1 Something At The Window

Collin lay quietly in his bed willing his body not to move. He stretched his blanket- given to him earlier that year on his tenth birthday- over his head. His nose burned with the same odor he once smelled driving past a dead deer on the side of the road. He remembered his dad complaining to his mom about the city not cleaning it up yet.

Low guttural groans and a gentle clicking at his second-story window sent shivers across his body. Collin took a deep breath of rotten air and held it in as he pieced together the courage to peek. He gripped the blanket as hard as he could, and slowly raised the edge, letting the pale light of the moon creep into the safety of his refuge. Suddenly, the sound of clicking stopped and the groan faded to silence. 

He studied the dark window for several minutes, but only saw the silhouette of branches from a nearby tree. He slowly sat up, ready to pull the blanket back over his head in an instant. He turned his head towards the rest of his room as his eyes darted around looking for anything out of the normal. 

Coat hanging up in the corner- check. Closet door securely shut- check. The clothes he wore that day scattered across the floor- check. Toybox against-- a faint sliding sound behind him, broke his thought. 

Collin jerked his head back to look, as a bone-chilling breeze swept through the room. He froze. His eyes stretched wide, and his heart pounded profusely as he stared at the now wide-open window. The branches outside swayed with the wind as it blew into the room in intervals, each time bringing the stench of something long dead. 

He slowly pushed the blanket off and stretched his legs towards the side of the bed that faced the bedroom door. Never taking his eyes off the window, he crept off as his blanket slid and fell to the floor. 

A guttural groan radiated from the window as a pair of red eyes appeared in the shadows of the branches. Long spindly claws folded around each side of the window sill as the eyes moved closer. Appearing in the dim light, a flesh torn animal skull with antlers, chittered at him.

Collin screamed. "Mom!" He jumped from the bed and started to run towards the door. Loud growling noises wailed behind him followed by the sound of glass shattering. 

Halfway across the room, his foot got tangled in the dirty clothes on the floor. His body slammed down just short of the bedroom door. Cold, long, hard claws wrapped around his foot as he tried to scramble forward. Sounds of his parents rushing up the stairs echoed in the hallway in front of him as he slowly slid backward.  

T.W.Murdock