UDLS

You are walking alone down a dark hallway in the middle of the night. Outside is only crushing silence, not even a whisper of wind caressing the tops of the trees. The silence outside magnifies every little noise inside. A thrum of electricity from sleeping appliances, your heartbeat pounding in your ears, and… a floorboard creaking behind you. You freeze. Is the house settling? …is it a footstep? Slowly, as if not to disturb the all but silent hallway, you turn around and see… nothing. You sigh with relief, until from the direction of the nothing you hear another creak, closer this time. And another, and another, gaining speed! As if someone - no, something, is accelerating down the hallway towards you. You break into a sprint for the door, the steps getting faster and closer but all of a sudden the doorknob is within reach. You grab it, only to abruptly be pulled back as it grabs your shoulders, “why are you running?” it hisses in one ear, before whispering in the other, “All I said was ‘who wants to sign up for a UDLS?’”