Madeline sat in the silent room for what seemed an eternity trying not to think about where she was, or how she might have just upset Michael with her careless remark. The light from the electric heater had faded quickly, and she was left in almost total darkness. He must have forgotten the candle, she thought, expecting the lights to come back on any minute, but nothing happened. She was slightly apprehensive when she heard the door open again and Michael's footsteps approaching.
"Thank goodness you're back, I was getting worried. Couldn't you find the torch or candles?" The footsteps continued directly toward her and stopped a few feet away, but still Michael said nothing. She could just make out the dim outline of him in the darkness.
"Michael, please say something, you're scaring me," Madeline said, trying to keep the tremble out of her voice. When there was still no response the panic began to set in. "I have a torch in my car. I'll just go and get it and bring it back." She groped her way off the lounge and found her handbag on the coffee table before heading in the direction of the entrance hall. She just wanted to get outside and had absolutely no intention of coming back with the torch. If this was Michael's idea of a joke it was stupid, not to mention inappropriate, and despite his apparent normal behavior tonight she was having serious doubts about his mental state. To her horror, the footsteps followed her all the way down the hallway to the foyer and the figure stood there as she struggled to open the door. Madeline quickly discovered it had been locked from the inside, and without a key she had no way of escaping. Michael had not dead bolted the door when they came in, she realized, so he must have gone back when the lights went out. He may have been planning this all along and only been warm and friendly to lure her in, she thought with a growing sense of dread.
"Michael, this isn't funny," she said with a sob. "Please let me out so I can go home. Casey knows I've come here, and she's expecting me to call her soon to let her know I got home safely." Things had gone far beyond a silly prank now, and as the figure took a sudden lunge toward her. Madeline found herself running down the hallway with tears streaming down her face. Thankfully she had a fairly good idea of the downstairs layout and managed to avoid injuring herself, but the silent figure remained a few steps behind her the whole time. She could almost feel his breath on the back of her neck, and she expected to feel his hands on her body at any moment. Just as she passed one of the large front windows, the moon came out from behind a cloud and illuminated the hallway for a moment. Madeline turned her head so she could get a look at him, and she was stunned by what she saw. Instead of looking into the crazed eyes of Michael Denver, she saw a flash of blonde hair and a face she recognized from the photo before the moon disappeared behind a cloud again. It took Madeline a moment to comprehend that the person hunting her down the darkened hallways was not Michael Denver, but his missing wife Laura.
