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She put the spoon in the sink, deciding to wash it in the morning. She switched off the light, leaving the room in semi-darkness, needing a second or two for her eyes to adjust to the lack of light. With her cup in her hand, she walked slowly back to her room. When she reached it, she stopped.
Something was off. The rain was still tapping against her window, harder and harder, and the wind howled outside. The door to her room was wide open, but she could swear she had left it only ajar, so that she wouldn’t release too much light into the hallway. Now, the door was wide open. They had a cat, but Missy was an outside cat. She was never allowed in the house, so it was impossible that Missy got in and pushed the door open.
Eva swallowed heavily. She rubbed her eyes with her left knuckle, as if trying to shoo away any possible remnants of sleep. Now, she was wide awake. And, she knew something was wrong. She could feel it in her gut.
She took one step closer. The silence was overpowering. She glanced at the door to her grandparents’ room. It was closed, like before. She wondered if she should just run over there, like she used to do when she was little, or convince herself that this was all in her mind. A second later, she chose the second option. Taking one more step, then one more, she was in the doorway of her room.
Nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary. Her bed was just as she had left it, the little lamp in the corner still on. Then, thunder sounded, even louder than before, and she jumped, spilling her cocoa on the carpeted floor.
“Oh, shit!” she said, a little more loudly than she had intended to.
She took the cup with her other hand, and shook her fingers a little, trying to get the milk off. It was then that she felt a slight breeze. Her glance traveled towards the window in lightning speed and to her horror, she saw it was open, the curtains floating left and right.
It was firmly closed when she left the room, she was sure of that, as she never opened the windows while it was raining. She walked over quickly to it and looked outside. A strong gush of wind lifted her hair, then threw it back in her face. She pushed it away with her free hand, not even thinking of putting down the cocoa.
She looked out the window left and right, only being able to see a part of the pathway, which led up to the house. There were puddles scattered all over the place and nothing else. Nothing seemed out of place. There was no indication of anyone being there. Just endless rain.
Eva quickly pulled back, then pushed the window closed, locking it. She checked the lock. It seemed sturdy enough, but this was an old house, and all old houses eventually needed repair. It was probably just that. The wind was strong, the lock was weak, or maybe she herself didn’t even lock it properly, so the wind pushed it open. There was probably a draft somewhere in the house as well, which pushed the door open, too.
“That’s probably it,” Eva said aloud, trying to convince herself of what she was saying, as she put the cocoa down on the little nightstand.
But, those little hairs on the back of her neck wouldn’t go down. It was like her gut was telling her there was more to the story. Finally, she decided to listen. She rushed out of her room, one slipper even fell off her foot, but she didn’t even consider going back after it. In two seconds, she was standing before the closed doors to her grandparents’ bedroom.
She lifted her hand, and knocked gently at first. She wanted to wake them up, but she felt bad about it, as there was probably nothing to worry about. This was all in her mind - surely. Still, she wanted to hear her grandma say that, and only then would she be able to go back to bed, and possibly fall asleep.
After that first knock, she waited a second. There was nothing but silence. She tried again, a little louder this time, but, it was the same. She pressed the handle and the door opened. The room was dark but enough moonlight was oozing through the window for Eva to recognize the two slumbering figures on the bed. She moved closer to them and walked over to the side where her grandma was sleeping.
Familiar glasses lay neatly folded on the little nightstand, on top of the latest book her grandma was reading, before bedtime. Eva almost changed her mind. Her grandma was sleeping so sweetly, that she didn’t want to wake her up. But, then there was another stroke of thunder and lightning and Eva knew that it was a night when she needed someone next to her.
“Grandma?” Eva whispered softly, leaning closer to her grandma’s face.
But, her grandma was still sleeping soundly, with a visibly rhythmical rising and lowering of the side of her body, underneath the covers.
“Grandma?” she put her hand on grandma’s shoulder this time, in a more zealous effort to wake her up.
No success. Eva thought that maybe her grandma took a sleeping pill or something. She would have taken one herself, but she couldn’t get her hands on one.
“Grandma?” she called out, even louder this time, knowing that she might wake them both up.
But, nothing happened. Eva shook her grandma by the shoulder. Still nothing.
“Grandma, wake up!”
She kept pushing, now both of them, but they seemed dead to the waking world. Eva grabbed her by the wrist, checking her pulse. She exhaled with relief, realizing that she felt it. They weren’t dead. So, why weren’t they waking up?
She eyed them both, in the dark, two sleeping bodies, unable to be woken up. Now, that feeling of fear was creeping up on her even faster, its cold fingers clutching at her shoulder, reminding her that, instead of disappearing, it was present more than ever. Eva felt cold sweat dripping from the sides of her face, when she saw a shadow on the door. She almost shrieked.
Her mind raced, trying to come up with a means of escape. Running out the door was impossible. Whoever it was, she was sure he wouldn’t let her pass. The window was on her left, but they were on the second floor and it was pretty high up. She remembered the tree which was a little to the side. If she managed to get out of the window in time and walk three steps on the ledge, over to her room, she’d be able to jump onto the tree and lower herself down, with maybe just a scratch or two.
As these thoughts and ideas swarmed inside her mind, the shadow at the door became bigger and bigger, and Eva knew that someone was coming closer and closer. He would be here any second. She had to act now.
She rushed over to the window, flipping the same lock as she had in her room, then tried to pull the window to open. It wouldn’t budge.
“Shit!” she hissed to herself.
At that moment, her grandma stirred slightly.
“Grandma!” Eva shouted, panicking by now, hoping that either of them would hear her and wake up.
