Open the Door to Nightmares

Ava sat at the kitchen table, her math book and graphing calculator by her side. She was wearing headphones, but they weren't working right so she could hear her mother vacuuming in another room. She hated when her mother did that, and tried not to be home when her mother did the weekly cleaning, but sometimes it couldn't be helped. She liked doing her school work in the kitchen. She could shut off the overhead light, and just use the natural lighting through the windows to see by. It was so much easier on her eyes and didn't give her a headache like the lights in the other rooms did. Her parents were understanding of her dislike for certain lights and kept saying they would change the bulbs to something better, but they never did.

She hummed softly to herself, flapping her hands once in a while. She couldn't help but feel anxious, like something was really wrong. She often felt like that, especially when she was around a lot of people, but luckily she was homeschooled and didn't

often have to meet with people she didn't know. She took a deep breath, like she so often did, and bent over her homework once again. Ava worked for another hour or so.

She was interrupted only once by her little brother, Georgie, who told her mom had ordered pizza for dinner and to get the door when the delivery guy showed up. Ava knew where the pizza money was kept in the jar in the kitchen, but she sighed to herself anyway. She hated having to make small talk. She hoped it was their regular delivery guy, who knew she didn't like making conversation.

She paused for a minute. She thought she heard someone groaning outside, but she couldn't really tell over the sound of her music. She stood but didn't go near the door. When she didn't hear anything else, she went back to work.

All of a sudden, she heard something splattering into the door. It sounded like something big and wet. She heard strange noises again. Ava took off her headphones, stood up, and she could tell someone was outside.