Thursday, December 2, 2010

in the dark

Lucy had been anticipating all of Thanksgiving for Ka-Rad's brother to show up, but he never did.

Of course, they all had to listen to Ka-Rad's spill about his name being Todd around his brother. "He goes ballistic. Says, its just silly and crazy. So, I should just stick with my real name. OK." It was official right after slicing the turkey. He'd be Todd now, not Ka-Rad. Lucy wasn't fond of it because he'd always be Ka-Rad to her, but she didn't give him any grief about it with Spencer around. It was a bit nauseating seeing them all lovey. But then again, it might have been morning sickness.

She didn't make it to the concert. She was tired and went home to rest. And she did. She barely got her shoes off, crawled under the covers and went sound to sleep. Of course, it was about 2 in the morning when she had to go pee.

It was in the bathroom that she thought she heard a noise coming from the other side of the wall. She knew she had the only flat, upstairs, over the bookstore which wasn't even running these days. It would have been nice to have had the heat from the store. But she wouldn't complain. She had her own privacy, and she felt safe there even if she were the only one in the building.

But there went that thump, again. She winced, listening carefully. Maybe she wasn't alone. This was disturbing. She wanted to call Ka-Rad aka Todd, but she didn't want to bother him for no reason, either. But still, maybe she should. She walked around quietly and found her cell in her bag.

Lucy took a deep breath. Why had she wanted to be so brave? And all alone? Maybe she could call Cory, but no, she knew he'd be tired and they hadn't exactly been on speaking terms, lately. He was not in the mood to even want her around. Or so she thought. He made her think he was mad at her. Maybe he was. She wasn't sure what he even wanted from her anymore. The craziness of their so-called romance was certainly over. It had been over for a long time. She guessed since that argument over the summer about Ka-Rad.

Lucy felt a little scared now. Here she was standing in the little studio apartment as if she might be a statue in the dark with only the bathroom light on. Suddenly a chill came over her. She squinted, thinking how unhappy her life really was. But not completely. She wanted to love her baby. And she did. Probably more than herself. She couldn't... not eat for it. So she went to the little kitchen, found the brown bread and some peanut-butter for a sandwich. She poured herself a glass of milk. But the snack would not be complete without a dill pickle on the side.

She smiled with satisfaction once she bit into the sandwich followed by a slow drink of milk and a crunchy dill pickle. Yes, everything was OK. Really, she would call Todd in the morning, as Ka-Rad liked to be referred to now. Maybe it was rat or something. She didn't want to think that. Really. She hoped not. She hoped it was her imagination. Only it wasn't. Someone came out of the shadows. The peanut-butter sandwich must have smelled swell.

4 comments:

Cafe Fashionista said...

Ohmigosh what a cliffhanger. Who is it?! :/

Sara said...

creepy! I hope everything is okay!!

ellie said...

Wow, that would be a shock to know someone was in your apartment.

Unknown said...

so scary!