«Intruder» Super Short Story #1

The sound of glass shattering woke her up at 3 AM. She cursed, with an eye closed and fuzzy thoughts flying through her mind: might that be the cat? No, the cat died five years ago. What then? She heard another noise, downstairs, like rummaging through paper and something else. She was completely awake now. She sat on the bed, on the look out for more clatter, and again she heard it, a long session of poking, grubbing, scraping. She silently stood up, the only light in the room was the light of a lamppost, outside, seeping in striped, through the window blinds. She reached for her smartphone on the bed table and touched the screen to unlock it. Dead. Shit, she forgot to charge it!

She exhaled, tryind to calm down while the rummaging kept on, downstairs. She opened the door of the bedroom, slowly, trying to be as quite as possible although she was shaking. She overlooked the staircase, there was an eerie light coming from the living room. She whimpered, and for a moment the scratching noise stopped. Then it restarted. She had a huge breath and gathered the courage to slowly walk downstairs. She put her hand on the doorknob trying to collect her thoughts. Now she could hear also another sound coming from the room, like… a voice.

Intruder! Intruder!

It screamed. She gasped and then opened the door.

Her brother turned his head when she entered the room, pausing the shooter game he was playing on the console. The voice inside the tv stopped calling him an intruder.

Oh, do you want to watch the ending sequence?

He asked with a smirk. She nodded.

Do you mind bringing me another glass of water though, I knocked over mine, sorry.

He plounged a hand inside a huge chips bag, eating them like a hungry bear.

No problem.

She answered, turning around to go to the kitchen.