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second night in a row.
     
     
     
    Chapter Five
     
     
    “ Billy Ra-a-a-y-y-y....”
    “ Huh?” David awoke lying on his back.
    Miriam had already moved over to her side of the bed. They made love for more than an hour before calling it a night…he remembered that much. But something had changed in the room since then. The bedroom door stood ajar, and the glow from a light source carved a narrow sliver up to their bed.
    “ Damn it, Ty!” he hissed, thinking his son had left the hall light on after visiting the bathroom, or getting a drink from the kitchen downstairs.
    His wife stirred briefly in her sleep and rolled away from the light. The digital clock on her nightstand read 12:33 a.m. He rubbed his eyes and looked again, irritated at being awakened at half past midnight for the second consecutive night . Tomorrow’s really going to suck!
    “ Come he-e-r-r-r-e-e-e!”
    “ Who said that?”
    He got out of bed and pulled on his pants. The words whispered, the voice sounded like it belonged to a young woman standing in the hallway just outside the bedroom.
    He crept over to the doorway, remembering the door had been locked. He tried to recall if Miriam unlocked it after they made love, which she often did in case the kids needed her during the night. But she almost never left the door open, since she struggled to fall asleep. He peered into the hallway. No sign of anyone on the landing, although he now noticed another light, this one above the stairway.
    What in the hell? …I turned off everything up here earlier. I’m certain of it.
    Pushing aside the bedroom door to where he could slip through, he stepped into the hallway and closed the door behind him. He checked each room on the second floor, starting with Jillian’s bedroom. She slept soundly in her bed. Sadie, curled up at her feet, lifted her head when he opened the bedroom door and then rested it on Jillian’s shin as he shut it again.
    Christopher snored from exhaustion in his bed, and when he checked on Tyler in his bedroom he noticed the cardboard triangle on his window under the hall light’s illumination. The camouflage of the orange-eyed black spider gracing the patch made the cracked panes look like a believable Halloween spider-web creation. He’d yet to learn of the window’s damage since neither Tyler nor Janice told him about the football incident.
    Satisfied his oldest son lay asleep, he closed his door and moved back over to the guestroom and bathroom. Both empty. Bewildered, he stroked his beard while moving back to his bedroom. Then he heard the girl’s voice again.
    “ I’m not up th-e-e-r-r-e…. I’m down he-e-e-r-r-e!”
    A sudden chill ripped across his spine. The voice sounded hollow, as if the words were spoken from someplace far away...and yet, impossibly, like it also resounded from beneath the landing, perhaps inside the dining room on the main floor. His first instinct was to grab the handgun he kept stashed in his nightstand, but then his machismo took over. He ran downstairs.
    The entire main level immersed in darkness, the kitchen and living room nightlights he turned on earlier were off. But the security system was still armed. David turned on the dining room chandelier and the living room’s overhead light.
    “ Are ya afraid, Billy Ray-y-y?”
    Billy Ray? Who in the hell is that??
    “ Who’s in here!” he called out gruffly.
    Accept for an icy breeze embracing his face and torso, there was no other response. Just unnerving silence, as if the house itself held its breath in anticipation of what would come next. He walked into the kitchen from the living room, flipping on a row of fluorescent lights. Again, empty. No one in the laundry room either. Ditto for the den.
    “ Come out and show yourself, damn it!”
    He grabbed one of the larger knives from the wooden cutlery block next to the stove, and wielded it menacingly. After circling back through the main floor he explored the garage. Still nothing. Worried,