Round 2 Transcript

Jeane grips the lamp in both hands like a baseball bat and listens to the dark house. The rain makes everything sound too loud—the gutters, the eaves, the downspouts—but under all that water noise there's something else. A floorboard just shifted weight in the kitchen. She moves fast and quiet toward the narrow hallway, the lamp ready overhead. Whoever you are, this is private property and I'm armed. Leave now or things escalate. No answer comes but she hears it again—a soft scrape of shoe on tile in the direction of the back door where she heard it close. Time's up. She steps into the kitchen doorway, lamp high, and sees a figure moving near the window. Get out of my house.

The house is too quiet. The windows show only black woods and rain. She moves through the front sitting room with two guns drawn, flashlight beam cutting the darkness ahead. The lamp on the side table catches her eye—the heavy brass base could stop a person if swung right. Her ears strain for any sound beyond her own breathing. The house feels empty but that means nothing. Empty houses hide things. She checks behind the chair, crouches low, sweeps the beam under the furniture. Clear. The narrow hallway to the kitchen stretches ahead, dark and waiting. She can hear her own heartbeat now, too loud. Needs to move. Every second is risk. She creeps forward into the hall, back to the wall, guns ready, listening for any sound that doesn't belong.