Chapter 3: The Stand at the Top of the Stairs
"Get upstairs, Marcus! Get the boy!" Clara ordered, her voice dripping with venom. She swung the golf club wildly at Julian again, forcing him back against the bottom step.
Julian’s survival instinct kicked into overdrive. He couldn't let them reach the second floor. He couldn't let that monster touch Leo. With a burst of adrenaline, Julian grabbed a heavy, decorative ceramic vase from the entryway table and hurled it directly at Clara. It shattered against her shoulder, throwing her off balance and sending her crashing into the drywall.
But Marcus was already moving. He bypassed the chaos, stepping over the shattered porcelain with predatory focus. He began to ascend the stairs, his boots thudding heavily on the carpeted steps.
"Stop! Get out of my house!" Julian screamed, lunging forward to grab Marcus’s ankle.
Marcus turned with lightning speed and kicked backward. His heavy boot caught Julian square in the chest, knocking him down the stairs. Julian hit the hardwood floor hard, the air driven completely from his lungs. Gasping, blurred vision tracking the dark shadow moving up toward his son, Julian forced himself to stand.
Upstairs, Leo heard the heavy footsteps approaching. Thud. Thud. Thud.
He squeezed his eyes shut, pulling the winter coats over his head. He thought of the times his dad took him to the diner down the street for blueberry pancakes, promising him that the bad times were over, that they were safe now. It was all a lie. The monster had found them.
The master bedroom door creaked open. The shadow stretched across the floor, creeping toward the closet.
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"Leo..." a deep, raspy voice called out. It wasn't his mother's. It was the stranger. "Come out, little boy. Your mom wants to take you on a trip."
From the floor below, a battered Arthur crawled toward the kitchen counter, his trembling hand reaching for the wall-mounted phone to scream at the 911 dispatcher, while Julian, spitting blood from a cut lip, charged back up the stairs with a heavy iron fire poker in hand. It was a race against time, a desperate family fighting with everything they had to shield an innocent child from a predatory evil.
