Something In The Dark by Lori McDonald
Here is another great short story, this time by Lori McDonald
Something In The Dark
By Lori McDonald
It was a dark and chilly night as Tara Jackson prepared to start her delivery shift. She stepped into the alley of Pizza Shack and hurried towards her car with an armload of pizzas. She’d just opened the car door and placed the warm boxes on the passenger seat when a man stepped out of the shadows and plunged a knife into her chest several times. He then picked her up and dropped her into the dumpster, then sped out of the parking lot in her car.
On the other side of town, Sara Blake’s husband, Kyle, turned his key to lock their front door with Sara safely inside. Kyle was heading out on a hunting trip for the weekend, leaving Sara and their golden retriever, Goldie, in charge of the house until Sunday.
It was Friday the 13th so per tradition, Sara prepared to celebrate as she always did by watching the movie by the same name. She was someone who enjoyed a good scare. Sara had ordered a pizza and she’d already purchased a half dozen sugar cookies decorated like Jason Voorhees. The bakery had thrown in one knife cookie trimmed in red as an extra.
Goldie pawed at the back door, so Sara let her out into their fenced-in backyard, then filled the dog bowl in the kitchen so it would be ready when Goldie came in. Sara turned on the TV to find where "Friday the 13th" was streaming then settled on the couch and started the movie.
About 10 minutes into the film there was a knock on the door. Sara pressed pause on the remote control and opened the door to find a ruggedly handsome young man holding a pizza. He was tall, blonde and wearing a red flannel shirt, not the typical Pizza Shack uniform but she saw the delivery car.
"Are you Sara Blake?" he asked.
"Yes, that's me and I'll bet that's my pizza," she said breezily.
"I have a ham, mushroom and pineapple pizza,” he said with a crooked smile that made Sara blush. “That comes to $14.95."
As he handed her the pizza box, she noticed he had some scratches and a little blood on his right forearm.
"Oh my, do you need a Band-Aid?" she asked him, frowning.
"No, I'm fine thank you, I have some hand wipes in the car," he replied, looking down at his arm. "The pizza delivery business can be dangerous."
“Apparently so,” Sara replied. "Step inside a minute and I'll get your money."
The man walked across the threshold, closing the front door behind him.
"Looks like it's movie night," he said, glancing at the television.
"Yes, today is Friday the 13th and it's my tradition to watch that movie today,” Sara answered, her back still turned as she pulled a $20 bill from her purse on the couch.
"That's one of my favorites,” he said. “Do you think Camp Crystal Lake is a real place?”
“If it is a real place, I want to stay far away,” she laughed. Then she turned around and grabbed the knife cookie out of a box on the coffee table.
"Here you go and keep the change," she said, handing him the money. "Here's a cookie, too, since you like the movie.”
"That’s really nice of you, Sara,” he said, taking a step closer. “Are you watching alone tonight?"
He had dark brown eyes that held Sara’s gaze a little too long. She got an uneasy feeling when she noticed he had closed the door behind him. Just then, Goldie started scratching at the back door.
"Nope, I'm watching with a friend," she told him as she hurried into the kitchen to let Goldie in, then held her back by the collar. The dog saw the man in the living and began barking, trying to pull away from Sara.
“She’s a little excited,” Sara called to the delivery man, trying to keep her voice even. “I'll let you see yourself out and you have a good night.”
He thanked her as he opened the front door and stepped outside. His hand on the doorknob, he turned to look at her and said, “I’ll enjoy this cookie…thank you, Sara,” then he closed the door.
Sara let go of Goldie’s collar and the dog raced to the front door, giving a couple of barks before she lost interest and walked to her food bowl in the kitchen. Sara turned off the back porch light and immediately ran over and locked the front door. The guy had seemed perfectly nice, but something felt a little bit off about him.
She settled back on the couch with a plate of pizza and turned off all the lights except for the reading lamp next to her. Sara started the movie again as Goldie jumped up next to her and drooled until she gave in and handed the dog some pizza crust.
It was the scene where Kevin Bacon’s character took an arrow to the chest when Goldie suddenly looked up, toward the dark kitchen. She then hopped down from the couch and took several steps in that direction, a low growl in her throat.
“What’s the matter girl?” Sara asked, as Goldie took another step closer to the back door.
Sara’s heart pounded as Goldie kept barking, because that was unusual for her. From the living room couch, all she could see was darkness through the back window, then she couldn’t recall if that door was locked. Sara didn’t scare easily, but knowing Goldie was on high alert caused panic to build in her chest.
“Of all times to have my phone charging in the bedroom,” she thought to herself. “I didn’t close the blinds on the back door, either.”
Sara knew if someone was on the back porch, he or she might be able to see her and as Goldie continued to bark, Sara felt cold sweat forming on her forehead. As if on cue, her phone rang out from the bedroom with the “Halloween” movie ringtone shrilling through the darkness, which made matters worse.
Sara needed to answer the phone, but it wasn’t until the third ring that she forced herself up off the couch and sprinted down the hall to answer it.
“Hello?” she said in a high-pitched voice, as she grabbed her phone off of the charger and stepped back into the hallway, but just out of view from the back door.
“Sara, why are you out of breath?” her husband, Kyle, asked her.
“Just a minute,” she told him as she inched her way into the kitchen, close to the floor. There was enough light coming from the living room lamp that she could see the back door was unlocked. She reached her arm around the corner and turned the snib on the doorknob, leaving the rest of her body hidden behind the cabinet.
