Under the Rain

Three

                                                               Two days later

At work, the oddest thing happened.

The crowd of customers was thicker that day since Easter was around the corner. So, it was inexcusable for me to be bounded to the counter until eleven at night, grasping and packing thousands of eggs, paints, candies, and whatnot.

When it was finally over, and I could collapse down on the chair, I caught sight of Mrs. Sanders, a sweet, middle-aged woman, having problems, gathering up some cartoons of discarded goods.

I scurried over to her," Here, Mrs. Sanders, let me."

An adorable smile ignited her face, "You are an angel."

She lent me two of the boxes and attempted to carry the others, but I stopped her and stacked all of them within my arms Assuring her I can manage it, i paved my way to the storeroom, after a buoyant, 'Your welcome.'

Once inside the massive, grey storehouse, crammed with aisles of lockers , I staggered my way for the "DEFECTED GOODS" counter.

As I was stuffing in the boxes one by one to fit into the insufficient space of a locker, I heard a huge 'bump' erupting from the far end of the room.

"Hello, is anyone there?" I asked casually.

The lights were off when I had come in, it wasn't likely for someone to be here.

"Hello?" I began tottering out from the 'defects goods' corner, towards the main aisle that separated the columns of various departments of goods.

Perhaps it was a rat. But the sound was too heavy for a feeble creature as that. Maybe some box had accidentally fallen off its rack.

Pin drop silence conjured the aura.

"Hel-" I was cut off by another uncanny sound erupting from a couple of feet away. like a sharp rimmed object scraping against the cement wall. It was slow at the beginning, slow and gentle and vague, but, suddenly, it grew pitcher and louder and evermore frantic, just as a mishmash of cacophonic squeals.

I remained poised in the aisle, suddenly apprehensive, until the noise subsided.

"I know you're there." I managed a calm, steady voice.

Again, I began tip-toeing towards the direction of the raucousness.

'Bump!", another thud. I jumped.

Only a few more minutes now, and I'll be eye to eye with the architect of this mayhem. I stopped again, steeling myself for another signal. None.

The deafening silence disturbed the hall, enabling the echoes of my thumping heart ringing my ears. The corner to where I ascended, hesitating but willful at the same time, was bereft of any light.

I considered turning back, but the mere consequence of that gesture, that would declare me as a coward kept me moving. Therefore, basking deeper and deeper into the epicenter of darkness I marched, until at some point before I could register, I was grabbed and callously slammed against the cement wall.

I couldn't see. Pitch blackness obstacled my vision. But I could feel the other person. I could hear him. Even so, I refrained from trying to squeeze out of his overpowering embrace, for I knew how futile that would be. Instead, I stood there, submissively clinging against the wall, endeavoring to unfurl his face.

With his brawny frame and the familiar boyish gusts of breaths, I could understand it was the intruder from the other night.

Inches apart from my face, his hands were fixed to the wall behind me, making me feel small and frail within the enclosure.