Tension in Suburbia

"What's that noise?" Jerry asked Leeanne, "I'm trying to finish this report for work tomorrow and it's distracting me."

"I don't hear any noise," Leeanne was loading the dishwasher for the night after enjoying her meatloaf for dinner.

"It sounds like a muffled thumping down in the basement.  I hope the water heater isn't breaking down again. That's all we need."

"Me too." Leeanne turned on the radio, "This will drown it out."

"That's even more distracting!" Jerry exclaimed.

"Sorry," Leeanne turned it off. "I'll go downstairs and try to hear the noise so I can make it stop. You're so grumpy today. You hardly ate any meatloaf after I slaved over it. I worked all day today too, you know."

"I'm trying to finish this damned report, Leeanne," Jerry raised his voice, "my bonus depends on it. You want me to get the bonus, don't you?" He looked back at his laptop and his report.

"Yes, Jerry," Leeanne sighed, "I do, but it's not like we're going to die if you don't get it. My bonus will cover our vacation."

"We might die if I get fired and we starve to death!"

Leeanne responded by slamming the door as she descended into the basement.

"Probably some animal trapped down there," Jerry muttered to himself. His heart was already beating hard from the stress of getting the report written when he heard Leeanne scream. He jumped up from his chair, snatched up a flashlight from the top of the fridge and ran down the basement stairs calling to Leeanne.

In his haste Jerry tripped and fell over a tray that they had brought home from the church plant sale containing flats of pansies.

"Damn it!" Jerry rubbed his knee as he got back to his feet, "that's par for the course."

He followed Leeanne's scream to the rarely entered storage room beyond the laundry room.

"What the?" Jerry dropped the flashlight when he entered the room to find an old wooden coffin in the middle of the room and Leeanne, pale and distraught, cowering in the corner amongst old paint cans and wood scraps.

The thumping noise was louder and obviously coming from inside the coffin. "Where did that come from?" Jerry looked at Leeanne for a response, but she only stared in shock.

Jerry moved closer to the thumping coffin and noticed a metal latch, fastened on the outside. Something was trapped inside the coffin. He unlatched the coffin, allowing whatever, or whoever, was inside to push the lid open. Leeanne was now on her feet gripping Jerry's arm as they both stared in shock as Leeanne's younger brother Lester rose from the coffin. They hadn't seen him since he went away to medical school in the fall. They weren't concerned about not hearing from him, since they knew he'd be extremely busy.

Now he wore a maniacal grin and a wilted orchid on his shirt as he came toward them with his arms reaching out for them and his sharp vampire teeth gleaming in the dim basement light.

Jerry and Leeanne were both screaming as they bolted from the room and ran up the stairs and out of the house leaving Lester free to continue his reign of terror.