Provenance Black

Embrace

  There is a moment when the day and night battle. The colours blur together as the last rays flick from yellow orange then pink to purple before the final darkness of nights sweeps over, only highlighted by a few shimmering silver dots. In London, the change is hardly noted as a halo of aesthetic light permanently illuminates the city so that once night officially falls, there is only the black and the light and no stars. There is one street only where the stars can be seen; on the cobbled streets the inhabitants often look up so that they can leave when the first stars light reaches them and then they can leave. Some that live there just want to go out and have fun, to party, to drink amongst the unsuspecting and embrace life whereas other wish to embrace the lives of others for their own enjoyment. Both concepts sound similar to most but this is rarely the case.

  Maggie Tarquin sat watching a chick flick, wrapped in a fluffy blanket with her favorite anime series adorning it as her cat prowled the apartment. The stache of the last of the popcorn sat on the table, almost forgotten as she tapped away on her phone.

  "I did it because I love you!"

  "And I love you"

  "Oh Julia.."

  "Oh Micheal"

  "Oh blech!" The television set snapped to another channel where a b-rate horror with bad werewolf costumes and nordic looking women with large breasts screamed. Maggie chuckled when an actor ran on to save her, his overly dramatic entrance reminding her of an over eager puppy. In the streets below, tires screeched as someone sped around the corner and drunken hilarities drifted into her room from the open window. The cat streaked past as Maggie snatched the popcorn from the table, vanishing into the kitchen.

  At least an hour passed before when she once again checked her phone to see it was well past ten and the decision on whether or not to watch the atrocity that was 'Women-Incapable-Of-Defending-Self-From-Werewolf-Chasing-Her-For-Past-Year' crossed her mind. She'd watched it halfway at least and so there was no harm in continuing. As the adverts came back onto the screen, Maggie got up and stretched, taking her empty popcorn bowl to the kitchen. A quick glance told her that her cat was not in the vicinity, meaning he'd be in her bedroom. She'd just not noticed him go past her, maybe she'd been more engrossed in the film than she thought.

  Maggie had almost vanished the thought from her mind when she heard the cat scratching lightly at the door. Padding back to the living room, muting the TV as she did, she found the noise to be coming from the corridor and not her room. Moving swiftly, flicking on the lights she found not her beloved cat, but a note under the door. Approaching the note slowly, she found it to be folded in half, and when she picked it up, the edges were slightly torn and the paper soft with age.

  In a trance she walked to her couch and sat down, unfolding the paper. There was on'y four words on it which were rushed, as though done by a child and the message was smudged from rough handling, despite the neatness of the fold.

GET OUT. HE'S COMING

  "What the...." something clicked in her mind, something that was very, very wrong. Not the meaning of the note, but its location: she'd found it under her closet door.

  The room filled with silence, outside noise dulled, clock ticking as her brain froze. Her eyes moved without violation down the corridor where had battered old light bulb, the one that had been on its last leg for months gave one last brilliant flare before burning out. The last source of light was now her television, the blue light casting strange shadows as she huddled on the couch, clutching the note.

  Two amber eyes appeared down that corridor, rushing towards her. Maggie gasped as her cat jumped onto the couch, ran up her body, leapt over her head and barreled.... straight out of her seventh floor window. With a start Maggie ran over to the window and leaned out over the ledge to see a drunk crowd gathered in a perfect circle, the dark outline of her beloved pet in the center of it as something dark leaked out underneath it. What was hap--

  Like steal, an arm clamped underneath her chest, a hand hand clamped over her. Maggie felt her eyes fly wide and the note, once clutched tight in her hand, fluttered out of the window and onto the street below.