Stella turned off the light and climbed into bed. She leaned over to set her glasses on the bedside table when a movement near the foot of the bed caught her eyes. She sat up and put her glasses on. She leaned forward squinting in the dark to see what might have made that movement. She lived alone, no family, no pets.
After a moment she shook her head. “You’re just imagining things.”
Stella carefully set her glasses on the bedside table
and lay down. The events of the day ran
through her mind and soon she drifted off to sleep. Darkness thickened outside, clouds obscured
the moon and light was absent from the room.
“Creak.” The
sound echoed in the room. Stella
twitched. She drowsily opened her
eyes. “Creak!” Stella shot up in bed wide awake now. “Who’s there?”
Silence.
Stella grabbed her glasses and put them on as she flicked
on the light. Her eyes darted around the
room. Seeing nothing, she mustered up
the courage to move her blankets aside and slip out of bed. She grabbed her letter opener from the desk
as she left the room. She peered into
the hallway, listening carefully. When no
sounds came, she tiptoed down the hall, gripping the weapon in one hand and
running the other hand lightly along the wall.
She eased her way into the living room and edged along
the wall to the table lamp. With her
back to the wall, she took a steadying breath and clicked on the lamp. She locked eyes with a pair of beady, dark
eyes. The creature froze as did
Stella. They stared at each other for a long
moment before the creature grabbed an apple from the bowl on the coffee table
and scurried to the laundry chute, nudged it open and hurled itself in. Stella watched the creature’s tail disappear
as the tiny, laundry door flapped shut.
Stella blinked several times waiting to see if the door
would reopen. After a few minutes,
Stella took a steadying breath and muttered, “A raccoon…”
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