Episode # 8

    "Don't pay any mind to that. It's just your imagination. Come on." The husband quietly went up to the fourth step. "See, no increase in noise."

      The woman nodded weakly and stepped up to the second step. "The noise went up a bit. I'm sure of it." She turned her head and listened. "What is that thumping sound? It sounds like someone is beating on the floor."

       The husband gently pulled her up to the third step assisted by his wife pushing on the woman's waist. The thumping sound diminished slightly but it was joined by a scratching sound from the door.

       The Feng Shui woman froze for a few seconds. "What's that? It sounds like a cat scratching at the door wanting to get out."

       "We don't have any cat," the wife said applying pressure to the woman's back. "Sometimes I'd swear that all of Africa is in there."

      She waited until the woman was on the fourth step. "Yesterday I heard a pack of hyenas. They were so loud I had to go out into the yard to get away from them. Don't stop. Just keep climbing up the steps. We'll soon be at the top."

       The thumping and scratching died back to a faint murmur. A new noise came. Faint but increasing. An unknown squeal across a broad plain.

       "What in the devil was that?"