I made habit of locking my door at night.
No real reason, just it made me feel a little more secure. It all started with hearing noises at night.
The noises are not typically scary, maybe they were from my cat or family moving elsewhere in the house.
It didn't matter, though, the subtle noises still freaked me out. I felt safer locked away in my room with the cat.
And every night, I would come into my bedroom, lock my door, go to sleep, wake up, unlock it, let the cat out, and do my morning routine.
And at the end of the day, I would go back to my room, lock the door, go to sleep, wake up, unlock it, let the cat out, and do my morning routine.
My family told me I'm nuts, but at least the cat was on my side.
And that night I went to my room, I locked my door, and I went to sleep after the cat decided she wanted to play with everything in the room before settling down herself. I woke up the next morning, unlocked it, let the cat out, and did my morning routine.
My mom complained that she could not get in my room to retrieve her dictionary because my door was locked.
But I locked my door that night anyway. And I went to sleep, woke up, unlocked it, let the cat out, and did my morning routine.
I did chores the next day, went back to my room tired, locked my door, and went to sleep.
And the next morning, I woke up. There was a bag on my floor. It was a black garbage bag, looked mostly empty and placed as if it was thrown down onto the ground.
I wondered if I forgot to lock the door that night and mom threw it into my room.
My attention was off the bag and to the door. I got off my bed, stepped over the bag, and grabbed the doorknob.
The door was locked.
I turned back to the bag for a second before deciding it would be better if I left it there unopened.
Just as I unlocked and opened my door, a pungent odor of iron and an unimaginable mixture of stenches reached me.
I didn't let the cat out that morning.
