“Be safe Lucy, okay?” I groan, pulling my aunt Jill into yet another hug as she hovers in the doorway, reluctant to leave.
“I’ll be fine, just go!” I say, trying to sound reassuring, yet willing her to go.
A clap of thunder sounds in the distance.
Jill jumps and pushes me back, giving me a shy smile before she kisses my cheek goodbye. I wave her off, watching till the last second as she drives off down the street. As soon as she’s out of sight, I slam the door shut and turn to my empty house with a beaming smile.
“Alone at last,” I whisper into the silence.
My parents are out on a romantic trip for the weekend, and seeing as I’m an only child, I have the house to myself. I’ve never been left alone before, so I can’t wait.
Being the cautious person I am though, I don’t forget to lock all of the doors and windows before the real fun begins.
By the time it’s midnight, and the storm is in full rage overhead, I finally call it a night and head off for bed. I thought being home alone would be more fun, don’t get me wrong, eating whatever I want and singing at the top of my lungs is fun, but really, I do that anyway. Without an audience to annoy, it gets old fast.
As I pull back the covers and climb into bed, I make sure that my special protector unicorn pet is by my side as I snuggle down. It’s a pillow pet okay, and I can’t sleep without it. I turn off my bedside light, thrusting the room into darkness.
My eyelids barely flutter closed before a sound catches my attention.
It sounds like tapping. I sit up onto my elbows and peer around the pitch black room. Nothing seems out of order. I strain my ears; the sound is faint, almost like it’s coming from downstairs.
I swallow thickly, checking my bedside clock. The time reads 1:14am. A loud clap of thunder sounds, and the room is thrust into temporary light as a flash of lightning strikes in the sky. It would be crazy to go look right?
I try and relax back into my mattress, cuddling my unicorn ‘fuzzy’ to my side. This is just my nerves playing tricks on me, nothing is happening, I’m fine. I try and reassure myself, but every time I close my eyes, it’s all I hear.
As time slowly ticks away, and I remain alert and awake, I finally snap.
“This is ridiculous,” I mutter, to no-one in particular, as I thrust back my quilt cover and hang my feet over the side of the bed. ‘I should just go check, just to get piece of mind, then maybe I can finally sleep’. I reach for my bedside light as I continue to reassure myself. ‘I bet it’s just the wind or a tapping tree branch’.
I try the switch for the lamp three times, but it fails to come on. I curse, and quickly snap my eyes to my alarm clock. The time is still illuminated, so why isn’t my lamp working?
I give up and head for a drawer by my bed. Thankfully, I’m quite the camper, so I know I have a working torch resting within one of my drawers. Sure enough, I find a large pink torch. I quickly switch it on, and head out into the hallway, not without picking up my unicorn from my bed though.
My footsteps echo and creek as I walk down the hall towards the stairs. The house seems eerily still, and to my surprise, the landing light refuses to turn on too. That’s when I remember, my alarm runs on batteries. I laugh a little into the quite house, but my face instantly falls as I realise that the power is out. The laughter dies from my lips.
Standing looking down the dark stairs, I suddenly feel extremely vulnerable. The tapping sounds louder now, so I know it’s definitely coming from downstairs. I hold my torch up, squeezing my unicorn tighter, as I creep slowly down.
