Once Around The Writer's Block, a short story by Bob Richardson

Once Around the Writer's Block - Page 2

"What time is it?"

"Hmm?" He had to struggle to get his eyes open. It was dark, the pitch dark silence of the deepest part of night. Sarah was sitting up staring at uneasy shadows.

"They're moving again, Dave. Honest to ... "

She was frozen. He could feel goose bumps on her arm as he sat up to see nothing at all around him. Nothing but the darkness.

"Please ... say you see them too ..." Sarah shivered and jumped at his touch. Dave nodded as he tucked a pillow behind his back. "They're just shadows, Sarah. I mean, they aren't talking or anything are they?" He teased. "Don't. It isn't funny. They're real, I tell you, and they keep coming back now, every night."

"Shadows tend to do that ..." He murmured before realizing the sound of his cutting words was too harsh. It was as if she hadn't heard him, lost in her own fearful world.

"They are whispering now. Dave make them stop!" She was almost yelling, her hands covered her ears, her body next to his felt rigid and cold as a corpse.

He sighed and leaned over to the bedside lamp, flicked the switch, but nothing happened. Her hands moved then, fiercely clamping onto him like a vise.

"Where are you going, don't leave me!" Hysteria had crept into her voice.

"Did you take your pills?" Dave sighed, running a hand through his thatch of dark curly hair as he sat at the edge of the bed. His feet hunted for his slippers. "I'm just going to get the light, honey...."

"Please ...." she whimpered, crawling on the bed up against his back. "They want me to go with them. Don't let them take me ..."

"Come on! Sarah, get a hold of yourself! It's nothing, nothing at all!" He stood up, wrenching her from him as he walked towards the wall switch, flooding the room with light.

"There ... see?" But there was nothing to see. He knew there wouldn't be. He turned to the bed with a reassuring smile.

"Come on, Sarah?" He leaned over the bed, wondering where she was hiding ... but she wasn't there, either. She was gone. It was as simple as that. Even the sweet scent of her was simply ...