A Killer in the Darkness

Shannon James collapsed on the sofa and let out a huge sigh. It was 10 p.m., the kids were finally asleep and their parents were going to be home in about an hour. Once they were home, she could also get to bed and head home in the morning.

Shannon loved babysitting for Jake and Rachel Thompson. Their kids, 8-year-old Maxine and 10-year-old Michael, were a lot of fun to be around. But tonight, both kids were major handfuls, and Shannon had hoped to get started on her homework for the weekend.

As a high school senior, Shannon had a lot riding on her grade point average. She was aiming to be a criminal justice major at either the University of Maryland or the University of Delaware and that meant getting a 4.0 or better to make admissions more a formality than a project.

But she was so trained from making dinner for Maxine and Michael, and entertaining them both and helping them with their school work, that she was in no mood to crack open her books.

Just then her cell phone buzzed, she opened up her text message. It was from her boyfriend, Craig Johnson.

"Hey beautiful, how are the kids treating you?"

"I am so exhausted and ready for their parents to be home," Shannon wrote back.

Shannon and Craig had been dating since their freshman year. He played soccer, while she focused solely on her studies. At 5'7" with blonde hair and blue eyes, Shannon was the kind of girl who could have any guy she wanted in high school. Yet she spurned the advances of every cocky guy who approached her, only to find the sweet, subtle advances of Craig to be more to her liking.

Next year they'd likely be at different colleges, several hours apart. Craig was getting offers to play soccer, and Shannon was dead set against standing in his way of playing college soccer.

She set her phone down on the coach and went in the kitchen to get a drink of water. Shannon didn't have to worry about making too much noise, the Thompson's had a three story house and the kids were one flight above her in their rooms with the doors shut.

As she reached the kitchen a knock came from the front door. Shannon was shocked. The front porch light was off and there were no cars in the driveway, any of the Thompson's friends should know that they weren't home.

"Who is it?" Shannon called out as she approached the front door. There was no response, so she looked out the peephole. She was surprised to see nobody there.

Shannon walked into the living room that had large front windows with blinds. She used her fingers to peek through the blinds and scan the front yard. There still wasn't anyone there.

Maybe I was just hearing things, Shannon said to herself.

She turned to walk away from the window, and suddenly heard a rapping on the pane.

Startled, Shannon jumped and shrieked. She ran to the window and looked out once again, but once again she didn't see anyone.

You are just tired and getting spooked easily, Shannon thought to herself, just calm down and stop acting like a little girl.

Shannon turned and walked toward the kitchen. She paused, walked over to the front door and rechecked that it was locked and dead bolted.

Confident that she was safe in the house, Shannon went to the kitchen to get the drink of water she wanted before all the noises started.

The Thompsons had a large kitchen. As you walked in, the kitchen was on your left with an island in the middle and a glass door leading out to the patio on the far side, while a dining nook was on your right. The dining nook led into the dining room.

Shannon walked over to the refrigerator and pulled out the water pitcher. It was one of those pitchers that supposedly purifies the water. Shannon only thought that it made it colder than what she could get out of the tap.

As she was reaching into the cabinet to get a glass out, Shannon caught a glimpse of the patio door out of the side of her left eye....it looked like a person was standing there.

She dropped the glass she had in her hand and let out a shriek, as the glass shattered on the kitchen floor. Shannon looked out the door again, but nobody was there this time.

The patter of feet coming down the stairs from upstairs caused Shannon to turn back to the entrance of the kitchen, and Maxine and Michael raced in.

"What happened?" Michael asked. "We heard screaming and a loud noise."

"I'm sorry guys," Shannon said. "I was reaching for a glass and it slipped out of my hand and broke on the floor. I let out a shriek because I was afraid I was going to get cut by the glass shards."

Shannon didn't want to tell the kids about the figure she thought she saw on the patio. She didn't want to scare them, but she also didn't want them to think she was crazy.

"I'll get the broom and dustpane for you," Michael offered.

"Thank you Michael," Shannon said. "Just don't come in here, I don't want you to step on any glass."

