Ladies of Horror Flash Project – #Horror #author Kathryn Ptacek @darc_nina #LoH #fiction

The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!

Moonlight Sonata
by Kathryn Ptacek

The moon dipped down through the black sky and followed me home.

Every time I paused and glanced back over my shoulder, I saw the moon, so low, so close, bathing me in its white light. Watching me.

I felt a coldness even though it was a warm night. My skin prickled where the light caressed it. I started to walk faster, then began running.

Finally, I reached my cottage, and I rushed in and slammed the door shut. No moonlight crept in under the door, but I could see it wending its way through the gap in the curtains in the nearby window.

Cautiously, I moved across to the window and tried to close the gap. The light coming in settled on my skin, and I felt a cold burning sensation. I jerked my hand back and finished closing the drapes all the way.

I realized my heart was pounding, and I took a few deep breaths. I had to calm down. Somehow.

I checked the other windows, and all the drapes were firmly closed, which reassured me. By then, I had calmed down a bit, and I could start to prepare my dinner. It didn’t take long before I could settle down at the table and eat the leftover casserole from the night before. My mind kept going back to the moon … it had seemed so malevolent tonight, and I didn’t know why. It had never been like that before.I had been out plenty of times at night and come home with only the moonlight to guide me. But not tonight … Something had changed … somehow.

I remember in the past waking up at night, and I’d be in bed, all awash with the white light from the moon. And I had relished it. The moon had been my friend then, my companion. Long ago.

I washed my dishes and swept the kitchen, then readied myself for bed. I checked the bedroom, and the drapes were tightly shut there. Good. I crawled into bed and read for a while, then eventually turned off the light. The room was totally dark. I breathed a sigh of relief. Not long after that I fell asleep.

Sometime later, I awoke. I had heard something. Something outside.

An animal, I told myself. I lived in the middle of the woods, so it wasn’t unexpected to get various critters poking around outside. I made sure to leave no food scraps out there, but even so, some of the woodland creatures were ever hopeful.

But this sound seemed different … I didn’t know why. It was more persistent … and not low to the ground like the sound a raccoon or possum might make. The scritching continued. I told myself to go back to sleep. The doors were secure, as were the windows. Nothing to worry about.

I slept fitfully after that, and every time I woke, I could hear the sound outside. No animal would continue for so long. Was it some human lost in the woods? Or come to break in? No, I thought, because they wouldn’t have kept up for so long. Besides, a robber would just break a window, right?

I shivered.

I stood up and walked into the front room. I paused and listened to the scratching at the door. It went from the threshold all the way up to the top of the door and then back in. Over and over. It never stopped.

I peeked quickly out the window but saw nothing out of the ordinary. I couldn’t see if anyone or anything stood in front of the door. Not from that angle, that is.

I put my hands over my ears, but I could still hear the noise, and I thought at that point, the scratching seemed almost frantic. I couldn’t block the sound out, no matter what.

Finally, I couldn’t stand it any longer, and I unlocked the door and flung it wide open … and there was nothing there. No human, no animal. Just the white light of the bright moon, so close, so intent … and as the light crept across the ground to my feet, I could feel the burning again. Slowly the light inched up me, and I watched as my nightgown burst into cold flames, and by then I couldn’t move, and it was too late, as the moonlight took me in.