Illusion Of Safety

The portrait of the killer was out, the police finally had a lead and it seemed as though the monster hiding in Oliver wouldn't be able to act with impunity any longer.

The three girls were now staying at Narissa's house as they had intended to, being inside of a house was always reassuring, the walls provided comfort and security, as though they were watching over them, even though it had proven to not be quite enough.

This was why Narissa's father had installed extra measures, such as shutters, which were very nice addition whether there was a maniac on the loose or not, now Marina wondered why they weren't standard on every single house, the fact that they just let windows as it was, putting curtains in certain rooms.

This was something that had always bothered the blonde, the house had a small lawn in the back, to get from the house to the lawn or vice versa, one would need to step on a wooden deck, since the house was overelevated by a bit and rather than just stairs, someone had thought it to be a good idea to put a whole deck instead.

In any case, Marina was thinking about it because she knew from experience that this deck was very noisy, to the point that she expected it to collapse anytime she stepped on it, the thing creaked and wailed like crazy, even small animals would make sound when going onto it.

After talking about everything and nothing past midnight, the three girls quickly slept like logs, Marina stayed awake some time longer and looked over at her two friends, Narissa was sleeping on her bed, she seemed to be comfortable in spite of her unusual position.

She still looked like a kid like this, wearing a dumb smile and making small noises here and there, as Marina had grown used to from their numerous sleepovers since childhood.

Sleeping to her left, on the ground and tucked in a futon much like the blonde, Gabrielle also had a very distinctive way of slumbering, much like when she was awake, she look somewhat subdued, all curled up as if trying to take as little space as humanly possible.

She stayed completely still and silent, it was pretty funny to her how telling their way of sleeping of how they acted throughout the day, with a little smile, she closed her eyes and quickly fell asleep.

Marina was pretty easy to wake up, the smallest of sounds could pull her out of sleep completely, it was never easy, if possible, for her to go back to sleep when waking up.

The fact that she was immediately wide awake, helped her discern things more clearly and not lazily chalks something strange as nonsense so as to fall back asleep without worry.

Something was knocking on the front door, she rose up from the floor and noticed that she was sweating quite profusely and breathing quite raggedly, as if she was in extreme fear.

Though she wasn't feeling afraid or even nervous at the moment, she listened for intently.

The knocking wasn't random, it definitely seemed like someone was knocking on the front door and not just some animal and anything else.

It had a regular pace, the knocks were perfectly audible but not aggressive, they almost seemed weak, as if the person knocking on the door had barely any strength left in their arm.

She didn't know how long it had gone on for but it didn't seem like it would stop any time soon, the person knocked for dozens of minutes without any pause, all that without even yelling or making another sound.

Now, Marina was unnerved, it was the middle of the night at least and she was fairly certain tonight was a moonless night, it was pitch black outside, she couldn't see any reason for someone to be outside in the first place and even less for one to go relentlessly knocking at someone's door.

She wasn't certain what to do, in her mind, amidst all of the possibilities, the only one that appeared in her mind was that the serial killer had come to silence the witnesses, although silencing people who have already told everything they knew seemed silly.

He might just be here for revenge or just because he had seen Marina and decided that she would be the next, but why not attack her on the spot then? This guy was said to be capable of crushing bones and flesh easily, a few college girls wouldn't be too difficult to deal with.

Marina didn't have to think any longer as the knocking had awoken someone else, not any of the other two girls, who were apparently deaf to everything at the moment, Narissa even began snoring.

Narissa's father was a bit on edge ever since the attacks had began, he was the father of a young girl after all and his didn't seem to care much about an homicidal maniac with a preference for women, her father was thus twice as worried about her comapared to other parents and this wasn't even considering the fact that he was alone to look after her.

Marina couldn't see what was happening but she certainly heard him yell at the person behind the door whilst racking a shotgun, at least that's what it sounded like to Marina who had only ever heard that sound in movies.

The night knocker stopped and whether or not he moved away was unknown as the front of the house didn't have anything that could make footsteps be audible enough for her to hear.

She laid back down, anyone would go after being threatened to be shot, with a shotgun no less, anyone that was in their right mind at least, and probably most insane people as well, it took a certain lack of self-preservation to ignore this.

And yet, Marina soon heard the creaking of the deck was someone stepped on it with slow steps, she immediately associated this to the slow walk of the man in grey and rapidly, something mettalic seemed to break alongside some wood.

And then, the breaking of glass followed suit.