A Bump in the Night
Written by: Bledsoe_Turnakitt

It was mostly sunny as Kelsie bounced out the sliding glass door onto the back patio. She was excited! It was a Friday... school was over for the weekend... and Halloween was less than a week away.

Her sandy blonde hair fluttered softly in the gentle autumn breeze. 

The back patio overlooked a well kept back yard that went slightly downhill for about 50 yards to a small creek, and on the other side of the creek expanded a vast forest extending all the way to the distant mountains. The trees were all clothed in brilliant orange, red, purple, brown, and golden leaves. In the yard stood two things: an old oak tree with thick branches and a swing set complete with a tall slide, three swings, a lookout tower, and monkey bars. 

She was a 10 year old with an agenda...to tackle that swing set with full force.

"Come ON, Snaggles!" she shouted as she bound down the porch steps onto the green grass. "I'll beat you to it!" Snaggles was the English Bulldog who had been lying on the porch basking in the mild sunlight until he saw Kelsie running for the swing set. Then he gave chase.

Lacey watched out the kitchen window as Kelsie and Snaggles played. Her attention turned to her other child, her son Colton, as he yelled angrily. He was 2 and was showing it. Lacey found his favorite stuffed animal lying on the living room floor outside of Colton's playpen of which he was a prisoner of while she was preparing dinner.

She picked it up and returned it to him, which seemed to quiet him down. 

Her phone buzzed in her pocket. It was a text from Kyle. He had messaged that he might be about 30 minutes late getting home due to an issue at work. *That's fine* she thought. Now she has 30 minutes longer to work on dinner. Pot roast, boiled potatoes with onions and carrots, shells and cheese macaroni, and garlic bread. It smelled divine. 

She looked back out the kitchen window at Kelsie and Snaggles chasing each other around the Oak tree.

"Kelsie! It's starting to get dark." shouted Lacey out the sliding glass door. "Come inside and get cleaned up. Your Dad will be home anytime, and dinner is ready."

"Ok, Mom..." she said, and her and Snaggles raced for the steps. Up they went and through the glass door into the living room. "Eeewww... you STINK, Colt!" Grimaced Kelsie as she knuckle rubbed the top of his head. "Go wash your hands." said Lacey. Almost simultaneously, the front door opened, and Kyle stepped in. "Daddy!!" shouted Kelsie as she lept onto him. "Whoa! You ARE SWEATY, girl! What've you been doing?"

"Playing with Snaggles in the back yard." she replied.

"You HAVE?" he asked, looking down at Snaggles. The bulldog's lower teeth and one canine tooth stuck over his upper lip, and he cocked his head slightly as if to deny that he had nothing to do with it.

Kyle set Kelsie down and went to the kitchen. "You made it..." Grinned Lacey. "I thought you said 30 minutes. It's been an hour." Kyle removed his coat and laid it over the back of the couch, which was next to the kitchen.

"Be glad I'm not later than that. One of the guys at work tried to lift a load on timber material that was above the weight capacity for his forklift, and it flipped forward and then on its side. I don't know all the details, I just know he somehow got an arm pinned, and EMTs and the Fire Department showed up as well as the Police... so..."

"Oh my WORD! Is he going to be ok?"

"I hope so." Kyle looked over at Colt and went over to pick him up to give him a hug. "Eeewww... you STINK, kiddo!" Lacey grinned at Kyle. Kyle glared back at Lacey. They both stuck their closed fists out in front of each other and shook them up and down 3 times. Kyle displayed paper... and Lacey displayed scissors. "It's not fair." said Kyle.

"It's perfectly fair...so...hop to it!" smiled Lacey.

It was dark when they started eating dinner. The TV was on in the living room and the nightly news was showing some of the local Halloween decorations of note across town. Kelsie was looking forward to being Harley Quinn this year. Colton was going as a Pumpkin with a clothes hanger sticking up from the costume with a little ghost tied to it. Lacey has decided on being a Good Witch. Kyle had said he was staying home to guard the candy that no kids would ever come to ask for because they lived over 5 miles outside of town.

When dinner was over Lacey and Kyle cleaned up the table while Kelsie went upstairs for a bath and Colt played in his playpen.

While the last of the dishes were finished, there was a sudden two quick taps at the living room window. Kyle and Lacey looked in that direction, but curtains blocked the view of outside. Kyle went to the window and peered into the dark outside. "What was that?" he asked. Outside the window in the pale light of the Moon the corner of the porch with the steps could vaguely be seen. Nothing was there. "That's weird..." he said.

