Chapter Three

20 3 1
                                    

Aurelia was lying in her bed, her thick, hand-sewn quilt pulled up to her chin, listening to her parents' contented chatter lifting through the air vents. She listened to the soft chink of wine glasses colliding, and her mother's soft chuckle.

Her parents were always happy together. In her seven years on this earth, she had only seen them fight once. A small disagreement over some woman. The fight had easily been resolved.

Every night, the two of them sat downstairs in their cozy living room, and talked. Aurelia loved listening to them. On weekends, they would even let her stay up with them, filling a wine glass with grape juice so she wouldn't feel left out. They would turn on a radio, turning down the volume until it faded to a lulling background noise.

But tonight, something was different. Aurelia could feel it, in her gut. A whirring note of anxiety. She could hardly breathe. Quietly, she swung her feet over the side of the bed, flinching when the bare skin made contact with the cold floor.

She padded silently to the window, and gazed out, her large gray eyes reflecting the stars. Two miniature universes in her face.

The full moon hung awkwardly in the sky, she noted. She anxiously tugged on the hem of her duck-printed night gown.

The anxiety tightened in her gut.

She wanted to leave, she was desperate to run downstairs, and bury her face in her momma's shoulder, and beg her to leave. She wanted her father to drive them far, far away.

She knew something was wrong. She just didn't know what. But whatever it was, it was big.

In the darkness, she could have sworn she saw a shadow shift.

As Dusk FallsWhere stories live. Discover now