The Light in the Window

Prompt: A neighbor’s house has been vacant for months. But every night at 3 a.m., the lights turn on in the upstairs bedroom. No one ever sees who’s inside.

We had recently moved into a nice rental home in town. My husband, Derek, worked at the University and we had a nine month old baby, Tessa. We were so happy with our little house, and I spent all my time taking care of the baby and my home. But many nights Tessa kept me up for feedings, so I was pretty exhausted all the time. Maybe that is what brought on my nightly sightings. What are my nightly sightings, you ask? Well, let me tell you all about it.

I thought our neighborhood was perfect. Everyone was so nice. But eventually, I came to realize that the house across from ours was vacant. I noticed my neighbors didn’t walk on the sidewalk in front of the vacant house, they crossed the street and walked in front of my house. That was why I was getting to know all these people! The house was neglected-looking, and kind of creepy, but I was busy with my family, so it was easy to ignore the place.

One night, Tessa was really fussy and I had given her a bottle but it didn’t settle her down any, so I carried her downstairs to the living room where my rocker recliner was. I rocked her, and sang to her, and when she calmed down and I was ready to go back upstairs, I saw it. There was a light on in the empty house across the street in the middle upstairs window. Thank goodness, I thought, someone has moved into that place.

Tessa was fussy almost every night after that for a week. Since the rocker worked that first night, I used it again on the second night. We were rocking, and I saw the light come on. I checked my watch and saw that it was exactly 3:00 a.m. Strange. The same thing happened on the third night, the light came on at exactly 3:00 a.m. This time, I paid attention to how long it was on. Exactly fifteen minutes. Now I was obsessed, and I checked every night for the rest of that week, and the same thing happened every single night. The light came on at 3:00 and went out at 3:15.

During the day, I would watch carefully for any movement at the house. Then one day, I was tired of watching and decided to get a closer look. It was a nice day, so I put Tessa in her baby carriage and we strolled across the street to get a better look. I remembered no one walked in front of the house, so we went to alley behind the house. When we got to the gate for house, I opened it and we went into the back yard. I was thinking of things I would say if anyone saw me – I was lost, I was looking for my dog, or I was going to say hello to the new neighbors. As I approached the back door, the sun went behind a cloud, and the whole world turned darker. I looked into the window of the door, but could not see anything. My curiosity got the best of me, and I knocked on the door. To my surprise, it wasn’t closed and swung open a bit. I pushed the door the rest of way open and picked up Tessa and walked inside.

“Hello?” I called. “Is anyone home? Your back door was open, so I thought I would check on you.” I didn’t hear anything but my heartbeat whooshing in my ears. I walked up the back steps into the kitchen. It was empty, cold and there was no sign of life there. I turned to leave, but then thought, why not have a look around? I wanted to know the secret of that light.

I held Tessa tightly to my chest and walked into the next room. It was so dark, at first I couldn’t see anything. I heard a sighing, like the hissing of a snake and tried to turn to run, but my feet were rooted to the spot.

“We have been waiting for you,” a raspy voice hissed, and my eyes adjusted enough to see that I was not alone in the room. There was a group of people, all dressed in black standing in a half circle in front of me. The temperature in the room was almost freezing, and I began to shake. “We knew you would come and bring us this treasure,” one said and moved toward me to take Tessa from me.

I screamed and somehow managed to run, holding Tessa tightly to me, out the back door. I stumbled over the baby carriage and almost fell, but I kept running. I could hear them laughing behind me, but they didn’t follow.

“Don’t worry, darling,” they called, “we’re in no hurry. We will be waiting.”

Derek was shaking me. “Wake up, you’re having a nightmare!” he said and I looked up to see my husband standing over me with a worried look on his face. I was sitting in the rocker and Tessa was safe in my arms.

“I was dreaming?” I asked him. He nodded. I looked outside and saw the light on in the window of the house across the street. “Let’s go upstairs,” I said. “I’m never coming down here at night again.” As we went to our bedroom, I was counting how many months were left on our lease.

Today’s Writing Practice #11