Through The Peephole

By: Edward Turner
September 11, 2008

The knock on the door didn’t really surprise me. The sound of the door rattling didn’t set me off edge. What got me was the voice, on my way to the door I asked, “who’s there?”

What came back was a guttural nasty voice saying, “open the door.”

Stopping in my tracks I stood there like a deer caught in the headlights of a huge Semi. Instantly sweat started beading on my forehead. With a shaky voice I asked, “um, who is it?”

Even louder and more terrifying came the reply, “open the door, now.”

Stepping back I wasn’t sure what to do. Sweat was dripping into my eyes by then. I felt like I was hallucinating. Trembling, I got up the courage to walk to the door slowly and inch my way to the peephole. Jumping back at what I saw I almost fell over the couch getting away from the door. Yelling a curse, the door began shaking as whatever it was behind it started banging.

“I said to open the door.” Almost in tears I stood there in the middle of the room, imagining the thing on the other side with that large wide mouth saying those words. The eyes had been so large as though they shouldn’t fit. They were off to the side of it’s head. The mouth was so huge, the mouth is what haunted my thoughts. It was so wide, it had looked almost human, but the mouth spread ear to ear. Fangs stuck out from the bottom of the mouth. The color of the monster was off too, such a horrid grey color. He seemed out of some nightmare, he didn’t seem real, but his image was burned into my mind.

Shaking slightly with tears coming to my eyes I managed to muster, “what do you want?” I hoped that this would end up being some kind of joke.

The voice rose up, seeming to shake the walls in its power. “I want to kill you.”

I started shaking violently, grabbing the phone. The phone was dead, no dial tone at all. Picking up my cell I dialed 911, but it wouldn’t connect. Damn cell phone, never works when you need it. I stood there in my living room, more terrified than at any other point in my life. The fear raced through me and caused me to wonder if there was any chance of ever getting out of this.

The thing outside was getting impatient, “open the door now!”

In tears I heard and felt the door shake as the creature banged on it from outside. Desperate, I finally called out to the creature, “please stop, I will open the door for you.”

Looking through the peephole I saw the creature step back, what I saw could have been confusion in him. So I ran faster than I have ever ran, out the back door, down the street. I ended up at my sister’s house a few blocks away. I tried to tell her what happened, but she didn’t seem to believe me.

I stayed though, sitting there at her kitchen table when finally she screamed from the other room, “Look at this, hurry!” I ran in, on the TV I saw a view from the air as an emergency crew took body bags from a scene, I could see that it was my street. I could see that it was happening just a few doors down from where I live.

The reporter said, “seven houses have been discovered now where everyone inside has been murdered. There have been reports of an extremely odd looking man walking through the neighborhood. Police want anyone who has any information to call please.”

“Maybe you need to call them.” My sister looked so serious, but as I picked up the phone I heard a banging on the door.

Yelling a terrible yell, the creature spoke “I have found you.”