Sshh, Be Quiet

Dim light filled the room, revealing the figure that stood there. They easily recognized Matt by his stature until he turned to look at them. His once hazel eyes were now dark, almost black in color, and he grinned as evilly as any sadistic psycho could ever grin.

“M-Matt?” Zack said.

He just stood there, grinning evilly as he stared at the three of them. Zack stood up slowly to go to his friend.

“Zacky, stay away from him,” Lisa said, grabbing him by the wrist. “That’s not Matt.”

“Lisa, what are you talking about?”

“That is not Matt.”

“Yeah it is.” He snapped as he tried to pull away from Lisa. He succeeded as he pulled hard enough to cause pain in her wounded shoulder. “Matt, are you okay?” Zack said as he approached the singer.

Dead silence filled the room as the two men were staring each other down. Matt continued to grin while Zack's look of worry soon turned to a look of pure terror.

“Zacky, please get away from him,” Lisa whispered.

Matt’s grin slowly turned into a blank, yet intimidating expression. His eyebrows slowly curved inward to show anger. Zack saw his expression change and went to back away. At the same time, Lisa swore to herself that she heard a low growl escape from Matt’s throat. As Zack took a step backwards, Matt, moving almost at the speed of light, reached and grabbed Zack by the throat.

“No!” Stephanie and Lisa both shouted.

Injured or not, Lisa wasn’t going to sit and watch him choke the life out of Zack. She stood up painfully and ran over to the two men, getting in between them. She tried to pry Matt’s hand from Zack’s throat, but failed against the singer’s size and strength. She looked Matt dead in the eyes.

“Matt, listen to me. I know you can hear me. You have to fight this and just let him go,” she told him in a calm voice.

“L-L-Lisa. M-m-move…” Zack managed to spit out.

“Matt, fight this.”

Zack ignored the fact that his best friend was choking him and instead tried to push Lisa out of the way. She stumbled away as Zack adjusted himself to kick Matt in an attempt to get away. As he swung his foot back though, Matt pushed him away, throwing him to the floor. Zack coughed and gasped for air while the two girls stared at Matt. The expression changed back to that terrifying grin.

“I’ll come back for you three,” he said in a deep, hoarse growl before exiting the kitchen, towards the basement stairs.

Lisa limped to Zack and knelt by him. His throat was already showing signs of bruising from being gripped so rough. He was still alive though, and that’s what mattered. “Zacky!? Are you alright?” Lisa asked.

“I’m fine,” he said. “We need to get to the basement though before he gets to Brian and Jenna.”

The three of them went into the kitchen, following Matt’s trail. The basement door was wide open. Silence rose out of the darkened basement. They slowly stepped down the stairs where the room was dimly lit.

“Brian?” Lisa called out. “Jenna? You guys down here?”

The room wasn’t big, but there were multiple places to hide. There was no response from Brian or Jenna, and it appeared empty.

“Guys?” Zack called out.

“Something’s wrong. What if they’re already dead?” Stephanie asked, her voice was shaking from fear.

“They’re not. Brian, answer me damnit!” Zack shouted.

“Over here,” a faint voice whispered. They followed the voice and found Jenna hiding behind boxes. She was alone, appearing uninjured, but obviously scared out of her mind. “He came down here…”

“Where’s Brian,” Zack asked.

“I don’t know. He told me to hide here, then he went upstairs. He said something about another hidden staircase that goes to the second floor.”

“Fuck,” Zack said.

“W-was that Matt?” she asked, looking up at him. “What happened to your neck?”

“We don’t know what it was,” he said. “It most definitely wasn't Matt, because, well, he...Matt wouldn't attack any of us like he did to me.”

“It got him,” Lisa whispered. “We need to figure out how to stop him.”

“And how exactly are we going to do that?” Stephanie asked. “We can’t exactly perform an exorcism.”

“We’ll have to stop him by any means possible.” Lisa saw Zack hang his head at the thought of killing his best friend. “I’m sorry, Zacky, but if it means killing him so the rest of us can stay alive…then we might not have a choice.”

He nodded slowly. “You’re right. We need to find Brian. Come on guys.”

The three girls followed Zack slowly upstairs. The ground floor of the house was dead silent, cast in a dim glow from the lights that were on. Nobody wanted to call for Brian. They didn’t know where Matt was, and didn’t want to risk running into him. As they approached the stairs to the second floor, rustling noises could be heard.

“Stephanie, you stay with Lisa. Jenna, come with me.”

“Why me?” she protested.

“Please, just come on?”

With a frustrated grunt, she followed Zack upstairs slowly. Stephanie and Lisa were at the bottom of the stairs, looking around every few minutes. The rustling noises were still being heard. The two girls focused their attention looking upstairs, unaware of their surroundings. A hand on each of their shoulders nearly sent them through the roof in terror.

Notes

I'm not going to sit here and write out yet another apology for not having updated in months. Life is busy, but I'm in a hotel for the next 2 weeks, and there are about 6 chapters left give or take one, so hopefully I can get this finished in these next 2 weeks. If not, hopefully next month when I have another hotel stay, because hotel stays when I'm out on shows are pretty much the only time I can connect my laptop to wifi.

Hope you're all still enjoying though. :)