Nathan picked up a spatula, lifted the first grilled cheese sandwich from the griddle, and placed it onto a plate, then did the same for the second. He set them on the island.
“You know, after several weeks of sleeping in the living room,” Nathan signed to Josslyn as he sat down on a stool, “I think it’s time we went back to sleeping in our own room.”
Josslyn picked up one half of the sandwich and bit into it. “I’ve thought about that but I’m not sure just yet.”
“It has been a while, and I do miss our private moments.” Nathan raised and lowered his brows a few times and winked with a knowing smile.
Josslyn nodded. “Okay. But if anything should happen, it’s back to the living room, and if worse comes to worst, we’re out of here.”
Searing three-digit temperatures caused heat to bounce off the ground and rise into the air. During the day, moisture and cumulus thunderclouds from the Gulf of California rolled north toward Southern California and Arizona. Sometime after midnight, a thunderstorm raged for a few hours.
A flash of lightning startled Trina awake. She pulled off the bedsheet and went to the bathroom down the hall. The mere thought of the demon in there with her made her shiver. When she returned to her bedroom, she closed the door and turned around to head back to bed.
A brilliant silver-white light illuminated the room for two seconds and revealed silhouettes of three hooded figures clad in ankle-length cloaks.
Trina’s heart beat fast. A minute later, another burst of lightning washed the walls which revealed nothing. No dark hooded figures were seen anywhere in her room.
With trepidation, she went to the window and looked out. A lightning bolt burst across the sky, and she noticed a lone hooded figure in the middle of the front yard. It didn’t look at anyone or anything in particular. It stood there, motionless.
Trina backed away from the window, her heart still pounding in her chest. She went to the living room and stood at the front door. She stared at it for a moment and noticed the green LED lights from the security panel next to it.
Should I open the door? she thought.
She raised her right arm, hesitant. Her fingertips brushed the door and glided down it until her arm dropped back to her side. With fear and nervousness, she turned and headed toward the back of the house. She stood by the sliding glass doors and looked out at the backyard. Lightning flashed once again, and she saw two hooded figures with cloaks at the other side of the pool. Trina backed away from the sliding glass doors and ran upstairs.
Nathan and Josslyn slept despite the storm. Even Maddie was sound asleep in her crib nearby.
Trina thrust open the bedroom door and turned on the bedroom light as she entered the master bedroom. She ran to her parents’ bed and shook her mother’s shoulder.
Nathan squinted his eyes due to the light, then rubbed the sleep out of them.
“Sorry to wake you,” Trina signed, “but I saw people with robes and hoods in my room and in the front and backyard.”
Josslyn bolted upright in bed, alarmed.
Nathan jumped out of bed. “Stay here,” he signed to Trina, then left the bedroom.
“I’ll be right back,” Josslyn signed as she put on her robe in a hurry. “Keep your eye on Maddie.” She left the bedroom and met Nathan in Trina’s room. The light had been switched on.
Nathan scanned the room. “I don’t see anyone here,” he signed.
They went to the door of Caden’s room and opened it. Caden was sound asleep in his bed. They closed the door and went downstairs, looked out the windows to the front yard, then went to the back of the house and looked through the sliding glass doors. They did not see anything out of the ordinary except rain, trees that swayed in the wind, and a streak of lightning that flashed in the distance as the storm moved away.
“Let’s go back upstairs,” Nathan said.
“We didn’t see anyone,” Josslyn signed to Trina when she and Nathan entered the master bedroom.
“I know I saw them,” Trina signed, exasperated. “They were there for a second, then gone. Maybe they’re remnants from a residual haunting.”
Josslyn shook her head in exasperation and raised her hands as if to say, “I give up!” Instead, she signed, “All I know is I can’t wait for the paranormal organization to contact us and get this thing out of our house once and for all!”