Stepbrother and Stepsister Alone at Home. Usually, there was always something happening. Someone was watching television downstairs. Someone was cooking in the kitchen. Doors opened and closed. Phones rang. Music played from one bedroom or another. But that Saturday afternoon, everything was different.
Their parents had left unexpectedly to deal with a family emergency, promising they would return before evening. “Lock the doors,” their mother had said before leaving. “And call us if you need anything.” The two teenagers nodded. They were used to being around each other, but they weren’t particularly close.
They had become stepbrother and stepsister several years earlier, and while they respected one another, they mostly lived separate lives inside the same household. One preferred staying upstairs. The other spent most of the time in the living room. That afternoon, however, there was nobody else around.
At first, everything was completely normal. They argued briefly over what to watch. Then they went back to doing their own things. For several hours, nothing unusual happened. Until the lights went out. The television suddenly went black. The refrigerator stopped humming. The entire house became silent.
“Did you pay the electricity bill?” one of them joked. They checked their phones. Outside, dark clouds had gathered over the neighborhood. Then came the first loud crack of thunder. The younger one looked toward the windows. A few seconds later, rain began hitting the roof.
The house shook slightly as another thunderclap rolled across the sky. They decided to stay downstairs together until the storm passed. Then they heard something. A noise from the hallway. They looked at each other. The house suddenly felt much larger.
They picked up their phones and turned on the flashlights. Slowly, they walked toward the hallway. The noise seemed to have come from near the back door. At least, it appeared to be. Then they noticed something strange. The back door was slightly open. Neither wanted to move closer.
The storm continued outside. Rainwater blew across the floor near the doorway. A curtain moved in the wind. For several seconds, neither spoke. Then the older one stepped forward and closed the door. They checked the lock twice. “Maybe the wind pushed it open.” But neither sounded convinced.
They called their parents again. They tried another family member. The storm had probably disrupted phone service. They returned to the living room. The television remained off. They turned on several battery-powered lamps and tried to distract themselves. This time, it came from upstairs. “Okay,” one said.
“That definitely wasn’t the wind.” They considered staying downstairs. But they also knew that if something had fallen upstairs, they needed to make sure nothing was damaged.