Lilies And Smoke

CHAPTER NINE: A cold presence

Anita waits all night for Janice to call, but no such call came. She tries multiple times to ring her throughout the night, but it went to voice mail. Disappointed, she decides to go to bed and finishes her cup of tea she made earlier. I should drink more of my coffee; she notes to herself as she downs the rest of her lukewarm drink. She places it at the side of her sink and decides to make her way upstairs. She was still on edge from the night before, shaking her head at her upset. My imaginations getting the better of me, it's probably because I was thinking of Andy, she tells herself, moving towards the hallway. Or maybe it was because of my baby, she contemplates.

Not wanting to approach those memories again, she hums a tune in her head. She wasn't certain where it had come from, but she assumes it's from an advertisement she's heard at some point on the television. She looms at the stairs, her fingertips touching the banister. "Bill" she calls softly. She hears Bill walk up behind her slowly, coming out of the office. She begins her ascent up the stairs and edges into her room. Her room was now warm, she smiles and praises to herself for remembering to turn the heating on. She glides into her room, edges around her bed and finally climbs in. She hadn't made her bed this morning, she had forgotten due to her tired state. She purses her lips in annoyance to this, as she liked to keep a routine.

She pulls the covers over her and settles into her bed. She sits there for a while contemplating whether to read her book but decides otherwise and lies down. Pulling the covers up to her shoulders as she closes her eyes. Finding it difficult to sleep, she decides to call for Bill, "Bill" she calls lightly. Bill gets up from the floor and walks to the head of the bed, sniffing at her as she nudges her head against his. "Come up" she demands nicely and listens as he jumps up.

"Oof!" she calls as his paw presses on her stomach, "careful" she says as he walks on her bed and flops down on the end. She felt a lot safer when Bill was with her, feeling slightly silly at the same time for wanting him in the room. She began to drift off to sleep, feeling warmer than the night prior.

. . . . .

There was an unsettling chill, slivering its way from Anita's ankle to her upper thigh. Anita stirs in her sleep. It wraps itself around her other leg, making the little hairs on her legs stand straight. It was a strange pricking sensation as it dares to further advance, touching against her skin as it etches towards her stomach. The coldness licks her ear and trails its tongue along her jaw and down her neck. Anita rolls over in her bed, moving her legs up into a tight ball. The room was freezing, the window opens only slightly as the cool air flaps at her curtains. Anita's toes warm by Bill's fur, she curls them as she rubs her face into her pillow and moans. Lost in her dream, she mumbles out loud.

The coldness walks around her bed, edging closer to touch her face. Pinching her cheeks and blowing on her nose, she stirs now shivering in her bed. Goose flesh appears along her arms as it coats all over her body. Something odd, something freezing trails it's fingers up her leg. Anita jolts upwards at this sudden sensation, panting wildly. She feels her leg, but nothing was there. Scared, she shakes uncontrollably from the cold and rubs her arms. She pats and spreads her hands out over her bed. Her quilt wasn't there, she presses on further down the bed and finds the front of her quilt. She grabs hold of it, pulling it back up towards her. She moves her left hand over the quilt and towards Bill's side of the bed. The quilt had moved on her side only, she listens as Bill's light snore. She smiles weakly and gets out of and traces her hand along the wall until she meets the window. She finds the handle and closes it shut. The window was barely open. I need to stop leaving this open, it's getting me all worked up she thinks to herself upsettingly.

She closes the curtain a little, to encourage her not to open this window in future. Satisfied she'd remember this, she begins to turn around and walks to her bed. Unsettled, she sits in her bed and counts to twenty. The numbers flowing over and over again in her mind as she repeats this process until she calms herself down. Number always did this for her, it was her technique to calm herself if she really needed it in most situations. She leans over across her bed and brushes her fingers through his soft silky fur.

A scratching noise resonates through the room, Anita tilts her head and listens carefully. She sniffs the air, but it was stale, and she could faintly smell Bill's scent. He smells of the expensive dog shampoo she had bought him, she inhales what she seems to be a little hair and blows her nose out. She sighs, I should go back to sleep.

The scratching noise gets louder, Anita's breathing hitches. She slowly crawls to the other side of the bed, listening closely at the noise. It was the sound of nails clawing its way through the wardrobe door. Her lungs tighten, her breathing shallow and rapid. Boom-boom, boom-boom, boom-boom, her heart pounds in her cheat. Boom-boom, boom-boom, boom-boom, the scratching gets louder. Boom-boom, boom-boom, boom-boom, Anita can't manage to take a breath.

Boom-boom, boom-boom, boom-boom, the scratching gets more violent, the door shaking at its claws. Boom-boom, boom-boom, boom-boom, Anita clutches her chest, her heart about to burst. Boom-boom, boom-boom, boom-boom, the clawing comes to a stop.

Her heart spasms in her chest, its rhythm off beat and hard. A moment of silence cuts through the air, as she inhales a sharp breath.

BANG!

The doors of the wardrobe fly open, smacking the wall behind it violently. Anita scrambles to the back of her bed, screaming in horror. Bill awakens and lets out a vicious, horrible growl.