Time To Sleep

The door creaked as she opened it. She hadn't anticipated the noise and jumped a little, hitting her back on the wall. Restoring her balance, she clutched her camera even tighter as she silently tip-toed out of the kitchen. The afternoon sun was bright and unapologetic. It cast its rays of heat through the windows and she felt them on her back. "Freakin' global warming!", she exclaimed as she entered the living room. Pacing around carefully, she started clicking pictures.

Coming to think of it, it was really silly how she ended up here clicking photos of Mr. Radison’s apartment.

When she moved to this tiny suburb a month ago, it was a pretty big change for her. Shelby, her mother was recently divorced and too busy juggling multiple jobs to help her get accustomed. Lily had to make friends on her own now. How she couldn’t wait to be an adult! Adults could do whatever they wanted. Nobody cared about twelve year olds anyway. Her mum hadn’t asked her opinion about moving in here. This proved nobody cared!

Making friends was a little difficult when the neighbourhood kids silently stand in the distance and judge you. It annoyed her. There was little she could do to change that though. A few more friendless days later, she got an idea. She could have a party! Her mother was hardly home, her house was in the very corner of the street. There was only one other house next to it. And Mr. Radison was hardly ever home either.

It was at this party that everything started. Sipping through the coke, Melanie asked, “So, how is it living beside the Horrendous Horton?” “The who?”, she inquired. “Oh, Mr. Radison silly! Your creepy neighbour”, replied Melanie. Lily didn’t think of Mr. Radison as creepy. He even greeted her yesterday while driving out to work! How could such a friendly man be creepy! The others didn’t agree though. They had built up various non-sensical myths around him. They believed he was absolutely nuts! She realized it was the classic Boo Radley scenario. For the sake of winning over her new friends, she proposed an idea.

The idea was very simple and very illegal. She would wait for Mr. Radison to get to work and enter his house through the backdoor. She would click a few pictures and bring them back to the girls as proof that Mr. Radison wasn’t really so horrendous. Boo Radley did nothing but help Scout and Jem. Mr. Radison was a nice person, just misunderstood like Boo Radley was.

She would clear his name just like Scout did and in turn gain more friends! A fool-proof plan! The girls didn’t think so. They worried it was dangerous and advised her to not go forth with the plan. They didn't want anything to do with him. She promised them not to go, but did so with her fingers crossed behind her back. She would show them that she was right.

She decided to go forth with her plan today after meticulous spying on Mr. Radison’s whereabouts for almost a week.  She knew he would be back by 6 in the evening and she would be long gone by then. Lily just needed 15 minutes-20 at most. Getting in was simple, and here she was braving her way and clicking pictures of Horrendous Horton’s living room!

She made her way towards the stairs when the basement door caught her eye. Giving little thought to it, she went into the basement. Her feet thudded against the wooden stairs and the cold air somehow felt very pungent. This was not why she froze though! She hadn’t expected to hear a shriek that rattled her. She rushed towards the sound.

There, on the darkest corner of the basement was a woman, with all of her limbs tied. She looked ragged and starving. She was lying on the cold hard ground half clothed surrounded by half-finished plates and other random things laden hap-hazardly. The sight in front of her chilled her to the bones.

The woman started sobbing,’’ Please help me, call the police. Please, you don’t have much time. Please just call the police!!”  This brought Lily out of her shock, she hurried towards the lady and started untying her. “No, no! Just call the police! Fast! Tell them to come here. There is no time for this, he is already coming!!”, the lady sobbed. “But I don’t have a phone with me now. Let me take you to my place first and then we can call the police from there”, replied Lily furiously tugging away at her constraints. The woman still insisted quite urgently that she go away and call the cops first! Lily was confused but complied. She ran up the stairs and opened the basement door. Before she realized what had happened, it all turned black.

Horton hit her right on the temple with a baseball bat. She was completely knocked out. Him waiting quietly for her to get up here had worked well. Setting up cameras around his house was a great idea too. Dragging her body down the basement, he looked maliciously at Sarah. Sarah pleaded,” Please let the poor girl go. She might not even remember anything; she hasn’t done anything wrong. Please don’t kill her! She is just a child!”

Horton chuckled, “My darling Sarah! You know I can’t risk anyone finding you. You are all I have and they will take you away! Lily was a good girl but sadly her time has come. It is her time to sleep. She has to go to sleep. When she wakes up in heaven, I am sure she will understand. I had no other choice. I have no other choice.”

Despite Sarah’s constant pleading she knew that this little girl was doomed. This monster hadn’t let go of her for five years and wasn’t about to start now. She felt so helpless about her situation about the little girl, yet there was little she could do. She hated- no loathed absolutely everything about this situation! Yet there was nothing she could do except regret ever trying to give directions to a stranger. She could do nothing now.

He came down with an axe to finish the deed- in front of her! He wanted her to look, she couldn’t. How could she! She closed her eyes as tight as she could, he would not have it though. He forced her to look as he started up his process, whistling and singing as he axed. He decapitated the girl first, put the head in a jar. He would bury it in his basement. The rest was easy, albeit a little messy. Chopping up her limbs and her body to pieces, he collected them and wrapped them in individual pieces to be buried in different parts of his backyard. The deed was done. Her sense of morose emptiness could not be replaced. She could not help but dearly hope for her 'time to sleep' to come soon.