Sshh, Be Quiet

Brian placed his hands on both Stephanie and Lisa’s shoulders, not even realizing that it would scare them until they each jumped at least a foot straight in the air.

“What the fuck!?” Lisa shouted in a whisper to Brian.

“Sorry, sorry. Where's Matt?”

“Upstairs. Where the hell were you?” Stephanie asked.

“I saw him come down into the basement, but he looked…he didn’t look human. He took a look around then took off back upstairs. I told Jenna to hide so I could follow him.”

“How the fuck, in all of this, we never crossed paths?” Lisa asked.

“You guys don’t know, but there’s another stairwell in the basement that leads to the second floor. He ran up that one and I started to follow him. So Jenna is still downstairs?”

“She’s with Zacky upstairs. Matt attacked him, said he’d come back for us, then went for the basement. He isn’t Matt anymore though. They got him,” Lisa said.

“Lisa, you shouldn’t be walking around,” Brian said, suddenly realizing that she was up and walking around while injured.

“I’m fine,” Lisa sighed angrily. “Right now, all I care about is keeping the rest of us alive.”

“We’ve all decided that we’ll do whatever it takes to stop Matt,” Stephanie interrupted.

Brian hung his head in the same manner that Zack did earlier. “Yeah I know, and it’s understood. As much as I don’t want to do this, we don’t have a choice right?”

Lisa and Stephanie both nodded.

“Did you find the gun?” Lisa asked.

“No. I threw it somewhere in the basement after...” he trailed off. “After the Johnny incident, but I couldn’t find it, and I don’t have any idea where the bullets went either.”

“Best to just hope that Matt doesn’t have it,” Stephanie said.

Lisa shuddered at the thought. If Matt did have the gun, they were all done for. They stood there in silence, waiting for any sign of Zack and Jenna to come back. Somebody's loud footsteps could be heard for a few minutes, and then it was dead silent. They could only assume that the heavy footsteps belonged to Matt. After a few moments of contemplating, Brian opened his mouth to speak, but was cut off by a loud thud, a sickening crunching sound, then a shout.

“Fuck,” Brian said, resisting every urge to run up the stairs.

“Brian, go, we’ll be fine down here,” Lisa said. “Go find them before they get killed.”

Without a second thought, Brian took off, three stairs at a time. More silence followed for a few moments until more heavy footsteps were heard. The person was walking slowly, each step nearly shaking the ceiling. It went on for a moment then stopped. More dead silence. Suddenly Brian and Zack were both heard as they called each others names. More slow heavy footsteps. More rustling. Shouting that had mixed with swears before rapid footsteps approached the stairs. The two men sprinted down the stairs, nearly dragging Stephanie and Lisa with them towards the basement.

“What the-” Lisa began.

“Questions later, right now we need to get downstairs and hide,” Brian said.

The four ran into the basement, finding a corner and boxes to hide behind. Paying no mind to the body of the bassist. Upon catching their breath, Zack finally spoke in a whisper.

“He was upstairs, we found him by Jimmy’s body. I was about to try and kill him, but he turned on us. He caught Jenna and-like it was nothing-he just snapped her neck. Brian then came up, he and I hid for a moment, then ran this way.”

Lisa opened her mouth to speak, but was cut off by heavy footsteps on the floor above them. He was walking around in the kitchen. “What are we gonna do!?” she asked in a whisper as she began to freak out. “We need to get out of here, or we need to stop him. We need to do something…” she was rambling nervously.

“Sshh, be quiet,” Brian shushed her.

She only then heard the heavy feet on the basement stairs, coming down.

“We need to get back to the living room,” Zack whispered. “I have a pocket knife in my backpack. It's not much, but it's something.”

The footsteps stopped as he entered the basement. The four in hiding held their breath the best they could, not making a single sound.

“I know you guys are down here,” a voice said in a menacing growl which terrified the four to their very cores. “You can’t escape.”

The four looked at each other, questioning eyes trying to figure out what they should do. Neither of them had any sort of weapon, or a mechanism of defense. They didn’t know what Matt had on him, other than his near inhuman strength. Zacky and Brian both knew that if he had gotten a hand on either Stephanie or Lisa, they would be dead.

There were no footsteps shuffling around the basement. No footsteps went back upstairs. Dead silence. No sounds from Matt as the others assumed that he was just standing there. Waiting. Waiting for any slip up that would lead him to them.

“We need to get him upstairs,” Brian mouthed to Zack.

Zack nodded in agreement. “What about the girls?” he mouthed back, nodding his head towards the two friends.

“We need to get him away from them, and upstairs with us.” Brian mouthed the reply.

“What if he doesn’t follow us?” Zack mouthed.

“You can run upstairs, I’ll stay here if he doesn’t follow.”

Brian and Zack nodded in agreement at their plan, and prayed it would work. They locked eyes intensely for a moment. Brian held up his hand, holding up three fingers. He counted down, three, two, one.

Notes