The rusted tattered gate blew in the wind. Tired of listening to the clank of metal, Tyler walked outside to shut the gate. CREAK, hmmm, CREAK, hmmm. Click. The gate latched, but Tyler heard more. He looked out into the musty darkness. Everything seemed normal. Tyler turned around and walked up the dusty path back into the house. The door clicked behind him and he sat back down in the royal armchair to watch television. As he watched the vivid show, his eyes became more and more heavy. Soon, Tyler was drifting in and out of a colorful world of candy and sugar.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Later that night, Tyler woke up to the sound of static. He took a moment to recall where he was and what time of night it was. But didn’t he leave that television on a channel? What happened? Tyler heaved himself out of the chair and headed toward the television set. Sometimes the connection of the old set went bad and all he had to do was wiggle the tall antennas to make it roar back to life. He fiddled around with the cables and antennas until deducting that he must go out into the stormy night.
Heading out the door, Tyler heard the creak of the gate and the rattle of the fence. CREAK, hmmm. CREAK, hmmm. Didn’t Tyler close that fence? He went to shut the latch again. Click. He shook the fence violently to make sure that the gusting wind wouldn’t blow it open. Next, he headed around the rackety house to find the outdoors television cable. He felt around the sky and ground to locate the cable, not sure where the wind had blown it this time. Suddenly, he fell into the darkness with something wrapped around his ankle. That must be the cable, he thought. He started feeling around the wire until he found the base towards the wooden house. He fiddled with it until he heard the static stop and the voices flow out of the TV.
Tyler started off toward the house. Once again Tyler felt like someone was watching him and swore that he could hear another sound in the darkness. Rather than turning around, he just headed straight into the house. When he got in, he locked the big deadbolt with a click.
Tyler turned and saw the large mudpiles on the floor. The footprints were surrounding them. Curious, Tyler followed. He headed forward, creeping along like a ninja. Just when he thought he was safe, he looked up and felt the axe fall down on his head as the blood began spurting out. Then everything went blurry.