Caleb started down the steps. He moved slowly, taking them cautiously, turned slightly sideways so he could see around the corner of the landing as it came near. He held his gun ready, his hands shaking slightly from the excitement. Trying to keep his breathing quiet, he thought only about letting the air leak slowly from his mouth, listening all the while for movement on the first floor. He stopped just before he would be visible. It was nothing but tension, and tension was what he lived for.
Something strange then came over him; he couldn’t move anymore. Was he paralyzed? He tried to lift his hands, but they wouldn’t go up, and he could not lower them, either. His tension had become terror! He needed to move! He couldn’t, couldn’t move anything.
He could now hear his breathing. It sounded like a horse snorting to his sensitive ears, tuned so closely to his surroundings. His heart was pounding and he could hear that in his ears in addition to the feeling in his chest. He needed to calm down, calm down NOW!
But all he did was breathe harder and hear less. Move! Go!
He couldn’t, no matter what he couldn’t. He felt something warm running down his leg right before he lost consciousness and fell loudly down the last three steps.
He came to a few seconds later and felt for his gun, but it was too late. Standing over him, with his own gun pointed right at him, was the person he’d been stalking, hungry for a revenge that would have been sweet, but now there was nothing left in this world that was worthwhile. He was ready for whatever came next.
Which was his brother shooting him in the neck with the nerf dart and yelling, “Mom, Caleb fell down the steps and peed his pants!”