ALIEN INVASION by Peter Hallett Read Free Book Online

was my primary concern at that point; I didn’t want him to come and investigate the noise. Thankfully he didn’t.
    The more I walked backward, the more light shone in my room, and the louder the sound of the TV got. I could hear a familiar voice. It was the grating sound of the announcer on the wrestling show my dad watched. Someone had just been suplexed, and judging from the volume of the announcer’s screams, and the high-pitched tone, it was all very exciting.
    Once I was sure there was enough of a gap for me and my backpack to fit through, I let the heels of my feet touch the floor again. I shut my eyes as I removed my hands from the handle, praying a loud creak wouldn’t escape when the door dropped back down to its normal level. It didn’t.
    I swallowed, could feel sweat starting to run down the sides of my upper body from my freshly-shaved pits, and took another deep breath. It had to be a big intake of air; I wouldn’t be able to gamble breathing for a while soon after. I sidestepped out of my room and into the hall.
    My walk down the hallway was as tense as the door opening had been. I knew I had to stay to the right, hug the wall, keeping low enough to not knock the picture frames off with my backpack, as the squeaking floorboards were on the other side. Again trials of my escape had alerted me to this matter ahead of time.
    I peeked my head around the wall at the end of the hallway and into the living room. My dad was in his chair, asleep, obvious from his violent snoring. He even sounded angry when he was in slumber. His back was to the hallway, which made the next part a little easier, but no less nerve-racking.
    I lowered myself to my hands and knees and started to crawl toward the rear of his chair. Every little movement I made making my heart beat faster. I made sure to not even blink; I did anything that I thought would limit the amount of noise I made. That might seem like I was being a little too paranoid, but if you’d have seen the evil in his eyes when he screamed in my face, you’d understand why I was being so cautious.
    Once I was within reaching distance of his chair, I stretched out my legs, so my stomach was flat to the floor. Then I did the same with my arms, until my breasts rested on it too. I reached under his chair with my right hand and swept the floor with it, left to right, until I got my fingers on the key.
    I slid the key out, the little scraping noise it made as I did making the butterflies in my stomach do flip-flops and my heart race up into my throat. I closed my eyes and prayed again.
    Then I heard my brother’s bedroom door open. I almost shit. I started to choke on my heart. I needed to cough. My mouth was so dry it was painful. It felt like a nail was stuck in my windpipe, at an awkward angle, no less.
    I slowly opened my eyes and risked looking over my shoulder, and down the length of my body, toward the hallway. My little brother was standing there, a confused expression on his face.
    I wanted to cry at that point. I was welling up. I needed to breathe. I couldn't though. I must have been going blue by that point. My little brother raised a finger to his mouth and mimicked saying hush.
    I mouthed a thank you and he turned slowly and headed back to his room on his tiptoes. He didn’t close his door once he was back inside, probably too concerned it would make enough of a noise to wake the sleeping beast I was at the foot of. He was as much frightened of him as I was.
    I slowly positioned myself back on my hands and knees and turned my butt to my dad’s chair. I locked my eyes on the door, my route to freedom. I placed the key between my teeth and started to work my way to the door.
    I was halfway there when I heard him grunt and snort. I stopped dead in my tracks. I was in the open, if he had turned around at that point I’d have had nowhere to hide. I chanced a look over my shoulder to see what was happening.
    I could only see the side of him from the position I was