Intrusion (January 2019, Round 1, Day 1)
When she’d last looked out the window the gloom outside matcheed her feelings inside and she chose to burrow under the blanket and wait for both to pass. Somewhere between then and now she’d drifted off to sleep – thankfully dreamless sleep – long enough that, even from beneath the blanket, she could tell night had come. It was the sounds that woke her and she stayed, burried in her blanket-coccoon, trying to make sense of them. A pattern of clunks seemed to indicate footsteps, though from someone much larger and heavier than anyone she’d expect to be in this place. Metalic scrapes that seemed to organize themselves into the sound of drawers being opened and closed. Muffled warbles that eventually settled into voices coming from far away and behind a combination of walls and fabric.
Someone, or someones, were in her house, going through her things, and likely leaving muddy tracks on her floor. She shook the last whisps of sleep from her mind and opened her eyes. The gravity of the situation took up residence in her stomach as she sorted through her options. She wasn’t supposed to be home. Her car was still in the shop so there was nothing outside that would give away her presence. Her room was dark since she’d crawled back into bed before there was need for a light. Her bed clothes were, as was usual, tousled so unless the heavy-footed person or persons came upstairs, down the hallway, into her room, AND turned on the light she was fairly well hidden. She focused on slowing down her breath – panting would only give her away – and settled in to wait out the intrusion.
The muffled voices continued and, now, she could tell that there were two people mucking about in her things downstairs. It was clear they weren’t finding what they’d hoped for, and one of the voices seemed to think their collective lack of success was entirely the fault of the other voice. Their words weren’t distinct enough for her to decipher but their tones made the dialog somewhat easy to follow. The voice that seemed matched to the heavy feet was getting more and more agitated but neither voice was getting any closer to the stairs. Whatever they were looking for, they’d expected to find it at the front of the house.
The footless voice mumbled something that made the heavy footed one stop moving. Both intruders were still and silent, and she imagined them frozen in fear of being caught. Someone else must be nearby, and that someone wasn’t on Team Intruder. The heavy footed voice hissed something at the other, slammed one last drawer, and then seemed to barrel out of the house, presumably taking the other voice with him.
She stayed there, breathing slowly, listening hard. The sharp knock at the door made her jump. With a hand on her chest she untangled herself from the blanket. Intruders didn’t knock. She went straight to the door without even looking into the kitchen.