Flash Fiction Entry 2.28

    She sat on the front porch swing wrapped in a blanket and reading her favorite book.  The air was chilly from the storm that had passed through, so she sipped on a cup of hot tea to keep her warm.  She rocked back and forth in the swing flipping through the pages but not comprehending what she read.  Her mind was elsewhere.  She thought about the mysterious man she saw earlier and wondered what his story was.  Eventually, she gave up on reading and closed her book. 
    She began to stare at the large, abandoned house across the street.  It had always been a mystery to her.  It was an old antebellum home that no one had lived in it for years.  She could tell that it used to be white, but now, from time and neglect, it was a faded grey with paint chipping off the wooded siding.  As she sat and stared, something odd happened. 
    It was getting dark, so she couldn’t be certain, but she thought she saw movement in the upstairs window.  As she gazed more intently at the window, a glimmer of light flashed by.  Startled by what she saw, she jumped up, gathered her things, and ran inside.  As she made her way upstairs to her room, she tried to convince herself that she was just seeing things.
    When she reached her room, she threw down her blanket and book and made her way to the window just to have one last look at the old house.  The house was dark.  There was no movement and no light.  She was now convinced that she hadn’t seen anything.  As she stared out her window, she noticed, under the glow of the porch light, strange muddy footprints in her yard, leading toward the front door…