Chapter 5 - The Dark Room
The brass doorknob rattled aggressively against the lock.
Chloe scrambled backward on the bed, pressing herself against the headboard.
“Maya, open the door,” Liam’s voice called out from the hallway.
His tone was dangerously calm.
“I know you found the camera.”
I did not say a word.
I stepped quietly off the chair and picked up a heavy metal flashlight from my desk.
“You are making this much worse than it needs to be,” Liam warned.
“Dad is asleep on the couch, and Mom is crying in her room.”
“Nobody is going to come up here and save you.”
I pressed my back against the wall next to the door.
“Leave us alone, Liam,” I yelled.
“Or I swear I will scream loud enough to wake up the entire neighborhood.”
He let out a soft, chilling laugh.
Suddenly, the lights in my bedroom flickered and died.
The hum of the central air conditioning stopped completely.
He had gone to the breaker box in the hallway and cut the power to the second floor.
We were plunged into total darkness.
Rain began to beat heavily against my bedroom window.
“I have the master key to your door, Maya,” Liam whispered from the other side of the wood.
I heard the metallic slide of a key entering the lock.
He was not bluffing.
I lunged forward and threw my entire body weight against the heavy dresser blocking the door.
The lock clicked open.
Liam pushed from the outside.
The door cracked open a few inches, but the dresser held it back.
He shoved harder, the wood groaning against the weight of the furniture.
“You cannot keep me out forever,” he grunted.
I turned to Chloe in the dark.
“Open the window,” I hissed.
“We have to climb out onto the porch roof.”
Chloe rushed to the window and fumbled with the latch in the dark.
Liam shoved the door again, and the dresser slid two inches across the hardwood floor.
He was stronger than me.
He managed to squeeze his arm through the gap in the door.
His hand blindly reached around, trying to grab the edge of the dresser to pull it away.
I raised the heavy metal flashlight high above my head.
I brought it down as hard as I could right onto his wrist.
Liam let out a sharp cry of pain and yanked his arm back into the hallway.
I shoved the dresser back into place.
“The window is stuck!” Chloe cried out in panic.
I ran over and pulled at the window frame, but it would not budge.
It was painted shut from the outside.
We were completely trapped on the second floor.
Then, my laptop screen suddenly illuminated on my desk, running on battery power.
It was connected to the local network Liam had set up for his cameras.
A live video feed popped up on the screen.
It showed the hallway right outside my bedroom.
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But Liam was no longer standing at my door.
He was walking down the hallway carrying a heavy steel hammer.
