Cast Out - Part 13

Pam awoke to the sound of moans outside of her apartment, She looked at the clock – 4:30AM.


“Who could it be at this hour?” she thought.

She slid out of bed and put on her robe, quick and quiet, and went down the hallway. She peeked into each of the kids rooms, and then went toward the front door.

She grabbed the baseball next to the door, and with both hands on it, placed it on her shoulder. She took her opposite shoulder and looked out the peephole.

The lights in the foyer were always too bright, but tonight she didn’t mind them so much.

In a moment her eyes adjusted to see a couple of people moving around outside of her neighbors door across the foyer.

Pam saw her neighbors door open and the people outside went into his apartment. She heard some muffled voices and then silence. “Maybe they were his friends?”, she thought. “I may have to say something to him about his friends waking me up.” She turned away from the door, put the baseball bat down, and began to tiptoe back to bed.

The sound of a hand striking the door startled her. She stopped. Then came the sound of the hand hitting the door again, this time harder. “What could they want?” she thought to herself.

She didn’t move. She didn’t turn around. She breathed through her mouth, not making a sound. In her mind, she prayed. She decided to not answer the door.

The hand hit the door again. And again.

And then it stopped.

“Whoever it was must have found something more interesting than my door”, she thought. She soon heard a voice and then..nothing.

Still not moving or turning around, she stood there until she could not hear the sounds of shuffling of feet and the sound of moans any longer.

Every few minutes she heard muffled screams from elsewhere outside her apartment. She stood there, praying, and praying hard.

After what seemed like an hour, she turned around and ever so gently moved toward her door. She again looked out her peephole, but saw no one and nothing else, but a stain on the wall across the foyer. She shuddered. Tears started to come down her cheek, as she realized that the stain was blood.

It was daybreak before she moved away from the door.

She tiptoed into the kitchen and turned on the little TV they had there, not turning on any other lights. She leaned against the counter and watched the news, not believing what she was hearing.

She was glad that she had not opened the door.

After watching the news for awhile, she decided that the best course of action was going to be staying put for awhile. She had to quietly get the kids up and let them know not to make any noise. Keeping quiet was going to be their plan, until a better one came up, or they ran out of food, whichever came first.