The Thing That Goes Bump In The Night

Although Lacey found herself alone, this time her solitude was self imposed.  She really needed to get writing this book.  Maybe because its perfection was so important to her, she found it difficult to begin.  Or maybe it was just transcribing her thoughts that made her weary.  But this time she was determined.  She wouldn’t work in her apartment, or at the library.  There were too many things easily available to distract her from her mission.

Tonight she would be at her parent’s house.  They had actually taken off for New York City for a few days, and Lacey was feeding their cat.  She turned into the long driveway up to their two story home. She pulled right up to the garage, picked her laptop and purse out of the passenger side of the car, shut the door and went in. 

She had put off the inevitable for far too long.  It was time to set up the lap top and get to work.  To assist in this mission, she decided that she would not set up the laptop in the kitchen.  Instead, she went into the dining room to set up on the dining room table.  The kitchen was too close to the television, and possible temptation away from writing.

The dining room had a long dark wood table, with decorative candles in the center.  She plugged in her laptop, sat down, and turned it on.  As it started up, she got out her scrap paper and pen out of her purse and set it down next to her lap top.  By that time, her lap top had fully booted up, and she could open up the word program and look at the blank screen.  She started typing, but after twenty minutes, she started to get really sleepy.  Cursing herself for not making a coffee before sitting down, she decided to just put her head down on the table for a couple minutes to rest her eyes.

A sound woke Lacey and as she lifted her head up, she saw that it was now pitch dark in the room.  She had no idea how much time had passed.  She got up, holding her hands out as she edged toward where she believed the wall to be.  Luckily, she was correct.  Lacey was able to then feel along the wall until she found the light switch. She turned the light on and was disappointed at how dim the room still seemed. She was able to make out everything in the room, of course, but it gave precious little extra light to illuminate the hallway toward where the next light switch was located.  

Suddenly, Lacey heard a creek in the floorboards down the hall.  She felt a chill go down her spine.  She now wished she had turned every light on in the house before starting to write.  Of course it was too late for that now.  She cursed herself for being such a scaredy cat.  She probably just imagined the sound.  If she hadn’t, it was probably just the cat going down the hall.  She decided to put her mind at ease, and make a coffee in the kitchen, before getting back to work.  She turned on the hallway light and then went toward the television room to check where the cat usually was.  Lacey was able to see the dark shape of the cat rolled in a ball in the chair.  She turned on the light into the room and the cat lifted her head and blinked, adjusting to the light.  Seeing the cat do this gave Lacey gooseflesh.  She sucked in her breath.  The cat had been sleeping!  She couldn’t have made the sound Lacey heard!

Her imagination got the better of her and Lacey started to think about what she could use as a weapon.  Her gaze focused on the fireplace in the room, and then rested on the poker in its holder.  She went over to it and tried to pick it up.  It was actually heavier than she thought it would be.  It wasn’t really something she could really use one arm and swing.  But swinging with both hands, well the weight would be useful!  She started to pick it up with both hands and it creeked in its perch.  Since Lacey was afraid she wasn’t alone, every sound she heard seemed magnified.  The sound that came from the poker as she lifted it seemed to her as if it could be heard blocks away.  Lacey shuttered, afraid that surely the cacophony coming from the fireplace would alert the intruder that she was there. 

After what felt like eons, Lacey was successful in getting the poker out of its holder.  She lifted it up with both hands and rested it on her left shoulder, as if she were a batter waiting for the pitcher to get in place. 

Lacey knew she wouldn’t be able to shake this feeling of dread until she had gone downstairs and checked the basement.  She went back into the hallway and headed toward the door down.  The door was not shut tightly because the cat needed to go downstairs to her litter box.  Lacey attempted to use the toe of her ballerina style flat to open the door, afraid to remove both hands from the poker.  The door wouldn’t budge.  Noticing that her hands were getting clammy anyway she decided to take one hand off the poker.  She kept the poker balanced on her shoulder as she took her left hand off the handle.  Lacey wiped her hand on the left thigh of her jeans, took a deep breath, and opened the door.

Much to Lacey’s dismay, the door creaked as it opened!  She sucked in her breath and pinched her eyes closed.  Everything seemed quiet then, so she opened her eyes again and start eddown.  She was once again clutching both hands on the poker.  She was so focused, she didn’t even turn on the light down the stairs!  She got half way down the stairs when she noticed a faint glow emanating from somewhere on the right side, behind a corner of the large basement where there was a smaller room.  Lacey was frozen with fear.  If she bolted back up the stairs to call the police, the intruder would hear her and get to her long before the police arrived! 

Besides, it was still possible that someone just left the light on in the room and there was no one actually there.  Lacey held her breath, tightened her grip on the poker and started to continue her stealthy decline down the stairs trying so carefully not to make the stairs creek under her feet. 

All of a sudden, Lacey heard the loud crash of a glass bottle shattering on the floor!  Without even realizing she did it, a cry escaped Lacey’s lips as she jumped with the sound.  The poker fell out of her hands and clattered down the remaining steps to the cement floor.

All of a sudden, a tall dark figure came out of the little room.  “Shit Lacey!  Why didn’t you turn on the light before you came down, “ her brother scolded.  “Want a beer?”