A Stormy Night: Stories to Read by Firelight

Awakened

    Thomas awoke from a restful slumber, though, he had no idea how long he had been asleep or what had awoken him. He lay motionless in the engulfing darkness, and found himself breathing slow.

    Suddenly, there was a loud thud above him.

    His eyes darted upward, but the lack of light made this task difficult, and he was unable to see where the sound had emanated.

    Again, another thud came, and this time, Thomas could feel something sprinkling on his face, raining down from above him.

    He lay still in his position and slowly, his fingers began to move around on his hands.

    His feet twitched slightly as he found himself coming out of the grips of his rest.

    There was an anger deep in his stomach that seemed to emanate from nowhere.

    Thud! Thud! Thud!

    There was the sound again.

    Thomas became suddenly aware of his arms, and when he realized they were folded across his chest, he picked them up. They smacked into something hard above him, and more dirt sprinkled down onto his face.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

    He spit it out and turned his head, which knocked against something as well.

    Thomas opened his eyes, but the space around him was still absent of light.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

    He felt around him with his hands.

    There were a few inches on either side of him, and less than that above him. He ran his fingertips along the surface, and felt a sharp, stabbing pain in his index finger. He felt around in the darkness and removed a thin sliver from his skin. He knocked hard onto the wood above him, and he heard a faint shouting sound, followed by a slam and dirt sprinkling into his mouth for the third time.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

    Thomas tried to shout, but his voice was absent from his chest, and instead, he muttered a hoarse groan.

Thud! Thud! CRACK!

    The sound suddenly ceased.

    Thomas looked up to see a thin glint of light shining down onto him from above.

    It burned his eyes and he sharply turned them away from the beam of pure white that blinded him.

    The mumbled sounds from above him became slightly clearer now, and he could identify two men speaking, one clearly smaller than the other.

    “Whatever man!” a small voice said, “If you wanna go ahead with this shit, you’re on your own!”

    The sound of a shovel being thrown into a pile of dirt was muffled from the box around him, and Thomas pushed his arms against the fragile, split wood.

    “Go on and leave then!” a heavier voice said.

    Footsteps crunched in what sounded like grass, and grew fainter as the feet strayed away from Thomas.

    He lay there several moments in the silence, letting his tired eyes adjust to the light, but alas, his vision was permanently blurry.

    The wood in front of his face started to crack as he pressed onto it.

    Suddenly, the footsteps grew nearer.

    Thomas dropped his arms back to his sides.

    And waited.

    Dirt shuffled around and fell into the small crack.

    A pair of hands reached down, gripped the sides, and pulled.

    Simultaneously, the wood fell away from the cheap coffin, and Thomas looked up to see the blurry outline of a man wearing black clothes, standing wide legged above him.

    Thomas lay still for a moment.

    The man reached down and waved his arm around Thomas’s wrist, but the hole was too deep.

    As the man tried to grab the gold watch on Thomas’s hand, Thomas shot his arms up, grabbed the man by the scruff of his shirt and pulled him the six feet into the hole, cracking his head on the side boards, and slicing his clothes with sharp edges of roughly cut wood.
   
    The light went out.

    The night was silent.

    Thomas, now at peace, lay back down to rest.