Lunar Park - Bret Easton Ellis [127]
I listened closely. It was so dark in the room that we were forced to concentrate on the scratching sounds.
Suddenly the scratching subsided.
Robby’s grip on me loosened. I exhaled.
But the relief couldn’t be sustained because there was a cracking noise. It was pushing itself against the door.
I moved to the door. Robby was still holding on to me.
“Robby,” I whispered. “Do you have a flashlight in here? Anything?”
I felt Robby immediately let go of me and heard him move in the direction of his closet.
In the darkness of the room a green light saber appeared. It floated toward me and I took the toy from him. The glow was faint. I aimed the light saber at the door, illuminating it.
“Dad,” Robby whispered, his voice shaky. “What is it?”
“I don’t know.” (But even as I said this, I knew what it was.)
The scratching resumed.
I was asking myself: What is it scratching with?
And then I realized it wasn’t scratching. (I remembered something.)
It had never been scratching.
It was gnawing at the door. It was using its mouth. It was using its teeth.
And then the gnawing stopped.
Robby and I stared at the door, which was now bathed in green.
And we watched in horror as the doorknob began to twist back and forth.
In a sickening flash I understood that it was using its mouth to accomplish this.
I had to remind myself to breathe again when the doorknob rattled violently.
There was a snarling sound. It was the noise of frustration. It was the noise of hunger.
And then it stopped. We could hear the thing dragging itself away.
“What is it? What does it want? I don’t understand. How did it get in?” This was Robby.
“I don’t know what the hell it is,” I was saying absurdly.
“What is it, Dad?”
“I don’t know I don’t know I don’t—”
(Note: This was not technically true.)
Our moaning was cut off by the sound of Sarah screaming. “Mommy! Mommy! It’s getting me!”
I rushed through the bathroom and into Sarah’s room. In the instant before I grabbed her off the bed I waved the light saber over the scene.
Sarah was backed up against the headboard as the thing attempted to pull itself onto her bed. It had fastened its mouth over one of the bedposts and it was moving frantically and squealing.
“What’s happening?” Robby was screaming this from inside the bathroom.
I shouted out in disgust and grabbed Sarah off the bed. As I carried her toward the bathroom, the thing froze and then leapt onto the floor and I could hear it rushing toward us.
I slammed the bathroom door shut, and Robby locked it. I was still holding Sarah and the light saber. We were waiting while staring at the door.
Calmly, I asked: “Where’s your cell phone, Robby?”
“It’s in my room.” He gestured over his shoulder.
I was contemplating something. I would unlock the door that led into Robby’s room and find the phone and run back into the bathroom and call 911. This was the idea that formed inside my mind.
Victor continued his freakout in the backyard.
Then something slammed into the door to Sarah’s room with such force that it bulged inward.
Robby and Sarah screamed.
“It’s gonna be okay. Robby, unlock your door. We’re gonna get out through your room.”
“Daddy, I can’t.” He was weeping.
“It’s gonna be okay.”
The thing slammed into the door again.
The door cracked down the middle. When the thing hit it again, the door was falling off its hinges.
This moved Robby to immediately unlock his door and run out of the bathroom.
I followed, still holding Sarah and the light saber.
We ran through Robby’s room and Robby unlocked the door and without hesitating we started moving down the staircase. The moon was streaming through the window and now we could see more clearly.
Halfway down the staircase I could see the thing rushing across the landing above us.
It began to chase us down the stairs. I could hear its mouth opening and closing, making wet snapping sounds.
Sarah turned her head and shrieked when she saw it lurching toward us.
My office seemed closest. The door was open. The front door was not.
My office had the