The Stranger

It’s a peaceful moonlit night on Woodwicks Lane, just as any normal night it would seem. It was past midnight everyone was asleep, as all curtains were drawn and all lights were off. But, there was someone awake just waiting and observing in the shadows, just wondering who the next victim will be.

Alison seemed to be in a deep sleep, but the expressions on her face told a different story. She seemed to be in a lot of discomfort and pain.

As it was a humid July night with a nice summery breeze, one would expect fans and thin sheeting to cool a person down. But it seemed like Alison had a fever, as the radiators were on full and she had the thickest duvet she could find in her house, usually reserved for the winter months, to keep her warm. Examining her face, the tiny droplets of sweat were very evident, all over. No surprising she woke up with a jolt and sat upright very rigidly in her bed. Patting her forehead and neck and realising she was dripping wet in sweat; she threw off of her the duvet and got out of bed.

Standing in front of the fully opened window 10 minutes later, she had cooled down enough to realise the

source of her waking up dead in the middle of the night. Still in the dark room, she pressed the alarm button, which projected the time on the ceiling; she looked at the ceiling which projected: 02:45.

“What?!” she belted out clearly not understanding why she woke up at that time.

“Oh great! Just brilliant, how am I going to get to some sleep now?!”

She glared at the alarm clock like it was going to explain the situation.

This outburst was completely normal for her, because she needed to start getting ready for work at 5am, due to the fact that she had a train to catch, from Northbridge to her workplace in Kingsley, which took an hour.

She sat back down on her bed planning the rest of her night.

“So if I go to sleep now…” she checks the time on the ceiling again “...3 o’clock, I’ll get exactly two hours of sleep”

Throwing the duvet off the bed and lying down, she thought that was reasonable, like a little nap.

Unless, I keep getting hot like this, I won’t get my get my sleep, now would I?

She questioned herself in her mind.

This was ridiculous; it wasn’t that hot outside, as she remembered the cool breeze that helped calm her nerves before. It was actually cooler than her room.

She let out a little laugh, when she thought the stifled hotness in her room was from the radiators. Just to stop herself from thinking about the radiators, she went over to make sure they were off.

“What the flipping heck!” she was astounded to realise that the radiators were on full. She quickly withdrew her hand, like it was on fire well it felt that way.

As she walked through the house in the darkness, because she didn’t want the lights to destroy the remaining sleep she had, she was contemplating why and how she had turned the radiators on in the first place. She just couldn’t remember.

Walking back upstairs she caught a reflection of herself in her kitchen window and froze. She took a step backwards and was relieved to only see her reflection, for one split moment she thought she saw a figure standing outside her window. Dismissing it as lack of sleep, she was going to move on when she saw an even scarier sight, the state of her hair!

It didn’t help Alison that she couldn’t find a fan anywhere in the house, as the heat was very distracting.

Beep! Beep! Beep!