The Empty Basement

A short suspence story with an unexpected ending.

She stood next to the window and looked out. Even the street out front was empty. "I'm sure I heard something…unless it's my darn imagination again." she thought to herself stepping back inside the room and dumping her tired body on the bed.

Anna had been getting more and more paranoid about staying alone in the house ever since Tonny had taken that week-long job, more or less on the other side of the country. Her imagination was like torture, making her think of all the horror films she had seen in her whole life in the five days that had past.

That's why now she let the light cold breeze touch her cheeks and roll in her neck. It was soothing.

"I need to relax. Go make myself some tea perhaps ?" the idea seemed like the right things to do and Anna made her way down the stairs and into the small kitchen. It wasn't her place. At all. The three things she knew how to use were the microwave, the toaster and the kettle. Tony was the cook, he spent his free nights burning his fingers and turning the limited space into a trash yard. But what he managed to bring to the table was a real piece of Heaven, so Anna felt happy cleaning up after him.

The water was already boiling so she carefully poured it in a pink mug with bow ties on it. 

As she sat on the sofa and took a small sip, her little panic attack from five minutes ago felt like the most stupid thing in the world. "There's no one inside ! How could they even come in, all the doors are locked, the windows are shut. It's all good !" she tried to convince herself that she was a fool for thinking otherwise.

Her hand reached for the remote and just as she was turning the TV on…another sound. Louder this time. Coming from the basement.

Anna's whole body jolted up and she found herself  kneeling behind the sofa, as if she were trying to hide. But what from ? There couldn't possibly be anyone in there.

Could there ?

She quickly grabbed the sharpest, most horrificly looking knife she could find and started ever so slowly towards the basement door. She could feel her entire arm tremble, one would think she was having spasms, but it was pure fear. It was clear, she wasn't imagining, someone or something was in there with her.

The door opened easy enough and Anna imediately switched the lights on. As far as she could see, it was empty. The stairs appeared to be miles appart and she had to feel them up as she was going down. The spacious room was rather clean and tidy and if there was anything out of place, she would spot it. But there was nothing, everything was normal.

"Just rats, or mice" she laughed at herself, "you're a big damn idiot, An, you truly are !"

She tuned around as she said that and to her shock all of a sudden she was in the dark. The lights were off. The knife slipped from her hand and banged the floor. Real panic was settling in now, her eyes weren't used to the darkness and she was hopelessly turning around in all directions desperately trying to recognise a shadow or a shape. 

The last thing she felt was the cold blade piercing her back.

Author's Note

Might cause scare