Three nights later, just as I was about to drift off into sleep, a loud crack reverberated through the entire house. I leaped up, Jared grabbed the shotgun instantly. We waited, and listened.

Another series of loud cracks and smashing noises came from upstairs, from what must have been the front door. Or, from where the front door had once been. Something had obviously smashed it down, and was breaking and moving the things that had been blocking it. Aaron woke up next to me. I motioned for him to be quiet, hugged him tight and listened carefully. Jared kept the shotgun aimed at the stairs.

The smashing and crashing suddenly stopped, and for a moment all was still. Then, the sound of slow, steady and deliberate footsteps echoed through the house. Something had walked inside.

Step, step, step, step, it made its way through the house until it reached the door to the basement. My heart beat about a million times for every step it took. I almost sighed with relief when it kept walking past the door.

Then, it suddenly stopped. Judging from what I heard, I think it must have stopped in the living room.

For a solid five minutes, all was still, the tension in the air so thick that it felt like I was being crushed from all directions.

I jumped as suddenly a racket of footsteps echoed from the doorway. It sounded like at least six or seven other things had come wildly barrelling into the house, tripping over each other and knocking into things. It almost sounded like they were literally throwing themselves forward without any regard for their surroundings or their own safety. I heard a few objects get knocked over and break as the invisible intruders made their way to the living room.

Again, all was still.

Jared's grip on the gun tightened. I could see that he was absolutely drenched with sweat. I was as well. Aaron was shaking, his arms wrapped around me.

"Please," I begged in my mind, "Whatever you are... please, please, please, please, please... just go away. Leave us alone. Don't come into the basement. Please. Please. Please. If there's a God... please don't let them come down here."

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I silently repeated my please in my head, over and over again, when...

A slow, gentle... humming came from above us. It rose in pitch, to the point where it very clearly began to sound like... a wind instrument?

Like a flute.

Soon, more and more sounds joined in with the others. They all sounded similar to instruments. A piano, cymbals, drumming, a harp?

And yet... though they were similar, there was something about them that was unnatural. Like no instrument I had ever heard. I shuddered as I thought for an instant that they almost sounded like they were being produced by something fleshy and organic.

I glanced to Jared. His mouth had dropped open, his expression conveyed complete and utter confusion. I imagined I looked almost the same. Aaron looked at me with an expression mingling between terror and confusion.

I had to stop myself from laughing hysterically. What the hell is this? What the fuck is going on upstairs?!

The symphony being played upstairs began to take on a rapid and almost angry tone.

Jared, Aaron and I continued to listen in utter disbelief. Then, mingling with the music of the orchestra, I began to hear a voice. An incomprehensible sobbing that slowly rose in volume, that slowly rose in tempo.

I shuddered as it grew louder, and eventually overcame the noise of the orchestra. Aaron gulped next to me. Jared's remaining arm was shaking, his grip on the gun loosening.

Then, the sobbing suddenly transformed into an earsplitting shriek, a lamentation that ruptured the air around it. This screech served a signal to the orchestra, and it too transformed into an incomprehensible cacophony that made the entire house vibrate.

We all covered our ears, trying to drown out the noise. But it shook us to our very cores. It felt like the noise reached all the way to the very depths of my soul, shaking it violently and sending it into disarray. Right when the symphony from hell reached the point where I thought my eardrums and my mind would snap, all noise suddenly stopped.

Aaron collapsed into my arms.

Silence reigned for what felt like an eternity.

A quiet, melancholy piano tune gently echoed for about thirty seconds, and when it reached the final note an uproarious applause echoed everywhere. Jared and I wildly spun around, looking for the source. It felt like it was coming from all around us. The clapping stopped suddenly, and as soon as it did we heard the loud stomping footsteps rapidly make their way out of the house, again almost tripping over each other as they did so.

Everything returned to calm.

None of us moved an inch until morning.

Even then, we tried not to make any noise.

I don't think any of us knew what to say about that. We didn't even end up addressing it, that's how shocked we were by it.

For the next week, our nights were restless. Jared and I started to sleep in shifts.

Luckily, nothing like that happened again for a while.