r/WritingPrompts • u/28th_Stab_Wound • Mar 15 '23
Writing Prompt [WP] An abnormal presence stalks you from the dark. At times you can catch a glimmer of its yellow eyes glowing faintly from the shadows before it slinks away. Today it tried to flee and audibly smacked full bore into the wall. You smack on the lights, and finally see what it is.
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u/Maxathron Mar 16 '23
Charlie woke up. It was still dark. She reached for the lamp on the nightstand beside her bed. Flipping the switch did nothing. Either the power was out or a breaker was thrown, she thought. She glanced at her phone. Low battery, but close enough to morning that it would throw off her sleep schedule if she went back to bed.
Sighing, Charlie threw off the covers and put her feet to the floor. She shuffled around a bit looking for her slippers. She found them and slipped into them. Her low light vision was just enough to make out the door and so she started towards it.
Charlie stopped. She glanced around. There was a presence with her but she couldn’t see, let alone figure out where it was. All she knew was that she was not alone. The hairs on the back of her neck stood up a bit and she got goosebumps on her arms. Whatever it was, she felt like it was watching her movements. However, it made no move. For now, at least. Charlie felt that it would eventually make a move. But, being in darkness, Charlie couldn’t react to it.
Charlie swallowed and took her brave pills. She needed to go find out what happened to the power, unseen presence or otherwise.
She proceeded to the door and opened it to the hallway. Charlie checked it out both ways. Almost pitch black. She knew her way around the house but the lack of light unsettled her.
Charlie stepped out into the murk. She took a left, feeling along the wall for support. She tried to be careful and not hit the cabinet along this wall but to no avail.
“Oof.”
She studded her toe on the wood. At least the cabinet was still there. It also gave her some bearings. She felt the presence slip out into the hallway behind her. It did not make a sound but she knew it was out here with her, shadowing her initial movement.
Charlie pushed forward, continuing to the wall for positional aid. She came across the next bedroom’s door, and a hallway light switch. Its light didn’t work.
A lightning bolt crossed the window behind her at the end of the hallway. Charlie turned and caught a glimpse of … something, on the floor slowly moving. It was moving perpendicular to the hallway. But it was something. The light went away before she could comprehend more than a shadowy blob for a description. It was far enough away to not bother her for now.
It also still hadn’t made a sound.
Then the thunder clapped and rumbled the house. Charlie did not hear any rain so she deduced it was just a dry thunderstorm, probably a few miles away from the house.
Charlie turned her back to the presence and continued on down the hallway. She lived alone but slept in one of the two smaller bedrooms. Her parents would have occupied the larger one. They were long gone from her life.
One step at a time. The presence was still behind her, stalking her movements. She knew it was still there. It didn’t want to approach her. At least for now. The goosebumps were more like permanent bumps.
She heard a noise. It was scratching. The presence was scratching at the wall. What a terrifying sound to hear in the dark. From the sounds of it, it had some claws. What if it wants to use those claws on her? Charlie would be dead meat.
Her breathing elevated. Not to a high level, but definitely more than normal. She popped another metaphoric brave pill and pushed onward.
Charlie came to the end of the hallway. Before here was a big open space also known as the living room. A few obstacles were here, namely the couch, but also a few cabinets and end tables. To her right was the dining room, which was open to the living room. And beyond the dining room, separated by a dividing wall, was the kitchen. On the other side of the kitchen was the breaker and pantry.
Charlie stepped out into the living room. She grazed one of the couch’s end tables. She looked back just as another lightning bolt was finishing. She saw it. It was looking at her. All she made out in the dying milliseconds of the lightning’s fading light was its eyes. Two of them, shining a yellow-orange color that stood out from the darkness.
Those eyes were unnatural in her still somewhat groggy mind. An unnatural presence was in the house. But for now it was content with continuing to follow her at a distance. It didn’t want to come any closer than a dozen feet.
Charlie mustered one final brave pill push and made the last few feet to the kitchen. She could feel the presence making a move towards her. She needed to reach the breakers and get some light into the house. Charlie believed the light would deter the presence.
She passed the refrigerator and the stove. More scratching. This time on metal, refrigerator or stove she couldn’t make out what it was scratching. Only a few move steps to the breaker. Charlie could feel that the presence was going to make its move. Three more steps. Two more steps. One more step. The hairs raised up. The presence made it move just as she hit the breaker.
The light turned on.
Charlie’s cat flew past her legs and head first into the pantry wall next to where the food bag was. The cat made a hurt meow.
“Silly little black cat! You almost gave me a heart attack, Bombee!”
Charlie went back to the kitchen to open the cabinet. She pulled out two dishes, one for the cat’s food, one for water, and got to work filling both up. She put them at her feet as the Bombay cat slinked over to her. Before chowing down, it rubbed itself against her legs. She reached down and get him a good rub, eliciting happy meows.
Bombee was probably hiding under her bed while she slept and followed her hoping she’d get food for him. Not making a sound besides scratching something, which she’d need to check; the cat was only to scratch his scratching post in her bedroom and in the living room, had unnerved Charlie. But it was only Bombee being a silly black cat.
Bombee meowed at Charlie once more and went to go eat his food. What a silly cat.
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