Mad Men

October 31^st, 2009, Alexandra Beauford sat on the sofa of her parents home trying not to think about the fact that she had no plans for Halloween that year. Her brother Ben was out with friends and her parents were away. Feeling anti-social she shut off the front porch lights and turned the television volume up just a little too loud to drown out the noise of children trick-or-treating.

There was a breeze that brushed across her ankles and made her skin rise into goose bumps. It came from the kitchen, she noticed that the window above the sink was still open, "mom must have forgotten about it," she mumbled to herself. She grabbed the crank to close the window and at the same time heard a knock at the front door. Her heart skipped a beat and she turned her head suddenly, which drew her attention away from the eyes staring at her through the window in the kitchen. Prone to gullibility she figured it was kids trying to play a "flaming bag" prank on her. When the knock came a second time, a puzzled look came across her face. She slowly made her way through the hall to the front door.

It being dark made it difficult to see through the glass on the door, she turned on the porch light and saw nothing. A figured appeared out of nowhere and made her jump back a foot. "You scared the crap out of me," she said through to door. There was a young man standing on the porch dressed in a suit that reminded her of Mad Men. She thought that he was fairly cute. He was standing with a friend, dressed slightly different although in the same style. "They probably look like the least threatening people on the street right now" she thought. When they asked if she had time to answer some questions she replied, "what are you guys doing a survey on Halloween for?" They said they are from a candy company surveying random neighborhoods to see which products the residents are handing out. She almost believed them, dressed so nicely, until she saw the almost predatory stare in the friends' eye. She quickly shut off the light and shouted "no thanks" and stepped away from the door.

When the window to the front door shattered she knew something was wrong and tripped over herself trying to think of what her next move would be. She slid on her back watching in horror as a black-gloved hand reached through the window to undo the lock. Her instincts lead her to the kitchen where she immediately went for the knife drawer and grabbed the first thing she put her hands on. She never even noticed the cut that caused the blood dripping from her hand as she grabbed the sharp knife, blade-first, and raced back to the front door to impede the intruders. When she got there, she screamed as she saw the door slowly opening. She jumped and kicked the door with both feet hearing a grunt, as it slammed shut. She landed on her knees with a thud and her teeth came down on her tongue, which was pure agony. The tears now filling her eyes blinded her for a second as she crawled her way to the stairs. She then had a moment of clarity, remembering she had left her cell phone charging on the nightstand in her bedroom. She raced up the stairs, knife in-hand careful not to trip while grabbing the railing and leaving a trail of blood the whole way. Had she bothered to look back she would have seen both men bursting through the door with sick grins on their faces.

Her mind was racing thinking of places to hide, weapons to use, and her brother out with friends oblivious to what was happening. When she reached her room at the top of the stairs she practically dove in, slamming the door shut, cursing her parents for not putting on any locks in the bedrooms. Another moment of clarity came as she was dialing 911, and her mind flashed back to her father warning her about his Smith & Wesson nine millimeter which he kept in the closet of her parents' bedroom. She hadn't heard either of the men coming up the stairs so she decided to run for it. She burst out her door and into the upstairs hallway, in her peripheral vision she saw one of the men shoot his glance up at her, the one with the predatory demeanor. His laugh sent a chill from the top of her spine to her heels and her body shook uncontrollably.

In her parents' room she ran to the closet, threw open the doors and fell in. When she closed the doors she was plunged into darkness except for the light on her cell phone. She dropped the knife and started to feel around for the gun at the same time dialing for help. She heard a lot of noise downstairs and thought they were ransacking the house looking for valuables. The footsteps on the stairs came next and her heart was pounding so hard it hurt. She heard the steps reach her parents' room. When the door opened she started to fire. The gunshots were so loud her ears rang and she couldn't hear a thing aside from the thud of something very heavy hitting the floor. She kept firing until there was just the click from an empty chamber. After what seemed like hours of silence she opened the door to find neither of the Mad Men but her brother lying in a pool of blood.

Ben was watching her from the back yard wanting to scare her himself. He saw what was happening and ran inside to attack the two men; he had come upstairs to check on her, he was now dead.