“Sara? Hello?” Kyle said loudly on the phone.
“Sorry,” she said to him. “Goldie heard something out back so I was checking the locks.”
“Well, did you hear or see anyone?” he asked.
“I’m afraid to look,” she answered. “I don’t hear anything though.”
“Look out the back door while I’m on the phone,” he insisted.
Sara picked up a kitchen knife, took a deep breath and flipped on the back porch light. She peeked out the door glass and saw… nothing. No boogeyman outside and no monster.
“Nothing’s there,” she said, feeling better.
“The neighbor’s cat was probably out there again,” Kyle said. “Oh, and have I ever told you that you watch too many scary movies?”
Goldie had stopped barking and was now lapping up a drink of water from her bowl. Sara pulled the blinds closed as she chatted with Kyle, feeling safe once again. Yes, she was sure it was the cat from next door and was feeling pretty silly for being afraid. It was getting late so she decided to finish watching “Friday the 13th” on Saturday morning.
She put the leftover pizza in the fridge and the Jason Voorhees cookies back on the kitchen table. She then led Goldie into the bedroom with her to turn on some cartoons to fall asleep by.
As Sara started to drift off, she jolted upright when there was a knock at the front door. She grabbed her cell phone from the nightstand and saw it was 10:35 p.m. Goldie had been asleep at the foot of the bed and was also awakened by the knock. The dog darted into the living room barking. Sara was breathing heavy as she picked up the baseball bat from the corner of the bedroom and tiptoed into the hallway. That’s when she saw red and blue lights flashing outside.
“Who’s there?” she called out, her voice trembling.
“Mrs. Blake, it’s Police Chief Wells, can you open the door,” he asked.
Sara knew Chief Wells from the FOP fundraiser she and Kyle went to annually, so she quieted Goldie and slowly opened the door.
“I’m sorry to bother you this late,” Wells said. “This might be a strange question, but was a pizza delivered to you tonight from Pizza Shack?”
“Yes,” she answered slowly. “Why do you ask?”
“Was the person who brought it a man with blond hair and a red shirt?” he asked, as Sara nodded.
“Thank goodness you’re okay,” Wells said, breathing out a sigh of relief. “A man by that description murdered several people tonight.”
Sara’s face went pale and she thought she might faint as Chief Wells explained to her that a man named Jarod Vaughn had posed as a Pizza Shack employee and went on a killing spree.
He went on to tell her how three of those customers were stabbed to death but one of them held on long enough to call the police station and told the dispatcher he was stabbed by a Pizza Shack driver. Soon after, a co-worker found Jackson’s body in the dumpster.
“We then watched the security footage at Pizza Shack and saw he’d taken the delivery car so we asked for the list of names and addresses on Tara’s delivery route,” he explained. “Officers were dispatched to those addresses only to discover all of them had been stabbed to death and Mrs. Blake, your name was on the list.”
Sara felt her knees give out underneath her as Chief Wells led her over to the couch. He told her how they had arrested Vaughn on foot, just two blocks from her house as officers were on their way to check on her.
“The delivery car was spotted in a church parking lot down the street and officers spotted Vaughn walking along the side of the road,” Wells said. “We were afraid of what we’d find when we got here.”
He told her she was very lucky to be alive, but was puzzled after Sara told him Vaughn had been inside her house, but didn’t try to harm her. She described him as being friendly, but was a little bit creepy, too.
“Why did he kill the others, but not you?” Wells asked, shaking his head.
“I don’t know except for I was nice to him and gave him a tip and even a cookie before he left,” she replied. “But would that be enough to spare my life?”
“We won’t know that until we question Vaughn at the station,” he told her. “I’ll let you get some sleep now, if that’s even possible after everything that’s happened tonight.”
Sara walked Chief Wells to the door and locked it behind him after he left. She was immensely relieved but felt sick to her stomach at the realization of what could’ve happened to her tonight. Exhausted and still a little shaky, Sara made her way back to the bedroom, but some things couldn’t wait as Goldie needed to go out. Sara flipped on the back porch light and opened the door for her and as she stood there waiting, she noticed something on the patio table.
Sara stepped outside to see what it was and then realized that Goldie had indeed sensed a presence on the back porch earlier and it was not the neighbor’s cat. Vaughn had come back to her house because on the patio table were red crumbs from the cookie she’d given to him and next to the crumbs was a note that read, “Sara, you’re my kind of girl. Friday the 13th must be your lucky day… J.V.”
Bio:
Lori McDonald is a freelance writer, wife, mother and Indianapolis Indians fan. She lives in southern Indiana and is a graduate of IUPUC with a bachelor's degree in communication studies. McDonald was a newspaper reporter for about seven years and has had several articles published in Brio and Girls' Life magazines. Her short story, Purple Head Bridge, appeared in the premiere issue of London Fog and her essay, The Blair Writing Project, was included in the book, Crumbs in the Keyboard: Women Juggling Life and Writing. Also, McDonald has a short story entitled Bedtime Stories in the book, Pleasure of the Heart and Other Stories.
She is a two-time recipient of the Midwest Writers Workshop scholarship award, has attended Taylor University's Professional Writers' Conference and is a member of The Magic of Books Creative Writing Group. McDonald serves as secretary for Friends of the Library (Jackson County) and is a board member of the American Baptist Women's Ministries at First Baptist Church of Seymour.
McDonald is a member of the Horror Book Club at The Magic of Books Bookstore and is currently working on her first novel. She is looking forward to Oktoberfest, Halloween and everything pumpkin spice.