Shannon proceeded to sweep up the kitchen floor and disposed of the glass in the trash can.

"Let's go back upstairs and get you guys back in bed," Shannon said.

The three of them walked back upstairs. As they passed the front door Shannon looked at the deadbolt, just to make sure it was still in the locked position.

The top floor of the Thompson's house had four bedrooms and two bathrooms. One bathroom was on the right as they walked up the stairs. In front of them was Michael's room, and next to that was Maxine's room. A large bedroom for Jake and Rachel was on the opposite facing wall as the stairs, and the spare bedroom that Shannon usually slept in was behind the stairs, facing the front of the house.

Michael joined Shannon in tucking in Maxine first. Maxine liked having a light on next to her bed, just to keep the monsters away. Michael slept with a small nightlight, but whenever Shannon babysat he tried hard to impress her and sometimes asked her to turn it off as she was leaving his room.

With both kids safely tucked in and their doors closed, Shannon went back downstairs. She grabbed her cell phone and sent a text to Craig.

"Would you think I'm crazy if I told you I thought someone was outside the house?" she typed.

She waited for Craig's reply. He was always a supportive boyfriend, ever since their first date. She just hoped he wouldn't worry too much about her safety.

"Babe, I'm sure it's just the wind and the fact that it is getting late." He typed back.

"I know," she wrote back. ""And I am really tired."

"They'll be home soon, then you can call me before you go to bed," Craig typed back.

Shannon smiled. He really was the type of guy she had always wanted to find. She hoped things would work out for them, but she knew that it would be tough.

Then the house phone rang.

The phone was on a table right next to the stairs, in a little hallway between the living room and the kitchen.

"Hello," Shannon said when she picked the phone up.

There was no answer on the other end.

"Hello, is anyone there?" Shannon said again.

This time all she heard was heavy breathing on the other end.

Shannon's hand started shaking. Could the person she saw on the patio be this same person on the phone?

"This isn't funny," Shannon said in the phone, holding back tears. "Who is this!"

Then there was a click, and a dial tone was all that rung in Shannon's ear.

Still shaking, Shannon placed the phone back on the receiver. She started to go back into the living room, then she remembered the noise she heard out the front windows. What if someone was really out there and broke through the front windows?

Shannon took a step backward toward the kitchen. Then she stopped again. The patio door was where she thought she was a figure earlier, should she really go back in there again?

Get ahold of yourself, Shannon told herself. You are an adult, you can do this.

She started toward the kitchen, just as her cell phone went off.

Shannon jumped a little, then looked at the caller ID and saw that Craig was calling her.

"Hello," Shannon said, trying to sound confident.

"What's wrong baby?" Craig said, seeing right through her.

"It's nothing, I'm OK, I promise," Shannon said.

"Shannon, tell me what's wrong," Craig said. He never called her Shannon unless he was in a serious mood.

"I think I saw someone outside on the patio staring through the patio door," Shannon told him. "And just now I got a weird phone call."

"Where are you right now?" Craig asked, his voice sounding tense.

"I'm standing in the hallway. I was thinking of going back in the kitchen," Shannon said.

"If you do, stay on the phone with me so I know you are OK," Craig told her.

"Alright," Shannon said as she crept toward the kitchen.

Once she was in the kitchen Shannon walked around the island and turned on all the lights. Then she walked over to the patio door and closed the hanging blinds.

"It looks like everything's OK," Shannon told Craig.

"Baby, just walk around a little more and tell me if you see anything," Craig told her.

Shannon walked into the dining nook. There was a window out to the backyard there too, but she didn't see anyone. Shannon walked closer to the window and peered out.

It was at that very moment she heard a loud crash outside. Shannon dropped the phone and covered her mouth so she didn't let out a scream. She swore she saw a person running away through the backyard, hoping over the fence to get out.

"Baby! Baby! What happened!?" Craig was on the other end of the phone screaming.

Shannon picked the phone up off the floor and continued looking out the window to see if the stranger would return.

"I looked out the window and I think someone was looking at me from outside and I startled them," Shannon said. "They knocked over the trash can and then ran away."