"Probably a bug, maybe..." Lacey replied. "I guess." said Kyle.

Kyle turned from the window and went to the couch to change the channel on the TV. Three hard taps on the window. His head snapped over to it. Without a word he got up and went to the sliding glass door and stepped on to the porch. Looking around he saw nothing. No movement and no sounds. It was oddly quiet.

Going back inside he looked at Lacey...

"You heard that too, right?"

"Yeah. Did you see anything?"

"Nothing. Not even any bugs." Kyle said, looking back at the window.

Lacey has finished her bath and had gone to her and Colt's room. Her bed was in the middle of the room and Colt's crib was in the side next to the wall. Dolls, stuffed animals and other toys lay here and there on dressers and parts of the floor.

She reached for a book next to bed. "Spooky Halloween Tales" was the title. Eagerly she opened it to the last page she'd read and laid back to get comfortable.

Ka-CLANK! Something hit her window. She was upstairs... what would've hit her window? She got out of bed and looked out window, which was facing the front yard. She didn't see anything except for the driveway and darkened trees..

Something was thrown against the window or the window pane. But nobody lives near the house she thought. It wouldn't be kids out here, especially this late in the evening. 

She started to turn away from the window when... just for a second... she thought see saw a dark figure moving just briefly in the shadows of the trees. She glared in that direction harder, wanting to see if she really saw someone who might be messing around outside or if she was just imagining it.

No movement. "Oh well..." she muttered, climbing back into her bed.

Lacey came in with Colt, laid him on the changing table and made quick work of his diaper change. Plunking him in his crib and handing him his favorite stuffed animal, she turned to Kelsie. "Good night. Don't let that book give you nightmares." she joked. 

"It's a kid's book, Mom. I read it every year. No nightmares yet..."

Lacey kissed Colt and then Kelsie. Turning she flipped off the main light and turned on Kelsie's bedside lamp before leaving and closing the door.

The door opened again as Kyle let Snaggles in after his evening potty break and said his "Good nights" before closing the door again.

Kelsie got back to her story while Colt played sleepily.

Lacey awoke. She had no idea why she woke up. She looked over at Kyle, laying sound asleep next to her. 

She looked at the clock: 20 minutes after 1:00 in the morning.

She rolled over, fluffed her pillow and flopped her head back down. 

Distantly outside she heard...a screeching...howl? She wasn't quite sure. It seemed to be coming from the back of the house somewhere. Beyond the back yard...

"Kyle... did you hear that?" she asked, shaking his shoulder.

"W... what?" he grumbled. "Did you hear that?" 

"Hear WHAT?" he asked turning away slightly.

"That...scream...or howl or whatever it was outside? I've never heard anything like it."

Kyle flipped further over on his side away from Lacey. "It's probably just Coyotes or something. Besides, it's outside. Just go back to sleep..." he responded, followed by a snore. And then another snore.

Another screech, this time a little louder. It made Lacey's hair stand on end.

"KYLE!" she said jarring him again. Snores continued.

Lacey huffed. Getting out of bed she went to the window which overlooked the backyard. She didn't see anything, but she knew there was something out there... and she wasn't comfortable with it.

Reaching into the dresser drawer she pulled out a flashlight. She wished she could also grab one of Kyle's pistols, but they were locked up and she wasn't sure where the keys were. And once he was asleep, he was pretty much useless. She opened her bedroom door and slipped out into the hall.

Kelsie heard the shuffling of feet in the hallway. She'd gotten so into her book that she didn't realize just how late it was.

She saw the silhouette of feet passing by beneath the door, heading towards the stairs, then light footfalls going down the stairs.

"Ok," she whispered quietly to herself, "Just 30 more minutes of reading and I'm done."

Lacey reached the sliding glass door. Peering out the door she looked for anything that might be moving. 

Nothing.

She stepped to the side of the door and slid on her running shoes, then slowly pulled the door sideways, opening into the night. One foot stepped on to the porch, followed by the other as she closed the door behind her. Standing on the porch now, she listened intently. A hidden cricket made a sound. Then nothing. She turned this way and that... trying to hear... anything. 

The Moon hid itself temporarily behind passing black clouds tinted with silver lining as the clouds passed swiftly by.

Lacey walked quietly down the steps to the backyard, and looked down past the swing set and the old Oak... across the short field towards the darkness of the forest beyond. A star glittered in the sky, followed by another, then another as the clouds drifted by.

