Bewitching Hour Part VI
Escaping through a window was her only chance. As quickly as possible she navigated past the blood without slipping and made it back around the corner. She sprinted down the hallway to the largest windows in the apartment, the floor-length ones that opened onto the Juliet balcony overlooking the courtyard.
She came to a skidding halt and reached down to pull on the brass foot bolt at the bottom of the window. It came unlocked with a loud clunk. Pausing for a moment, she strained her ears to listen for sounds of movement, wondering where her other friends’ bodies might be. Tears rolled gently down her face but she remained steady.
The apartment was silent. Relief flickered across her mind but just as she switched the deadbolt above the handle, she heard something. A low scuffling noise as if someone was dragging a limp leg came from the kitchen.
Panicked and her palm moist from sweat, she gripped the handle futilely several times. She wiped her hands on the front of her shirt and tried the door again. It opened stiffly as she quickly glanced toward the kitchen. There was no sight of Warren but she instantly felt eyes on her from the opposite direction. Reluctantly, with a deep breath, she turned her head slightly to peer toward her right.
Her two friends Miles and Dani staggered toward her from the bedroom. Their lifeless faces were blanketed in the blood that had poured from the now clotted gashes across their throats. Without hesitating she leaped onto the narrow balcony, clamored over the railing, and started climbing down the other side. It creaked under her weight in the brisk dawn air as she frantically looked around for something else to grab onto.
Suddenly, an icy hand grasped her white-knuckles that were clenched around the iron rail. She looked up into Dani’s once sweet, joyful face. Horrified, she tried to pry free but its nails dug into her skin. With a yelp, she let go.
The last thing she saw was the lightening sky and the eyes of her dead friends watching her fall onto the spikes of the garden fence below. The rusty metal pierced her three times in the back and twice in the thigh, holding her there for several hours until her neighbor went for a morning run.
If only they hadn’t played with the Ouija board last night.