Morning all. I hope you are having a splendid morning. Thus far for me everything is ticking over as it should. There have been no bumps hiccups or sudden stops. which seems like a minor miracle to be honest. So let’s take advantage and just keep rolling. Ready for the morning prompt? Fabulous. Timers at the ready and off we go.
Oh I like this. I think Johnny is going to finish his cereal and find that monsters did attack in the night. I sense either horror or murder mystery coming on.
Wednesday, May 10th: Darkness was descending.
Darkness was descending. It turned the world into a shadowy, unknown space. Spaces that he knew were empty now seemed to be filled with shifting shadows that seemed like moving creatures of unknown origin.
‘It’s just my imagination,” he whispered to himself. The words were a mantra. They were the last words his father said to him each night. This time there had been anger more than mere annoyance under the words. Johnny knew he was the cause. For a week now he woke the house with his night terrors.
He knew something was in the room with him, but when the lights were switched on, there was nothing there. While sympathetic at first, everyone’s patience was growing thin. Johnny bit down on the inside of his lip and decided that tonight he would not call out. He would not yell.
For security he took his slingshot and a small pouch of smooth flat stones into the bed with him. At the moment the shadows were merely shifting but he could still see the farthest spaces of the room relatively well. Deciding it was better not to see anything at all, Johnny pulled the covers all the way over his head. He tucked them around and under his body, curling himself into as small a ball as possible.
He had piled the pillows high on his bed tonight, surrounding himself. He didn’t know if the pillows would serve as protection or not but if anything came for him, he could throw them if he had to. Johnny closed his eyes and tried to go to sleep.
While he kept everyone else up all week, he had been awake too and felt exhaustion sucking at him. He fell into a deep dreamless sleep. If the creatures made a noise, he didn’t hear them. He awoke, still tucked into his small ball. His body was stiff and sore from being huddled in one spot.
He didn’t stretch, but listened. The house was quiet around him. He risked creating a tiny hole in the blankets that shielded him. Daylight poured in and he relaxed. Johnny stretched out and uncurled his body from the tight little ball he slept in. He pushed his pillow mound to the side and, before anyone could notice he slept with it, he put the slingshot and back of stones on the night stand.
He felt a little foolish but he had not woken up in the night and called everyone in the house awake. He smiled at his accomplishment. Wondering why no one else was awake and moving around, Johnny got up. He was hungry, but there was no smells of breakfast coming from the kitchen. He wondered if everyone was sleeping late because they were catching up on sleep. He let them be and went down to pour himself a bowl of cereal.
Ten til Midnight 