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of the night.
With that thought, she forced herself out of bed to go
to the bathroom. Her full bladder was probably why she had
woken up, she thought walking down the hall toward their guest
bathroom.  Why hadn't she gone into the bathroom next to their
bedroom like always? popped into her head. It hadn't even
registered as unusual behavior until she was almost to the
second bathroom. She quickly pushed the thought out of her
head. She wouldn't be able to sleep now anyway, and maybe not
for the rest of the night. Revived would have been a good word
for it, wired even better. Not the way she usually felt half
way through the night that was for sure.
As she passed the half-open sliding door to the living
room, something peculiar caught her eye. Continuing on to the
bathroom, she would have to figure it out after she had taken
care of the business at hand.
A few minutes later, she was at the door into the living
room again and looking in. The strangeness in the room filled
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her thought immediately. There was movement in there. She
could feel it more than she could actually see it, but it was
there. The darkness robbed her of most of her sight. It had
to be Ray, she thought to herself. Or did she say that out
loud? It didn't really matter. There was definitely something
moving in the living room.
As her eyes slowly became accustomed to the darkness of
the room, the cause of the disturbance became clear. The old
wooden rocker was slowly swaying back and forth. Staring even
harder, the horror of the moment hit her with the force of a
cannon. Ray hadn't followed her out of the room. The chair
was empty!
The room became darker and Hedda slid down the doorframe
with an ease that would have been unknown to her any other time
because of her age.
Down the hall, Ray had reached out for Hedda to find her
side of the bed cooling and empty. Thinking she must have gone
to the bathroom, he looked in the direction of the connected
bathroom for any light that would prove him correct. But the
doorway was open and dark. She had gone to the kitchen then,
he thought. But that would be unusual for her. She had to be
sick or something.
Jumping out of bed, he hit the bedroom light switch and
grabbed his robe at the same time. Stepping into the hall, he
saw her crumpled figure on the floor near the living room, and
his first thought was to call an ambulance. No, he had to get
her off the floor.
With a quick flick of his wrist, he lit the whole hall
up, and most of the house with it. Moments later he found that
she was breathing but her pulse was racing. Gently shaking
her, he knew that she had fainted by the way she lay on the
floor. But the look on her face... What would cause such a
strange expression? She looked scared, but of what? He hadn't
heard anything. He had been sleeping though, and it would have
taken something pretty harsh to pull him out of it. Not
feeling her next to him in bed had been along that line, but he
hadn't even felt her get out of bed.
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The closest place to lay her down was the living room
couch, and he made his way to it after lifting her from the
floor. His heart wouldn't tolerate him doing this too many
times. He was out of breath before he got half way across the
room to the couch.
An odd revelation hit him, and he glanced over at the
now motionless rocking chair. He could feel that there was
something wrong with the room, but he couldn't see anything
unusual. Everything looked the way it always did. It sure as
hell didn't feel right though.
A shadow caught his eye, and he turned to stare into the
corner where he had seen it. His mind was giving him fits, he
thought, because there was nothing there. This was all too
much. He couldn't take much more strain.
"Are you O.K., Hedda? Ray asked as Hedda finally came
to twenty minutes after he had found her. "You know, you can't
do this to me, honey. You're all that I have, and I don't want
to lose you."
"What happened, Ray?"
"I don't know....I found you on the floor in the hall,
and brought you in here to the couch."
As Hedda's mind tried to pull back what had happened to
her, her eyes darted about the room looking for something she
wasn't sure she would know if she saw. Something in the room
had brought her to the floor, but what could it have been.
There wasn't anything in the room that could have fallen on her
and knocked her down. Had she tripped? She couldn't imagine
on what, but then, anything was possible in the dark.
With a blank look, she stared at the rocker, hadn't
there been something sitting there? No...That was foolish.
Nothing was there now, and nothing ever was in the old antique.
They never used it.
"Do you think you can make it to bed, Hedda? Or should
I call Marcus and have him come over and check you out?"
"Don't bother him at this hour. I think I can make it [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]