Haunted Heart

Snap…crackle…and pop. These sounds kept echoing through the house as we walked along. We did our best to keep silent but that would have been impossible due to the fact there were so many twigs on the floor. It was so quiet in the house. We even tried to tiptoe; still the twig snapping and noise continued.
“Someone or something is going to hear us,” Saul whispered. Then an unusual noise sounded in my ear.
“Shhhh…don’t move,” I cautioned. Neither of them moved. “What was that?” I spoke softly with bit of a startle.
“See, I told you we should’ve gone back,” Gabe panicked.
I snapped again, “Gabe, didn’t I just tell you…”
CREEEK. I heard it again. “It sounds like footsteps, and they’re getting closer, you guys,” Saul confirmed. Yeah, I’ll admit, my heart was in my throat now.
We all shined our flashlights in the direction we heard the footsteps. And just as soon as we nailed down the direction they were coming from, they stopped. Silence…again. All we heard now was our own breathing, and as ridiculous as this may sound, I could even hear us blinking. Yes, it was that quiet. We dashed our lights around the hallway looking for the one responsible for those footsteps.
The fog that had left us as we neared the house before falling through the porch was coming back. As the red misty fog returned, we heard something else. This time it wasn’t the sound of footsteps; it was the sound of a door opening – opening very slowly. Then the footsteps began to sound off again. Now they were coming toward us. They were getting louder with each step.
“There’s nowhere to hide,” I whispered. “It’s nothing but walls around us.”
“Quick,” Saul motioned, “turn off your flashlights.”
Reluctant to turn off his flashlight, Gabe said, “But didn’t dad say…”
“JUST DO IT GABE!” Saul and I shouted softly.
The lights were out. We were all hunched together squatting down on the floor, hoping not to be seen. It was also super dark because we’d just turned off our flashlights. Our eyes didn’t have enough time to adjust to the darkness, so we couldn’t even see what was coming toward us. Whatever it is was or whoever it was didn’t seem to be stumbling through the darkness, almost like it had lived in the house for many years or had those special binoculars to see in the dark. Gabe was shaking hard enough to start an earthquake.
The closer the sound of the footsteps got, my eyes finally started to adjust to the darkness to see a little better. I was finally able to match the footsteps with the shape of a person. The shape looked like a man. Still, it was too dark to make out what this person looked like. Suddenly this person stopped walking and looked around. I guess he didn’t see us because we were right under his nose - literally. Its foot was only inches away from mine own.
We were dead still. We didn’t move a muscle. We stayed as quiet as we could while this black figure looked around. Each time its foot moved I thought it was going to touch mine, and then we’d be dead for sure. No sooner this black figure walked toward us, though, it was now walking away from us. It was going back in the direction it came but just as this black figure was out of sight, Gabe bumped Saul and made him drop his flashlight. The sound of my flashlight dropping echoed throughout this entire house. I looked at the black figure again. Next then I knew it had turned around and began walking back in our direction, but a lot faster this time. I have to do something, I thought, as my heart raced as fast as he was coming toward us. So I did the smartest thing I could think of.
I let out a loud scream, jumped on the black figure like a monkey, hitting him over and over again.
“Get away from us! Get away from us!” I shouted. It didn’t seem to be affected by any of my blows at all. Next thing I knew, it was trying to take my flashlight off of me.
I heard Saul scream out, “Josh, hold on tight! Don’t let him take your flashlight!” I hollered back panting and struggling, “I’m...I'm trying! Help!”
Why isn’t the flashlight working, I thought? Dad said it was a weapon, and the handle looked like a sword handle, yet every hit was like striking out in a baseball game. Little by little I felt my flashlight slipping away as this monster pulled it from me.
“HELP ME!” I screamed again.