A sound like "Aaaarrwwk" reverberated from across the creek just beyond her ability to see. Lacey went forward a little until she had reached the swing set. Her flashlight came to life as she clicked it on.

The light barely reached the creek at this distance. The forest still laid beyond it.

She began to walk further down the slight hill towards the creek until she'd reached it, and shining her light towards the trees, she began to make a sweep back and forth from left to right and then back again. 

The forest was darker than a Black Hole, seemingly engulfing the entire beam of the flashlight, except for the trees at the immediate front of the forest.

Falling leaves fell periodically here and there in the sway of the night breeze.

Lacey started to turn back to the House when...."Mom?"

Lacey froze in her tracks. She turned back around facing the forest again.

"Kelsie???" she asked with a furrowed brow of confusion.

Surely it couldn't be Kelsie. Kelsie was still bed asleep, right? Well, she remembered she hadn't actually checked Kelsie's room upon leaving...

"Mom, I need your help..." Kelsie's voice continued from the dark of the woods.

"Where ARE YOU, Kelsie?" Shouted Lacey 

"Mom, I need you to help me find Snaggles. I can't see him in the dark..."

Kelsie's voice sounded now a little further away... deeper into the forest..."I think he went this way..."

Lacey let the Mother come out in her..."Kelsie Amanda Davis! WHY are you up and out in the dark woods this late at night??? Why didn't you let us know?"

Silence followed.

"Kelsie!!" shouted Lacey.

Silence.

"He... might be... just right over here..." said Kelsie's voice, now sounding even deeper within the woods.

Lacey shined the flashlight beam in the direction of Kelsie's voice and saw nothing. "Where are you?" she asked. No answer. Lacey stepped further into the woods. The air seemed to get heavier as she went. "Kelsie?" Still no reply. 

She'd gone only a few more feet when a branch snapped to her left. Turning the flashlight that way the beam fell upon something horrible.

Twenty yards away from her a dark figure rose up from a squatting position. She couldn't believe what she was seeing. A tall creature loomed in the light... it's hairless body looked emaciated, like grayish skin stretched over bones. It's arms seemed impossibly long with large clawed hands dangling below it's knees.

It's head was like a deer skull with rows of sharp teeth and pointed antlers. Where eyes should have been there were only empty sockets.

Before Lacey could scream, the creature bellowed a screeching howl and began to move towards her.

Turning quickly she ran as fast as she could in the direction of the house. She could hear this...thing... begin to give chase. She leaped over the small creek, nearly falling but regaining her balance. 

Heavy footfalls pounded behind her as she passed the swing set and Oak tree. Her heart was racing as she finally reached the steps to the back porch and bounded up them. It sounded like the creature was right behind her as her hand clasped the door handle.

Kelsie closed her book and set it back on the dresser next to her bed. Laying back she heard footsteps coming up the stairs, followed by the shadows of feet passing by beneath the door.

She heard the door to the master bedroom open, then close. She rolled onto her side and patted Snaggles who was laying on the floor by her bed. She rolled onto her back again and with that she drifted off to sleep.

Kelsie awakened to Snaggles growling, his fur standing up on his back.

She realized that now her bedroom door was open. She peered past the footboard at the door wondering why it was open. That's when she noticed what seemed to be the top of Lacey's head, as if she was on her hands and knees just beyond footboard.

"Mom?" She could hear Lacey breathing with a rasp. "What are you doing?" Kelsie asked. 

Lacey said "I'm... hungry."

"What?" asked Kelsie. Lacey started to slowly rise. Her face appeared. Her eyes were black, and blood covered her mouth, which hung open revealing redden teeth. "Mom! What happened?!" Kelsie shouted. Lacey stared menacingly at her. Snaggles backed further away, growling even louder now. 

"W.. where's Dad?" Kelsie asked as she slid up towards the headboard...

" He's...here..." said Lacey, as she slowly lifted her left hand. In her balled fist was clenched Kyle's decapitated head. It appeared to have been chewed off. Kelsie screamed while Snaggles began barking. "I'm still hungry..." hissed Lacey. She dropped Kyle's head and lunged towards Kelsie.

Colt had woke up and now stood in his crib. He heard Kelsie screaming followed by comulsion. The screams ceased as blood splattered across the crib. Then barking stopped. Colt looked inquisitively as Lacey's shadow fell over him.