Excellent She was certain it had closed and locked The Door Slammed by LoAnn Beery The Door Slammed writing prompt entry Artwork by nikman at FanArtReview.com

The door slammed,echoing down the long hall. When I had carried Molly in from the car, I could have sworn I had closed and locked the door behind us. I had been babysitting Molly for several days, so I knew the heavy door needed a strong push as it automatically locked. Molly was beginning to stir so I wanted to lay her in her crib before checking to make sure the door locked this time. She was too warm with her footed jammies for a blanket ,so I turned on her princess night light and turned to leave her room. The doorway was blocked by a tall man who said quietly,"Good job. Now walk out here slowly and quietly. Keep your hands in front of you." I would have liked to have done what he demanded, but my head had a different response in mind. I screamed at the top of my lungs; eliciting an equally loud scream from Molly. In horror, I turned to shield Molly, as he rushed into the room. It was too dark ( with just a night light ) to see much of him,but I knew I had no choice but to leave her screaming in her crib as I confronted him. I grabbed the blanket hanging over the side of the crib and threw it over his head.It stopped him long enough for me to grab the rocking chair and stick it between us. He tripped over it giving me a chance to grab her princess lamp and lower it onto his head as hard and fast as I could. He did not move. Not a muscle. I knocked the guy out! I grabbed Molly,while I was fishing my phone from my pocket. We ran down the long hall to the front door and ran out onto the porch and into the frozen lawn.I then started screaming again after the police had answered, saying they had sent help. They would be there any minute. The next door neighbor was running over, demanding to know what was going on...but I thrusted Molly into her arms and told her to just go home with her and lock her door! From behind me, I heard someone coming up at a dead run. I was already running to the icy street and fell into it, as he caught up with me.He kicked my side and tried to get me up, and with the back of his hand,he hit me in the face. He pulled me up by my hair as I heard the first sounds of a siren. He then let go of me and ran. The police went after him and another unit pulled up. They ran to me. I asked the police officer to first go with me next door so I could show Molly I was smiling and o.k. My screaming and the awful man had to have scared her so much. We came back to the house's porch where I collapsed. A few days later, I was told the guy had broken into other houses, and had severely beaten two women, but had killed a husband of one of them. Writing Prompt Write a story that starts with this sentence: The door slammed, echoing down the long hall. Don't add to the sentence. The catch is this must be flash fiction. So the story should be between 100 and 1,000 words. Author Notes I had a similar situation happen to me long ago. Thank you, Nikman, for The Long Hall

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