door was.
“Alright babies, be quiet for a while okay,” my Mom said, a hand on both of our cheeks. I was terrified but my brother only seemed confused.
My dad was standing at the bottom of the stairs, his gun pointed at the basement door. I heard loud, massive footsteps that went faster than I could responsibly estimate and slammed through every part of the house. I heard doors shatter to splitters, windows break, and things fly everywhere until it seemed the house would have been a trash heap when we went back up.
The footsteps would just keep going, until they slowed down slightly, then more, and more, until finally they stopped right in front of the basement door. A high-pitched scratching sound emanated from the metal door as if a single, long, hard object was being scraped against with a lot of force.
I looked down at my brother, he was just staring at the door, I snapped my fingers and he shook his head, coming too. In a moment the room went silent again, but then the steps resumed, although instead of going throughout the house they instantly ran outside. My parents sighed in relief.
Their peace was only momentary, as a loud bang and shattering sound came from the other side of the basement.
“WE FORGOT ABOUT THE BASEMENT WINDOW,” my Dad yelled loudly, running with my Mom to the back of the basement behind me and my brother, I ran too but in the opposite direction.
I carried my brother and put him down once I was on the opposite side, I then tripped and hurt my ankle so bad I couldn’t stand up as my brother stood over me.
“WHERE’D IT GO,” my Dad continued to yell as I heard a shot. “COME OUT HERE YOU BASTARD,” the panic in his voice made every word sound as if it were fire coming from his lips. That sound came once again from the door, that long sound of something against metal.
My parents couldn’t hear it from their corner, my brother was once again starring. He began to walk toward the stairs, I tried to reach out for him but I missed. When I stood up I fell back down again, I had broken my ankle in the previous fall.
“GET BACK HERE!” I yelled but he wouldn’t listen. My parents still couldn’t hear as I called for them.
I watched my brother disappear as he went up the stairs, then I heard the click of the door as he unlocked it, and a creak as he opened it. With a sudden bang, the door was flung down the stairs and I heard my brother scream, which brought my parents back, he was gone.
“D-d-d-d-dad… what was that?” I said, tears in my eyes from a mixture of fear and worry.
“It’s gone now,” was the only answer he had to return.
This happened years ago, I don’t know what happened, what that was, or anything. I just put the little bits of food I knew he liked by his shrine and prayed, right next to my older brother’s.