Chapter 1 - The Thing in the HallwayThe voice beside the boy’s ear was so close that he felt something cold brush against his skin.
“No, sweetie…”
Elliot stopped breathing.
His tiny red toy car slipped from his hand and rolled slowly across the rug.
Click.
Click.
Click.
It finally disappeared beneath the old sofa.
Elliot stared straight ahead.
He wanted to scream.
He wanted to run.
But something inside him whispered that movement would make the thing behind him angry.
The room had become impossibly cold. His fingers trembled against the rug as he slowly turned his head.
Nothing.
The pale face was gone.
Only the dark hallway remained.
Elliot blinked.
“Mom?”
Silence.
Then came a sound from the hallway.
Tap.
Tap.
Tap.
Three slow knocks against the wooden wall.
Elliot swallowed.
His mother had told him never to go into the hallway when the lights were off. She had never explained why.
He had always assumed it was because she wanted him to be careful.
Now he understood.
There was something in the dark.
The thing moved again.
A long shadow stretched across the wall.
It had fingers.
Too many fingers.
Elliot scrambled backward until his shoulders hit the sofa.
“Mommy?”
A woman's voice floated from upstairs.
“Elliot?”
His eyes widened.
“Mom!”
He jumped to his feet.
The voice sounded exactly like her.
Exactly.
Then the creature whispered from behind him.
“Don't.”
Elliot froze.
His mother called again.
“Elliot, baby, come upstairs.”
He looked toward the staircase.
“Mom?”
“Yes.”
The whisper beside him came again.
“That's not your mother.”
Elliot's face drained of color.
He slowly turned.
The pale face was inches from his.
Black eyes.
White skin.
A smile stretched impossibly wide across its face.
But this time, Elliot noticed something else.
The creature's eyes weren't looking at him.
They were looking toward the staircase.
Something was standing there.
Something else.
A woman.
She had long blonde hair.
She was wearing the same blue sweater his mother had worn that morning.
Elliot gasped.
“Mom!”
The woman smiled.
But her smile was wrong.
Too still.
Too wide.
The creature beside Elliot suddenly lunged.
Elliot screamed.
The lights exploded.
The room went completely black.
Then he heard his mother's voice scream from upstairs.
“ELLIOT, RUN!”
The boy ran.
He sprinted toward the staircase without knowing what he was running from.
Behind him came footsteps.
Not one set.
Two.
Something chased him from the living room.
Something followed from upstairs.
Elliot reached the bottom step.
He looked up.
His mother stood at the top of the staircase.
Blood ran down one side of her face.
“Baby,” she whispered. “Come to me.”
Elliot took one step.
Then another voice came from behind him.
His mother's voice.
“Don't go to her.”
He turned.
The pale creature stood in the darkness.
And beside it stood another woman.
His mother.
The same face.
The same blue sweater.
The same terrified eyes.
Both women stared at him.
Both spoke at the same time.
“Elliot, I'm your mother.”
The boy began to cry.
Because one of them had something the other didn't.
A wedding ring.
And Elliot suddenly remembered his mother never wore a wedding ring.
The woman on the staircase looked down at her hand.
Her smile vanished.
Then every light in the house switched on at once.
The staircase was empty.
The creature was gone.
His mother was gone.
Elliot stood alone.
And from beneath the sofa came a tiny metallic sound.
Click.
His red toy car rolled back into the light.
A folded piece of paper was tied to it.
Elliot crawled forward and picked it up.
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The paper contained only four words.
DON'T LET MOM FIND ME.
