Page 15 of The Silence of Hell

“That’s a rubber bullet gun, and this is a taser. Don’t hesitate, okay?”

“Yes,” I said as he crossed the room in the moonlight and handed me two items.

“Lavender, I mean it. Don’t delay hiding, Lavender, this is about your safety,” he murmured.

“Yup. Got it,” I whispered, but I was shaking inside.

“I’ll lock the front door behind me. Remember, I’ll knock on this room’s door three times and then once.”

“If I don’t hear the second single knock, shoot!”

“Exactly!” Jinx said and disappeared.

I wanted to call him back. Jinx faced a potential threat. Something told me it wasn’t kids tonight. The entire house felt watchful, and there was danger in the air. The front door opened with a loud groan and squeak, and there went the element of surprise.

There was a shout, a bang, and I froze. I fumbled my phone but didn’t know who to call. A bright light swept my window, and I dived down the side of the bed and huddled up. Was that the intruder? Who was it? What did they want? Where was Jinx? Questions flew from my mind as I began panting in fear and worry. Minutes ticked past, and it seemed like hours, but in reality, it had only been fifteen minutes.

The front door opened. There was a thump and a startled cry. I couldn’t tell if that was Jinx and realised I’d dropped the weapons on the bed. I groped around, found one, and grabbed it quickly. There were three knocks, a pause, followed by a single rap. Grateful it was Jinx, I relaxed as the door opened with moonlight lighting the doorway.

There was nobody there. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up as I stared at the empty spot. Somebody had to be there. There’d been knocks, and somebody cried out. My eyes widened in terror as the front door opened again, and someone entered.

“What the fuck?” Jinx exclaimed as he shut it behind him. He rushed into the room, and I nearly fired but just held back.

“Jinx!” I shrieked with relief.

“Why is the door open?”

“Somebody came in, they did your knock, and the door opened. There was nobody there!” I explained as I scrambled out from the bed.

A tall, dark figure appeared from behind Jinx, and I cried out and screamed his name.

“That’s Fanatic! He’s with me!” Jinx shouted.

I winced, but it was too late. I’d fired, and unluckily for Fanatic, it was the taser! Fanatic went down like a ton of bricks and twitched alarmingly.

“What the hell?” Jinx murmured as he approached me carefully and took the weapon off me. “Oh, shit. That was set to maximum. They’re going to kill me!”

Jinx got on the phone as Fanatic shook and made little yipping noises. I managed to get a pillow under his head. A bright light appeared in the drive, and a bike parked up. Jinx let someone in, and I recognised Sunny.

“You tasered Fanatic?”

“It was an accident. I was freaked out,” I cried.

“Calm down, Lavender. Tell me what happened,” Sunny said as he bent and checked Fanatic’s pulse. He helped Fanatic slowly get to his feet, and Fanatic sent me a baleful look as his body jolted one way and then the other.

I quickly explained and turned to Jinx.

“There were three people outside. They all wore dark clothes. I don’t think they were kids either. Two were tall and bulky,” Jinx said.

“Highschool ballers?” Sunny asked.

“Possibly. They scarpered when they noticed me,” Jinx replied.

“What were they doing?”

“That’s the weird thing. Two were standing around while one checked the frames on the windows. They avoided this one. I reckon they had looked and seen us. It doesn’t make sense why they’d try to get inside knowing people were here. Something’s off,” Jinx said, scratching his belly.

“Some of these dolls were valuable, right?” Sunny turned to me.

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