In the light of a candle - The Night

Part of the "In the light of a candle" series.

It was a night like no other…

  It was a night like no other, but at the same time, just like every other. Just like tonight. Welcome.

  How are you tonight ? Well ? I am glad. Come into the library. The story I am going to tell you is not a horror. Or maybe it is. I will let you decide. I will just light this candle… Now. Where were we…


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  It was a night just like every other. The sky was dark ,the wind was cold, the streets were empty. Typical February night. Well, at least as typical as they come. It was truly cold outside, nut everything was where it was supposed to be �" under the covers, under the empty ceiling or under the stormy sky.
  It was a night just like every other. The town of Dobrich was sleeping peacefully. It was not a really big town. It was not even interesting. There was no crime in Dobrich �" people were too busy to escape from it to have time for crimes. Just the occasional drunk or a car accident. It is a place, where if you hear scratching on the window in the middle of the night, you know there’s nothing to be afraid of. The elemental fear is there, yes, but you know that in Dobrich there just aren’t any crazy killers, evil ghosts or the crazy ghosts of evil killers. So you just go to sleep.

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 It was a night just like every other. It was the 24th of February. It was yesterday. Nobody actually knows what happened that night. Just random people saw, heard or felt random things.
 One girl was sitting in front of her computer. She was basically doing nothing, when she heard scratching from the window next to her. She calmly stood to open the door �" it was her cat’s signal to let it enter. When the girl opened the door, she saw that the window was empty and the cat was nowhere to be seen. She shrugged and went back into the house. Things like this happened. The wind could do almost everything. But when an hour later this had happened three times more, she got a little scared. No. That’s a lie. She got terrified. A person who did believe in ghosts but who knew that she hadn’t done anything to anger one, she refused to look at the window. On the fifth time she went to bed. On the sixth she stared blindly at the TV screen until she heard a faint mewing sound. She got out of the covers slowly and opened the door. The cat entered the house and went to eat. The girl went back to bed, desperately trying to forget. To forget what, she wasn’t sure, but it was imperative.
 
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  Another girl was going home from a bar. She was walking alone, cursing herself for not taking the offer of her friends. She could have gotten a cab with them, but she lived close and didn’t want to waste her money. Now she was cold and angry. The terror hadn’t come. Yet. While she was walking, she felt the weird compulsion to look at one of the glass windows of the shops. And when she did, she stopped in her tracks. Behind her, on the opposite sidewalk, there was a giant black fox. The thing looked big as a wolf and the way it was staring was worrying the girl. She slowly turned … and there was absolutely nothing behind her. She started walking again. A little faster. She could see her door with the light on. The last meters she ran. Opened the door, flew into the house and shut the door. Breathing heavily, she leaned on the door. Bathing quickly, she went to bed. That night she dreamt about big golden eyes on a big furry face. The… thing… was chasing her. She woke up with a scream three hours later.
When the clock hit half past six in the morning, she got out of the bed. Since she’d woken up at two o’clock, she hadn’t slept anymore. She couldn’t remember her dream, but she remembered the terror. And those eyes…

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  And these weren’t the only cases. People told their friends about rats in houses where the hadn’t been any rats before. The animals had been huge. And they had been doing nothing except for the staring. Others claimed that a big bird had stood on their window through the whole night. Enormous dogs, howls echoing in the parks, owls, eagles and ravens, looking through the windows. Big mice, running from room to room…

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  Nobody really knows what happened that night. It didn’t reach the news, internet forums or even the local newspaper. The people didn’t fit in any category �" boys and girls, children and adults, people, living in houses and flats. This has never happened before. And everyone hopes, secretly, that it won’t happen again.

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  What really happened ? I do not know. Really, I don’t. I just tell the story. But, a piece of advice. Because it is not clear what happened or why happened or when it will happen again, just, do something for me. Lock the doors, cover the windows and, whatever you do, do not go out of the bed if you hear the cat scratching on the floor, the dog barking or the canary flapping its wings. Because we know that you do not really have a pet. I know it. You know it. Now. And you will know it then. So be a smart person, cover your head and try to sleep.

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  Good night. Sleep well…