"Are you sure they ran away?" Craig asked.

"Yes, I saw a figure jumping over the fence in the backyard," Shannon told him.

"Baby, are you OK there alone?" Craig said. "I can be there in 10 minutes."

"Craig I'm OK, whoever it was is gone now," Shannon said.

Just as she finished speaking Shannon felt a hand on her shoulder.

She didn't turn around, she didn't move, but she did let out an ear piercing scream that was probably heard throughout the entire neighborhood.

"Shannon, it's OK, it's just us," Jake Thompson said.

Shannon turned around and saw Jake and Rachel staring at her, their faces showed their concern for her.

"Shannon, what's wrong? What happened?" Rachel asked. "You look like you've seen a ghost."

Shannon told them everything about the night. About the knock on the front door, the sound on the windows, the figure on the patio, the phone call and the mystery person in the backyard.

Jake opened the patio door and turned on the floodlights in the backyard. He found the trash can tipped over, just like Shannon told him. There wasn't anyone in the yard though.

"You were right," Jake said. "There was someone back there and they are gone now."

"We should call the police," Rachel said.

Shannon got back on the phone with Craig and told him the Thompsons were back home now and they were calling the police. She promised she would call him before she went to bed.

Jake called 911 and told them everything that happened that night. The dispatcher said an officer would be out to the house soon.

"I guess this isn't how you expected to spend your night," Rachel said. "Were the kids a problem?"

"Honestly after all this, the kids were a piece of cake," Shannon said.

Rachel walked Shannon upstairs to the spare bedroom while Jake lingered downstairs for a moment. He looked around the kitchen, then walked into the living room. He couldn't believe something might've happened to Shannon, and possibly his kids. Realizing that beating himself up over the night wouldn't help matters, Jake followed the women upstairs.

"Why don't you give Craig a call," Rachel said. "The police will be here soon and they will want to talk to you before you go to sleep."

"Thanks, I think I will. I know he is probably going crazy hoping I'm doing alright," Shannon said.

Rachel shut the door to the spare bedroom behind her. Through the door, Shannon heard the Thompsons whispering about getting a home security system tomorrow.

Shannon called Craig back and told him that she was fine and she was going to lay down in the spare room until the police arrived. He asked her to call him as soon as she was done talking to the officer, and she promiused she would.

After she got off the phone with Craig, Shannon walked to the window and peered through the blinds. It was dark out, but the neighborhood was well lit. She didn't see anything strange, but a shiver went down her spine. She still felt like she was being watched.

Everything is fine now, she told herself. You got through it, now relax. It's all behind you.

Shannon curled up on the bed and waited for the Thompsons to tell her the police had arrived.

When Shannon looked at the neighborhood out the window, she didn't notice the dark colored van that was parked down the street.

Sitting in the driver's seat, Kevin Muns was staring at the Thompson house. He noticed a figure standing in the window in one of the room's on the top level. He suspected it was the babysitter.

Kevin cursed himself for having been so stupid tonight. Had he not spent more time leering at her through the windows, he would've already had her by now and been on his way. Instead he was sitting alone in the van, with nothing to show for his efforts tonight.

He couldn't believe how stupid he had been to stand on the patio instead of just breaking into the house. She was definitely the hottest of all his intended victims, and he was surprised that her looks had thrown him off so much.

Then he got caught off-guard when she was on the phone and saw him through the window. He knew she would tell whoever she was on the phone with that she had seen someone, and the cops would be called.

He couldn't risk being caught, not so early in his newfound career at least. Kevin smiled to himself and looked at the passenger seat. The extra large kitchen knife that had been his tool for his first two victims shimmered under the street lights.

The first two victims had been a thing of beauty. He had had both girls before he took their lives, and had enjoyed every minute of it.

He took one last look at the Thompson house before he drove away. Whoever that babysitter was got lucky tonight. But maybe he'd have to find out who she was so he could visit her some other time.

As Kevin pulled away and drove down the street, a police cruiser passed him, headed toward the Thompson house.

Kevin continued down the street, and eventually he and his van slipped into the darkness of the night.