“Goodnight Honey,” Mom said, as she always did, and pulled the door shut behind her.
It was a painfully clear night – the worst kind. I could see stars through my window in spite of the persistent glare of the moon. The cherry tree, covered in white spring blossoms, had seemed so beautiful just hours before… now it shed a malevolent glow, a veritable beacon beckoning to the soft, mindless swarm.
I waited for the telltale creak of the stairs to signal Mom’s departure, and carefully snuck to the window, the drapes so thoughtfully opened wide by my well intentioned, blissfully ignorant mother. As I reached forward to close them once again, my eyes were drawn to the streetlight, mercifully unseen from my bed. The dirty yellow cone of light descending from the lamp was filled with erratic comets, and I felt a scream welling up from my throat. I spastically grabbed at the drapes and quickly retreated to the bed, pulling the covers over my head, gasping and shivering uncontrollably.
As the shivering subsided, I peeked out from under the covers only to find the room showered in evil, digital green. Extending only my arm from the safe haven of my comforter, I blindly pulled Mr. Boots from his customary perch and tossed him in front of the alarm clock. Still, the window reflected the night’s many illuminations, and this I could not prevent.
Cloaked in all the darkness I could muster, I tried to comfort myself with fantasies of the Orkin Man in Shining Armor, wielding giant bug sprayers in both hands, striding unafraid through a sea of dirty brown carnage weakly fluttering in their final agonies. My pathetic imaginings were soon interrupted by the inevitable soft thumping emanating from the window. I imagined the brainless little horrors battering against the glass, leaving their dusty, iridescent imprint. I could feel their shed essence wafting through the air like suffocating smoke, seeking out the chinks in the armor of my room, searching for me.
I clamped my pillow over my head and struggled desperately not to hear the now muffled intermittent thumps. Thump… thump, thump... I jammed the pillow even harder into my ears and yearned for the release of sleep and the onset of winter.
It’ll be winter soon, won’t it?
Thump… thump…