Joe (a horror story)

"Daddy! Daddy! Daddy!" My 6-year-old daughter shrieked from her bedroom, her screams penetrating my subconscious. I leaped from my bed, my eyes wide, darting from one side to the other. I was disoriented. I didn't know if it were real or a figment of my imagination. "Aargh!!!" The shriek came again, but it wasn't 'daddy' this time. It was a gut-wrenching scream from a voice that sounded like my daughter's. “Anna!" I said in realization. I shuffled to my feet and was about to make a mad dash for the door, but I tripped and fell, banging my head on the bedside table. “Ouch!” I yelled, cursing at my bed cover that had entangled my legs, causing the fall. I didn’t dwell on that for long, neither did I pay attention to the pounding on my head which was from hitting it on the table. Fleeing my legs, I ran off, flying through the door and through the short hallway leading to my daughter’s room at its end, hitting and banging into object and walls on my way. My heart was already pounding dangerously against my ribcage, threatening to explode as I flung the door to Anna’s bedroom open.