Chapter 1 - Darkness
A late summer evening breeze blew through my open window and turned the lit candle fire into a puff of smoke. I glanced over as it gently shifted the curtains away from the windowsill; tinted blue moonlit rays shone through, exposing little white specks within its light. Owls were hooting in the nearby trees.
Peering through the branches, their eyes reflect the moonlight glow around them. I sat still and silent as I felt the light waves of air brush against my skin. Loose strands hair danced in the breeze around my face, slightly tickling my ears and nose. Glancing at the clock to see that it was now almost midnight, I stood up to close my window from feeling rather relaxed from my surroundings.
As I was sliding my latch forward to pull the window down, I noticed something move in the shadows. Strange, as shadows made it near impossible to view anything at all, but there was just enough moonlight in the road below that I could see for a short second that a separate shadow was moving rapidly.
In an instant, I thought perhaps it was just a stray cat chasing a mouse, or enjoying the warm temperature of the night.
The window was almost closed when I heard something that sent my heart flying out of my chest. The owls were no longer heard hooting, and strange noises that sounded almost like gurgling was echoing from within the darkness.
I carefully slid my window shut, but remained staring into the darkness, hoping my eyes were just needing to adjust, or whatever was in the darkness would come into the light. Nothing happened. Minutes passed, and still nothing.
I began to think I was hearing things, and turned to crawl into bed. Something made a loud bang on my window. I gasped and spun around to see nothing but a brown smudge. I caught my breath as I walked closer to peer at it with a better view, when I realized that smudge was not brown, but red. A deep, reddish-brown smudge that was clearly blood.
I stammered away, clutching my hand in a fist against my chest and feeling my heart begin to race in the early stages of panic. I didn’t know what to do. Scream? Nobody would hear me. I wasn’t deliberately injured, either.
It is possible that a bird might have flown into my window and hit it, mistaking it for the sky as the moon was rather light and made my windows rather reflective. No, I thought, birds are not out at this time of night. A bat maybe? There was enough blood to have been some type of flying creature; it is also the most plausible explanation that I can come up with since my room is on the top floor.
My back now pressed against the wall, I slowly inched my way feeling for my door with my left hand and slipped into the other room. My laptop is sitting on the coffee table still open, so I decide to distract myself on some entertainment sites.
I had left my diary open beside it as well, and flipped through some pages down memory lane. I realized that I hadn’t actually known where my diary was until I was cleaning the other day and it sort of just appeared. I thought perhaps my roommate, Kellie, had found it when she was finally unpacking the rest of her boxes.
The last entry that I posted was from November thirtieth of two thousand twenty-one and today’s date is August ninth of two thousand twenty-three. It was a rather short entry and must have been a pretty simple day.
It read:
November 30, 2021
Tuesday
8:00 a.m.
Dear Diary,
The birds are chirping quite a lot today; they sound rather happy with the dew on the leaves from the rain last night. I love seeing the sunshine first thing…the light brightens my day, literally. I miss mother and father. I wish they could be here this morning with me, but they are at home in heaven and I will see them again one day.
Today I will be running an errand to the local flower boutique shop for my friends Kate and Lucas’ baby shower. They don’t know the gender yet so I figured roses dyed with blues and pinks in a medium bouquet would be an easy option.
I will also be looking for a new place with Kellie. Right now in New York City, without my parents here it has made the chaos of the big city life tenfold. We found a place in Sandpoint, Idaho that has had a recorded population of nine thousand, three hundred ninety-one this year. It is such a cute town and the people there were very relaxed and friendly when we visited a few months ago.
This better be a wrap for my relatively unproductive day.
Until tonight,
V.L.
I flipped to the next page to see my evening entry.
November 30, 2021
Tuesday
10:09 p.m.
Dear Diary,
Today went pretty well. It was good to see my friends again, and they loved the roses, but with getting ready to be new parents, they found themselves busier with others who were either in the same preparation stages as them or were already active parents so I left the shower early. I didn’t go anywhere else except home.
I took a nap around 7:30 p.m. listening to a radio podcast about some rumors about an illness that was being spread but had no concrete evidence of existing. I didn’t deem it important enough to listen to since no cases have actually been reported, and this was the first time I ever heard of it. Anyway, I think I will actually go to bed now. I don’t have anything else that I want to do tonight.
Reporting back soon.
V.L.
Except, I never did.
Image(s) used are not my own. I do not claim ownership. Found on Google Search by the words Black and White and with a link to Pinterest. Thank you.
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