The joints began to ache. The finger joints.
I curled them up. My right middle-finger cracked. The sound resounded deafeningly across the silent room.
The room wasn't silent. The piano was banging out a raucous Piano Variations. The computer hummed. The glow of the screen illuminated my face, and only my face.
I rustled through my papers in the dim, flickering LCD light. My arms were cold. My joints ached.
I was in need of a bathroom break. I didn't want to go.
Fifteen minutes later, I left the piano banging and stood up to take my break. My door was in the way. I sat back down. I stood back up, went to the door, thought about opening it, then sat on the bed. It was waiting for me on the other side. All I had to do was open the door, then I would be gone, stolen, eaten, forgotten.
I opened the door. There was nothing there, only darkness and the thin strip of light from the LCD inside the room. No, there was something there. I flipped on the switch to my room light. Well, whatever it was, it had disappeared. But it had definitely been there. I saw it, with my own blinded eyes in the searing darkness. I could hear it too. I could hear the silence, the creeping, tremulous silence it produced.
I walked down the short hallway, past the spot where the thing had been. The echoes of its voice still reverberated in my ears. The strip of light reaching out of my room grew as the door creaked open. The room light probably added to its intensity too. You never know.
I turned the corner into the bathroom.
I curled them up. My right middle-finger cracked. The sound resounded deafeningly across the silent room.
The room wasn't silent. The piano was banging out a raucous Piano Variations. The computer hummed. The glow of the screen illuminated my face, and only my face.
I rustled through my papers in the dim, flickering LCD light. My arms were cold. My joints ached.
I was in need of a bathroom break. I didn't want to go.
Fifteen minutes later, I left the piano banging and stood up to take my break. My door was in the way. I sat back down. I stood back up, went to the door, thought about opening it, then sat on the bed. It was waiting for me on the other side. All I had to do was open the door, then I would be gone, stolen, eaten, forgotten.
I opened the door. There was nothing there, only darkness and the thin strip of light from the LCD inside the room. No, there was something there. I flipped on the switch to my room light. Well, whatever it was, it had disappeared. But it had definitely been there. I saw it, with my own blinded eyes in the searing darkness. I could hear it too. I could hear the silence, the creeping, tremulous silence it produced.
I walked down the short hallway, past the spot where the thing had been. The echoes of its voice still reverberated in my ears. The strip of light reaching out of my room grew as the door creaked open. The room light probably added to its intensity too. You never know.
I turned the corner into the bathroom.
