Eric Kaplan, Core 3 - Lit. Device Short Story

Short Story

It was a really dark and stormy night in the middle of the spring. It was 5:12 pm and I was watching baseball. My game that day had been cancelled but the White Sox were in New York so they were playing. They were winning 9-2 in the ninth inning so they were going to win. It had been a really bad day that day, I had slept through my alarm and I had a headache. I had to get out of bed and go see the orthodontist because my braces were broken and I was in pain. I went and they fixed me up and now here I am. I heard my garage door open. It must be my dad.

“Hello people,” my Dad yelled through the house.

“What is up my dude” I say back

“Nothing much, but I am starving!” he yelled back.

“So am I but we might not be able to get that much food tonight because of the rain,” I say back to him

He yells louder, “Yeah it’s raining cats and dogs out there.”

I have to start yelling louder because the rain keeps getting harder. It was really coming down out there. It felt like I was under a speaker playing loud drums it was raining so hard out there. Now my Dad and I were both sitting in the family room. We were the only ones at our house tonight because my sister and mom were on vacation. We were the only ones. It was 5:47 now and we had a situation. We had no idea what we could eat for dinner. We wanted to order a pizza but it seemed like it would be dangerous for the delivery man to come out in such bad weather.

My Dad asked, “What do you want to do for dinner?”

“I don’t know I’m not very good at making anything besides sandwiches,” I respond

“Well let's make some sandwiches,” He said.

So we settled for making sandwiches. We had made our sandwiches and were about to eat them but then something happened, the power went out. A bad day had turned worse and we already were pretty mad about the weather. We grabbed some flashlights and some lamps. Before we could even turn on the flashlights though the power turned back on. It seemed odd but what did we care we just wanted to watch some TV.

“That seemed a little weird that is was only off for like 10 minutes,” I said.

He tells me “Who cares let’s watch some TV while the power is still on!”

“I suppose you are right but it just seems a little strange is all I’m saying,” I tell him

“Yeah whatever, you want to think you can but, just be happy,” He exclaims.

“Ok lets watch some TV,” I said excitedly.

We turned on the TV and a message came onto the screen. It said “Don’t leave this house.”  Who would want me to stay in this house? A robber? A kidnapper? I don’t know what this could mean but I was confused.

I asked him “Dad did you see that message on the TV?”

“No, you must be hallucinating or something,” he said.

“No I swear I saw something,” I exclaimed!

“What did the message tell you? Was it something mean or rude?” He asked.

“It said “You can’t leave this house”, kind of strange,” I told.

He asked, “Who is this and why could he possibly need us to not leave our house?”

“I don’t know but we should figure that out,” I said.

“Ok open the front door and look outside, then go and do the same at the back door,” He told me.

“Ok”

It was 8:00 pm now we had been confused for a while.I got up and went to the front door. I opened it and looked around. I could only hear the chirps of the crickets and the pouring rain. Nothing. I closed the front door and went to check the back door. I went and unlocked it. I opened it and looked around. Nothing. I started to get suspicious so I went to get a flashlight. It was dark outside and it was raining. I put on my shoes. I went to the back door and turned on the flashlight. I walked outside and was instantly drenched by water. I walked around as tension began to build up in my heart. It started pounding. I was getting really scared. It has been about 10 minutes and I haven’t found anything. I searched the whole frontyard and backyard and couldn’t find anything. I went back inside and sat down.

“Why would you go outside?” my dad asked.

“I wanted to investigate because I saw something on the screen,” I told him.

“Ok, well don’t do that again. Did you find anything?” He asked.

I said, “I looked everywhere bu-”

We heard the doorbell ring. We sat still until it was done ringing. We looked at each other with fear. It rang again. I got up to go answer it. I walked over to the door and looked through the window on the door. There was nothing there. I was really confused. I looked back out and there was a figure standing there. He was tall. He was probably six feet tall. He was wearing a ski mask so you couldn’t see his face. He was holding something in his right hand. He was looking me straight in the eyes.

“There is someone there,” I tell my dad.

“What should we do?” He asked.

“Call the police, There is a random guy with maybe a knife in his hand standing at our front door,” I shout.

“Ok tell me if he leaves,” He says.

“Ok quick, he is starting to creep me out,” I say.

I stare at him. My heart was pounding. I didn’t want to die tonight. I stare at him straight in the eyes. I don’t take my eyes off of him. In the background I hear my dad calling 911. I am hoping the hurry. He moves. I can now see what is in his hand. It is a knife. I got that right. He moves closer to the door. I can see his eyes now. They were blue. I hear police sirens. He started walking toward the door. The sirens get louder. The police are getting closer. He is at the door now. He is pounding at the door. I see the police cars pulling in the driveway. He broke the door down. My dad and I start running. We ran to the kitchen. We got cornered by him. The police were right behind us and almost there.

“Do you know why I am here? I am here because I need some money,” The man said.

“Please leave us alone! What did we ever do to you? Go away,” I said.

“Why should I do that? So I can get out of here with nothing but going into jail? Is that what you want? That's not what I want,” He screams.

I hear footsteps. The police were right behind the guy but he had no idea. I could see his knife more clearly now. It had blood on it. He tried to get closer to us, but before he could take a step, BANG! He fell. There was a hole in his back. The police had just shot him. We didn’t die but he did. The police helped us up. They took his wallet out his pocket. “John Smith” That was his name. I had heard that name before. John Smith? John Smith? John Smith? John Smith? Aha, John Smith! I heard that name on the news. He had just escaped from a maximum security prison and was on the run. He had been convicted of the murders of 17 people and was on the death sentence.

“There's your death sentence,” I said out loud.

I thought that one was a good quote for the news or something. I got some compliments from the police on that one. Well there he was. The murderer of 17 people, dead on our kitchen floor. I felt like I just went through life in one night. That was pretty intense. Well now he’s dead and we have nothing to worry about. It was now 9:37 and the police had left with the body and have cleaned everything up. The rain also had stopped during all of that. We went to go watch TV. We turned it on and there was no message. We were relieved and felt great. What a crazy night that was.