Status: Updates are sporadic and may occur at whim, but I do try to add chapters regularly.
Silent Nights
In the Dark
As soon as I’m done eating I slip into the hall, leaving the other three in the master bedroom to check outside. With careful steps, staying on the side of the stairs, I make my way to the first floor and out the back door with a flashlight in hand and a knife on my belt. Once outside, I flick my flashlight off and allow my eyes to adjust to the dim light of a waning half-moon. I ease the door shut behind me and take a few steps toward the truck.
The windows in the master bedroom look out on the road. I follow the driveway around to the front of the house. The gravel crunches under my boots, so I step off of the slightly raised drive. The swish of the tall grass is easier to hear over. Along with my own sounds, the night is filled with the chorus of crickets and the occasional rustling of a breeze through the trees on the other side of the driveway. Without cars and planes and neighbors to make noise the world is quiet, but it’s more of a vacant kind of quiet rather than peaceful.
I step into the front yard- really more of a meadow at this point- and look up at the house. I made sure to cover the windows in the master room with blankets when we set up in there. I can still see light from the battery-powered lantern around the bottom of the window, though. I walk out toward the road to see how noticeable it is from further away, zipping my jacket up as I go.
It won’t be long now before the cold of winter sets in. That’ll be a whole new set of complications to figure out. All the preparations I’ll have to make will take at least the rest of the fall, and finding a new town as soon as possible is the top priority. I try to plan out the next few weeks in my head as I walk, swishing through the grass as I go. I’m just a few yards from the road when another noise catches my attention.
I stop immediately and drop into a crouch, but the other noise continues. I shift lower into the tall grass around me and listen. I recognize the crunch of the gravel driveway. But it’s not coming from the direction of the house. It’s not one of the other three. I bring my head just above the height of the grass and peer towards the driveway. There’s a shadow there, moving against the star-lit sky. It’s short but clearly human-shaped, and it’s downwind. I can’t smell it, so it could be dead or alive.
I chance a look at the house. My stomach sinks when I see that the light around the window is still clearly visible. I look back at the driveway. The unknown visitor is moving straight toward the house. Within a few steps it crosses from the gravel into the grass, catching itself without falling at the slight drop from the driveway to the yard.
All at once I realize that all signs point to a live intruder. Coordinated, unable to smell someone nearby and upwind, and out at night.
The windows in the master bedroom look out on the road. I follow the driveway around to the front of the house. The gravel crunches under my boots, so I step off of the slightly raised drive. The swish of the tall grass is easier to hear over. Along with my own sounds, the night is filled with the chorus of crickets and the occasional rustling of a breeze through the trees on the other side of the driveway. Without cars and planes and neighbors to make noise the world is quiet, but it’s more of a vacant kind of quiet rather than peaceful.
I step into the front yard- really more of a meadow at this point- and look up at the house. I made sure to cover the windows in the master room with blankets when we set up in there. I can still see light from the battery-powered lantern around the bottom of the window, though. I walk out toward the road to see how noticeable it is from further away, zipping my jacket up as I go.
It won’t be long now before the cold of winter sets in. That’ll be a whole new set of complications to figure out. All the preparations I’ll have to make will take at least the rest of the fall, and finding a new town as soon as possible is the top priority. I try to plan out the next few weeks in my head as I walk, swishing through the grass as I go. I’m just a few yards from the road when another noise catches my attention.
I stop immediately and drop into a crouch, but the other noise continues. I shift lower into the tall grass around me and listen. I recognize the crunch of the gravel driveway. But it’s not coming from the direction of the house. It’s not one of the other three. I bring my head just above the height of the grass and peer towards the driveway. There’s a shadow there, moving against the star-lit sky. It’s short but clearly human-shaped, and it’s downwind. I can’t smell it, so it could be dead or alive.
I chance a look at the house. My stomach sinks when I see that the light around the window is still clearly visible. I look back at the driveway. The unknown visitor is moving straight toward the house. Within a few steps it crosses from the gravel into the grass, catching itself without falling at the slight drop from the driveway to the yard.
All at once I realize that all signs point to a live intruder. Coordinated, unable to smell someone nearby and upwind, and out at night.