Chapter 5

Chapter 5

David woke to an indescribable sound. It was dark all around and he couldn’t remember where he was until his eyes adjusted to the darkness. He recognized the room of the motel where the woman had brought him. He wondered why it was dark in here now and he looked over at the lantern, it was extinguished and was as dark and cold as the air around it. He then wondered if the woman was still in the room with him, but he couldn’t see. He looked beyond the lantern to see if she was still in the same spot she was last night. It was to dark and he couldn’t tell. He focused hard trying to see but all he could see was a faint outline of the window.

 He started to get frightened and he reached out and felt the floor boards beside him. His hand lay flat on the wood. He reached further beyond the lantern and then he felt a blanket. He stretched a little further and felt a body under the covers. The body was motionless. Was it her? David irrationally asked himself even though he new it had to be, but for some reason he had doubt. The fact that a body was there wasn’t good enough to put him at ease.

He nudged the body trying to get some reaction out of it. Nothing.

The frightful anxiety in David was now too much. “Gracie?” he managed to say in a quivery voice and pushed the body again.

“Meehh…” a voice came from the dark hump and she moved on her own now. It was Gracie and she was alive. David’s fear subsided and the hump was no longer a scary lifeless mystery. It was Gracie David told himself again and he hopped he hadn’t waken her.

She didn’t say anything else, just shifted around and pulled the covers off her face. David’s eyes had adjusted to the dark and he could now make out her pale face. “Sorry.” he said quietly. She just turned over on her side. He didn’t know if he had actually waken her or not. David laid there for a while and appreciated where he was, then he fell back to sleep.