This darkness

Are you afraid of the dark?

These were the words popping up in her brain when she tried to fall asleep. She tossed and turned, fully clothed, underneath a thin cover she found in a cupboard beside the bed.

What if they found me in this abandoned house I have broken into? What if somebody had seen me and called the police? I am not up to jail time, not this time.

A car passing and honking, a cat crying in the distance, a squicking floor, every sound was equally alarming.

Hold on, a squicking floor? She jumped out of bed and sat trembling at the edge.

Was that above me or in the next room? Was there somebody else in the house?

With squinted eyes, she tried to concentrate on all the sounds. Stiff like a shingle, not to move a muscle.

Inhale, exhale.

Nothing, there was nothing! And after minutes she relaxed a little bit.

"Don’t get psyched up, girl." She whispered, peeping through the window, to a full moon.

Inhale, exhale.

The rat was a surprise.

In the corner of the room, the little animal passed a plinth and sniffed its way toward the bed.

She removed a wooden bar from under the sheet with one swing and smashed it onto the little bastard.

Splash.

Blood and hair swirling through the room.

Then, suddenly, she felt the sadness creeping up and leaving her body.

Oh my God, what have I done?

Second this rat.

But earlier, much earlier ex Barry!

At her mind’s eye, she recalled him coming to the house unannounced.

The quarrel, the fight ending with her taking a swing and running into the night with the bloody bat still in her hand.

Then she started sobbing.

Drip, drip, drip.



WC:296