MicroHorror

Jessica slammed the door shut behind her as she stumbled into the cottage and fell to the floor. Concerned, her husband rushed to her side.

“It’s raining,” Jessica said, gasping for breath.

“That’s impossible; the warning sirens haven’t sounded,” Bob replied.

“The rain came out of nowhere, totally unexpected. The Shriekers swarmed out of the reservoir and attacked the warning station before they could sound the alarm. I ran all the way home to warn you that Shriekers are everywhere. It’s a feeding frenzy. Too many people were caught out in the rain unprepared.”

“Where’s Allison?” Bob asked, suddenly growing very frightened.

“Oh my God, you mean she isn’t here with you?” Jessica wailed.

“Calm down. She’s thirteen years old; she knows enough to come in out of the rain,” Bob said, hoping that was true.

A sudden, deafening burst of thunder rattled the windows, sending shivers down their spines. They sat huddled together on the floor for over an hour, unable to move.

“Did you hear that?” Bob asked.

Jessica concentrated and heard the faint scratching emanating from outside the door and nodded
to her husband.

“Did you lock the front door?” Bob whispered.

“I’m not sure,” Jessica answered, her voice strained.

The scratching continued, steadily growing louder. Bob summoned all of his courage and slowly crawled across the floor towards the door and whatever was lurking on the other side. He nervously watched the doorknob slowly turn as his shaking hand reached up to engage the lock. The doorknob caught against the lock and rattled back and forth violently for several minutes, then abruptly stopped.

“Let me in,” their daughter said, in an emotionless voice. “Mommy, please let me in. There are monsters out here.”

Relieved, Jessica stood and reached for the doorknob but Bob quickly grabbed her arm. “She’s been in the rain too long. She’s one of them now,” he said.

“She’s our daughter; I have to know for sure.”

Jessica pulled her arm free from her husband’s grasp and threw open the door. Allison sat curled up in a ball on the small porch, wet clothes matted to her trembling body. She looked up and smiled revealing broken, jagged, bloodstained teeth, as her dead, hate-filled eyes locked onto her mother’s. Startled, Jessica took a few steps back. Allison took advantage of her mother’s hesitation and launched herself into the house, unleashing a series of hellish shrieks that were soon drowned out by her parents’ screams.