Behind her in the dark living room, someone cleared his throat.
Lavinia turned around searched the dark room. “Wh-wh-who’s there?” she asked the shadows.
The only answer was the sound her own ragged breathing. She waited a few more seconds until she was convinced that no one was there.
“You’re just imagining things.” She told herself.
She turned the light on and walked over to the phone to call Francine. She dialed the number and waited for Francine to answer.
“Lavinia?” Francine’s worried voice asked when she answered the phone.
“Yes it me. I’ve made it home safe, you can stop worrying now.” Lavinia joked, trying to brighten her mood.
“Well okay. I’ll see you tomorrow then.”
“Good night Francine.”
“Good night Lavinia” Francine said hanging up.
Lavinia set the phone down and took a deep breath. She just needed to go lay down she told herself.
She turned to go upstairs when she heard a distinct tapping noise. It sounded like it was coming from the front window. She slowly turned around to face the window. There it was again, tap-tap-taptap-tap-tap-taptap. She crouched down and slowly wobbled over to the window, making sure that her head wouldn’t be able to be seen from outside. When she got to the window, she slowly stood up and peered down. She laughed aloud when she realized what was making the sound; a branch from her apple tree was hitting the window.
“Next thing you know I’ll be seeing the boogey man going up the stairs.” She laughed.
She turned and headed to the stairs. As she climbed up to her bedroom, she softly sang “Row Row Row Your Boat”. As she sang, she noticed that her voice sounded different. It sounded as if she was singing two different octaves at once. She stopped sing and stood still. Her blood ran cold as the song continued. Someone else was singing. She turned around and screamed as light lit up the big front window, illuminating the silhouette of a man.
The light went out and Lavinia turned to run up the stairs. Her shoe caught on the heel of the other one making her trip and tumble down the stairs. When she reached the bottom, she got up, ran over to her big fluffy chair in the living room, and hid behind it. She stayed there for a few minutes, trying to slow down her breathing. She closed her eyes trying to relax but quickly opened them again. All she could see was the silhouette of the man.
“Lavinia!” A voice from outside called “Lavinia!”
Lavinia crouched down lower, trying to hide herself in the darkness.
“At least he’s outside. I’m still safe in here.” She thought.
She peered around the chair to see if the man was still at the window. The only thing she could see was darkness. It seemed to press in on her from all sides, trying to tell her that she wasn’t even safe in her own home.
She screamed as the window again was lit up. The man was still there. She went back behind the chair and curled up into a ball. As she sat there, she quietly sobbed. The tears ran down her cheeks and onto her legs. A few got into her mouth, the saltiness of them made her gag, but she didn’t do anything about it. She was scared that if she even moved the Lonely One would see her and kill her.
She yelped as a light lit up the house. She closed her eyes tightly, trying to block out everything around her. As she sat there, the light continued to flash on and off every few minutes.
Every now and then, she would hear him call out for her. “Lavinia! Lavi-i-inia!”
As she sat there, she wondered what the Lonely One was trying to do. Why didn’t he just come and get it over with? She remembered someone telling her once that some killers liked to torture their victims before killing them.
“That must be what he’s doing. Whatever it is, it’s working.” She thought.