It Was a Dark and Story Night (Happy Halloween)

It was a dark and stormy night. Damn, could she be any more cliché? Too bad she wasn’t a writer then she could come up with something better. Snoopy sitting on top of his stupid doghouse pounding away on his antique typewriter popped in her head and made her smile for half a second.

Where was Snoopy now? She sure could use a little silly, instead of a car that just stopped for no reason on a cold October night in the middle of an empty dirt road a mile from her home. She stared at the new car as the cold rain slid down her neck and back. She desperately wanted to kick it, but what good would that do besides really hurting her foot?

When she’d rushed out of the house that morning, it was a warm fall day. The sun was shining and the temperatures were promising to be in the low 60’s. Then, bam, sometime shortly before nightfall a cold front came through. Now here she was standing in a steady stream of cold rain as the temperature slowly fell. Soon, the rain would turn into snow, or at least that’d be her luck today.

Well, standing there wasn’t going to do her any good. She had no coat and no phone; she’d been running late that morning and managed to get out of the house without them. She opened the car door and leaned over to get the flashlight out of the compartment between the seats. At least she had that, so she guessed things could be worse.

She started walking down the dark road. No street lights on this road, why would they waste money on something like that? Oh, well, it was only a mile, even she could walk that. It was cold and she was wet, but the wind was only strong enough to cause the dried leaves to dance around before they got too wet and stuck to the road.

Swinging her flashlight around, she kept an eye on the side of the road. It was important to be alert, a deer or other wild animal could dart out of the surrounding woods at anytime.

She was moving quickly, even in heels she wasn’t going to hesitate. But it was hard to look to the side, listen for any sound, pray for a passing car that didn’t have a homicidal maniac in it, and look down at the uneven ground all at the same time.

She felt her foot turn and she suddenly fell to her knees. She kept a death-grip on the flashlight and fortunately, it didn’t break. She slowly pushed her way back to her feet, but now she’d twisted her ankle, and she could no longer move quickly at all.

She pushed herself every painful step. This was crazy; she was starting to become very afraid as the night sounds closed in.

It felt like she’d been walking for hours, and she was gritting her teeth trying not to falter from the pain that radiated up her leg from her ankle.

Finally she reached her doorstep. Damn, she’d forgotten to turn on the friggn’ light. The pumpkins put out a little light, but not enough to penetrate deeply into the darkness. Did she do anything right today? Well, at least she’d learned her lesson. She’d start earlier and make sure she had a coat, her cell phone and leave her outside light on. Yeah, that’d use a little energy, but damn, this was scary.

Hands wrapped around her, and she struggled as she was pulled against the hard chest of a man much stronger than she.

Before she could help herself, she was flying through the air to land on her back against the steps.

She couldn't see a face as the shape moved toward her. She lifted her flashlight which was still working, thank god, and saw the flash of metal just seconds before his hand jerked and the blade flew through the air towards her. She tried to move, only to realize she’d damaged her back when she hit the steps into her home, her safe haven from the world.

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