Radley's Home for Horny Monsters by Annabelle Hawthorne (chromebook ebook reader TXT) 📕

float across time and space. It wasn’t long before she drifted away on clouds of sleep, her music playing softly in the background.

IT WAS DARK WHEN SHE awoke. The bathroom was dark, the only light being the reflected blue glow of the alarm clock by her bed.  She could make out the edges of the doorway, the rest of the apartment dark beyond it. She rubbed her eyes, realizing that she had fallen asleep. What time was it, she wondered, moving her legs back and forth. The water had gone cold, and she was tempted to run more water to warm herself up before she departed.

Footsteps, clear as a bell, echoed through her apartment. She froze, afraid to look at the door, her heart suddenly loud in her chest. Surely she was dreaming, or hearing something else?

The steps approached the door to the bathroom and stopped just outside. There was no mistaking the sound-the board just outside the bathroom creaked slightly. Suddenly, the cold water of the tub no longer mattered, Beth’s entire world caving in as her mind turned over what was going to happen next. If someone was really just outside her bathroom, how could she get out of the tub without them knowing?

Oh God. Had her intruder been watching her, waiting for her to wake? What then was the plan for when Beth finally emerged? Was she going to die? Was she going to be raped?

Her gaze flitted around the room, her heart a frightened bird, ready to escape its cage. She needed a weapon. She was too vulnerable here, an easy target. She spotted the handle of her loofah, just over a foot long with the scrub-brush on the end. It was better than nothing.

If she could get to the kitchen, she could grab one of the knives. She slid out of the water carefully, moving slowly to avoid splashing. She picked up the loofah, her eyes on the doorway in case her intruder rushed in. After drying her feet on the bathmat, she stepped across the bathroom, looking in the mirror to see if she could spot movement in her bedroom.

The pitter patter of tiny feet sent a chill up her back. She let out a laugh and held her head in her hands. The soft footsteps ran across her apartment, and she tried to picture the animal that had gotten trapped in her home. She had never had a rat problem, but she imagined it would sound just like this. She wrapped a towel around herself and stepped into the darkness.

Moving cautiously through her apartment toward the kitchen counter, she found her phone still plugged in to the speaker. She pulled the cord free and activated the light, immediately dropping the loofah.

Her apartment had been ransacked. The blankets from her bed were all over the floor, her clothes had been tossed out of the closet. Every cabinet and drawer was open, and somebody had pulled all of the food from her pantry, stacking it all the way to the ceiling.

The entire world tilted beneath her feet, and tremors started in her hands. She picked up the loofah, holding it before her like a talisman.

She wasn’t alone. Spinning, she held the loofah high, searching for the intruder. The only place he could be hiding was under the bed or in the closet-there wasn’t room anywhere else. She backed into the kitchen, dropped the loofah, then pulled a butcher knife from her block.

Scanning the room, she moved to the front door of her apartment. She needed to get out, now. Her hand fumbling at the locks, she finally pushed the door open, stepping backward into the dark hallway and closing the door. She waited, knife pointed at the door, expecting her attacker to chase after her.

When nothing happened, she turned around to run for the elevator and froze in place.

She was still in her apartment, facing her darkened bedroom. Stunned, she looked at the door, confirming that she was, in fact, still inside.

Heart pounding, she made a dash for the door, opening it and running through and to the other side.

She nearly slipped on the cold tile of her kitchen as she ended up in her apartment again.

“What the fuck?!?” The words left her mouth in a fog, the air suddenly much colder than it had been. This was a dream, it had to be. There was no way this could be happening.

As if the room read her thoughts, all of the books on her shelves threw themselves onto the floor, one at a time. Eyes wide, she fell against the front door, watching as the books formed a pile around her bed. A small shadow crossed the floor and vanished beneath the bed.

“Hello?” She felt ridiculous, but if she was dreaming, she had to confront it. It would either scare the shit out of her, or she would wake up in the tub. Crawling toward the bed, she held the knife ready.

The tiny shadow launched from beneath the bed and shot between Beth’s legs. Yelping in terror, she fell backwards and crashed into the chairs at the counter,  dropping the knife. Scrambling to her feet, she stared in horror as the cabinets all opened and slammed shut, spilling their contents everywhere.

She couldn’t leave through the front door, that much she knew. Running for the safety of the bathroom, she slammed the door shut behind her once inside, gasping for breath.

The temperature had dropped here too, her breath scattering in fog. She was freezing, with nowhere else to go. She messed with her phone, trying to call the cops, but there was no signal. She turned the faucet on, hoping the hot water would warm the air. As she sat on her toilet, the knife pointed at the door, she heard a squeaking sound over her shoulder.

The mirror had fogged over, and the letters appeared as if being written by an unseen hand.

TAKE ME HOME

Beth screamed, jumped up and yanked open the door. Standing