Short Fiction 2

As I've not posted one of my short stories for awhile I thought I would put that right, this one like my blog post back on May 15Th I have a title and a character name but the rest I will just see what comes as I'm writing, writing blind here people which should be fun.

Insomniac Dreams

By Andrew G. Carson

For the love of the chased requiem had engulfed her and her faith in this love was unequalled and not without reason for slumber had been a best friend and lover for Nora's entire twenty one years on this traveling fireball we call home. Slumber had been the only constant in her ever changing life but tonight he was lost to her and she could feel the bitterness of realisation that her lover may be spending the night in another's arms. Insomnia affects all of us differently some use it to release their inner creative force others feel like every bone in their body is on fire and the reaper is at the door but for Nora it was neither of these just the feeling of betrayal from her most trusted friend.

She lay on her bed staring up at the off white coloured ceiling of her sparse apartment bedroom, her eyes already accustomed to the darkness engulfing her boudoir like a late night prowler. How had she arrived at such a lonesome point in her life with no friends only coworkers, no boyfriend only memories of past sorrow and no family on speed dial only Chinese take away restaurants. She hadn't always been this way she was once the life and soul of every party she attended, rooms lit up with her mere presence but now the closest thing to a social gathering for her was when her neighbour's cat would pay her a visit.

It was 03:21am and the noise of birdsong from beyond the ever lighter shade of dark coloured bedroom windows was driving her mad, what have they got to be so damn chirpy about? Thought Nora as she impaled the back of her head into her pillow hard while pulling the sides up over her ears. How can this side of the World sleep with this incessant racket drowning out the peace of silence? She questioned her inner self as the thought of choking that bird to silent death sprang into her head raising the sides of her mouth to a smile. She rose from bed and awkwardly stumbled to the window to gaze out upon her tormentor but alas she could not see him for the hundred year old oak behind her sandstone apartment building shaking it's leaves and branches at her menacingly in the early morning breeze.

She shrugged and staggered sleepily towards the kitchen through the conjoining living room turning the living room light switch on and off as she passes it as she does so her elbow knocks her receptionist of the year award off it's shelf, a plaque which she was only given to her as a peace offering after she was overlooked for a promotion. She entered the kitchen and opened the fridge unleashing a light that could lead the dead to heaven. Why has sleep betrayed her tonight of all nights? She paused to consider, did he not know of her important appointment in the morning, had he not listened to her thoughts of worry? What if she turns up looking like she has been out all night drinking? She would definitely not gain favour with the team over at Gilbert & Hall and she desperately ached to do so for this would free her from her shackles at Muir and Hollis where she has been overlooked time after time for they only give promotions to members of the boys club and she had the wrong kind of plumbing to join their club.

She stood back and brought the bottle of water in her hand up to her waiting parched lips she felt a slight buzz from the cold liquid as it slid down the back of her throat en route to her stomach, ahhh she said quietly to herself as she gathered the much needed energy to return to her chamber of sorrow. She placed the now half empty bottle of water back into the fridge and closed the door on the teasing light, with a deep sigh she walked back into the living room and picked up her least wanted award and placed it back upon it's dust covered shelf next to the photograph of her parents she paused briefly to look at the photo before turning the light switch on and off like before, a creature of habit Nora definitely was but this time as the light retreated out of the corner of her eye she spotted something...

It couldn't be her mind must be playing tricks on her she thought but when she tried to continue on her journey she found her feet not moving. "I know you saw me." a voice from behind her said quietly. Her body stiffened and she could feel a cold sweat on the back of her knees, Nora closed her eyes briefly before turning round. "Who's there, who are you?" she said with a notable wobble in her voice. "The man that's going to kill you if you don't do what I say." The reply came without a hint of emotion to the voice. "take anything but just don't touch me." Nora called out still to afraid to turn on the light switch. "Oh I'm going to take what I want you stupid C***, I don't need your permission." he replied. That word, the "C" word was one she hated and she wasn't going to let this bastard get away with calling her by it.

Nora reached around and flicked the switch to illuminate her would be attacker, he was average height and of stocky build and he had a pair of stockings over his head like the old bank robbers used to wear squishing his face out of shape to hide his identity. "F*** you!" Nora found herself saying with an anger in her voice that she had never heard before. "What did you say b****?" He replied shocked by her new found strength. "You heard me, get out of my house or so help m.." he cut of her line of thought as well as her speech as he lunged for her, his hands encased her neck, squeeze, squeeze her windpipe would surely crush under the pressure. Squeeze, squeeze he seemed impervious to the punches and slaps thrown by Nora for he outweighed her by sixty to seventy pounds and he was a good five inches taller than she was.

Squeeze, squeeze Nora's eyes bloodshot and on the verge of bursting with the pressure. "you stupid little c***, I'll kill you." His words echoed in her ears, that word again that "C" word Nora reached around to find something anything to save her life. Her fingers stretching up behind her back as her attacker continued to choke her the way she had thought about choking the singing bird. Nora's arms ached due to the contortion they were enduring to find a saviour, squeeze, squeeze his eyes glistened with glee through his stocking mask. Nora was close to the end when her hand finally reached something with every ounce of strength she outstretched her arm and swung her new found weapon colliding it with the back of her attacker's skull.

Slowly he dropped to his knees with a shocked expression upon his face the thought that a woman had ended his existence was something he could not believe. Nora dropping her weapon stumbles over to the kitchen door and reaches into the fridge and to grab her water bottle and slowly, slowly she raises it up against her bright red savaged neck. After a moment she looks over at the motionless body on her living room floor and her blood stained plaque. "Who's the c*** now? " she barks at her attacker before collapsing onto the floor, " Who's the C*** now?"

After hours of police questions Nora still shaken and traumatised by her ordeal finds herself lying in a hospital bed alone with her thoughts once more only a vase of cheap flowers sits beside her bed with a card attached from 'the office of Muir & Hollis', she looks over at the window and watches the rain collide with the glass, slowly, slowly she finds her eyes begin to close and before long her lover has returned to her as she drifts off to slumber.