On the Edge Excerpt - Will She Live?

   The spring thunderstorm bringing hard rain and winds picked up intensity as Jade, who was tired from her out of town trip, dropped her luggage in the dimly lit living room and turned around to shut the door. "It feels good to be back home," stated Jade out loud to herself as she locked the door and then started walking towards the kitchen.

   The sound of a noise coming from the direction of the kitchen made her stop dead in her tracks. Jade immediately called out Becca’s name and added a question out loud while she looked down the hallway towards the open kitchen door. "Becca? Is that you?"

   A streak of lightning lit up the early evening sky as the dead silence in the room was interrupted by the loud boom of thunder. Jade’s question going unanswered made her hands start to tremble as a tiny bead of sweat appeared on her upper lip. She turned her head to look at the front door while trying to decide whether to keep walking towards the kitchen or turn around to run out the front door. "Shit," groaned Jade whose weight made the wood floor underneath her feet creak as she started to walk slowly down the hallway towards the kitchen.

   The image of Case threatening to make her disappear played in her mind as she heard the wind making the trees hit against the windows located in the kitchen. She could see a flash of lightning illuminate the doorway opening while she made her way down the hallway past several closed doors and one door slightly open. Jade walked slower as she got to the door that was slightly opened. She took a deep breath of air before calling out Becca’s name again and then Case’s name.

   "Becca, is that you in the kitchen? Are you here to get me, Case?" asked Jade out loud while she walked past the open door and entered the kitchen to find no one in the room. She looked around the kitchen to see if anything appeared out of place to her. She saw where Becca had left everything, including a knife, out to make a sandwich on the kitchen counter top. Jade let her eyes settle on the pantry door located next to the back door as she grabbed the knife from the kitchen counter top as she walked by on her way to open the pantry door. A clap of thunder made her jump while her hand shook as she reached out to grasp the door knob to pull the door to the pantry open while she held the knife in the air. She found herself face to face with nothing but an empty room as she laughed out loud in a show of relief from being so scared. The wind and rained picked up intensity as Jade shut the pantry door.

   "It must be the wind blowing the trees against the windows," decided Jade out loud to herself. She reached over to the window shade on the rear door and proceeded to pull down on the window shade to look out the window to see how hard the wind was blowing outside. The window shade slipped out of Jade’s hand and quickly rolled up out of the way to reveal.....

  Jade screamed