He immediately locked it and sprinted through the house to lock the back door too. Alex then stayed in the same position for a few seconds. He wasn't sure what to do next, and his brain, full of adrenaline, definitely wasn't helping. Uh.....um....W-what now??

It's not like Alex had an instruction manual about what to do when you're stuck in your own house while a dangerous animal is for sure lurking around, trying to eat you. 

He looked around. His legs started to give out a little, the rush from before slowly leaving his legs. 

Um....so.........oh yeah! I'll secure the windows. Thank god the basement was connected to the house by a staircase, so Alex could get some planks to secure all the windows in his house without needing to go outside. At first, he started walking while leaning on the wall, but a few moments later, when his legs started shaking uncontrollably, he just got on all fours. Thank god the basement wasn't that far from him, so he was already there before he realized. 

Alex shakily stood up. He felt like a newborn giraffe when they stand up for the first time like he saw on TV a few times. 

The thought of cute animals brought a tiny bit of serotonin to his brain, soothing him a little.

It wasn't as easy of a job as Alex imagined it to be, covering all of the windows downstairs. His numb fingers could hardly clutch the nails he needed, and there weren't as much long, flat planks as he initially thought. So he had to use only 2 planks per window. 

It looks like I'm in a zombie apocalypse.... He thought as he stared at the X the planks made on one of the first windows on the ground floor. 

Hahhh..... this is gonna take so long....  His legs painfully twitched, as if agreeing with him.

With the last ounce of energy Alex had, he moved the couch from under one of the windows to the middle of the living room. He literally fell on top of it and just stared at the ceiling. His hands....hurt. His legs hurt. Everything hurt. 

He couldn't even count the times he bashed his fingers while hammering another plank, or stumbled over himself and thought about just not getting up again. 

"Hahhhh....."

There was something uncomfortably stabbing him in his back pocket. Ugh....what is it?

He reached behind him and found his phone. He immediately perked up. Oh, fuck! I can call someone!! God, I'm so stupid. 

He unlocked it and the bright screen blinded him a little. He went straight to 'contacts', and his finger hovered across the screen. ...Who should I call?

The word 'Mother' stared at him, alerting him more than any other name. The word felt so cold, just having the person who gave birth to you be saved just as 'Mother'. It struck him with guilt. 

But Alex remembered the times his mother looked at him like he was nothing more than a piece of trash, the look in her eyes, secretly wishing she hadn't had him. She was greatly disappointed when her one and only son grew into the failure he is today. He didn't get into a prestigious high school and barely made it into the local one. He never really had a friend group, just barely able to make one friend. This look of pity directed right at him was all he could imagine when he thought about his mother.

Alex, with a moment of hesitation, pressed the 'call' button. Beep.....beep......beep.....  It felt like forever until his mother picked up. 

"Yes? Alexander? What is it?" She wasn't even trying to mask her cold tone. 

"Um, hi...so um....-" Oh my god, what do I even say? Alex started anxiously fidgeting with his fingers. 

"So there was this dead animal to the way from school to our house, and.....and it was this big deer that was murdered and I, like could feel something that killed it watching me, so I started running and.....y-you know, I'm like really scared righ-" 

"Huh? What are you coming up with this time? Are you ridiculous?" Alex automatically twitched. "I'm very busy right now, I don't have time for your little stories. Bye." 

How can she not believe me?!  "W-wait, I-" 

She hung up on him. 

Alex's eyes got a bit watery, and he frantically dialed the number again. 'No signal', it read suddenly.  What the fuck?? No NO NO!!

A few tears of frustration escaped his eyes. Alex looked out of the window in despair. Fuck..... 

This was definitely one of the moments he would REALLY appreciate some neighbors.