1: ARRIVALAlthough the rain had ceased for the moment, single thick globules, as if too heavy to be held by the blanket cloud overhead, splattered against the windscreen like miniature water bombs, and were quickly reduced to smears by the intermittent sweep of the wipers. Swish-thwack! Louder, swish-thwack! Louder, coming closer. Swish, then thwack, cane on flesh, swish, then thwack, two individual sounds that could be clearly heard over the raging storm outside. They heard his approach even though he wore no shoes, for he swished something through the cold damp air, each swishending in a sudden violent thwack, the beating of cane against bare flesh.
And this time, a cruel knowing voice whispered in their minds, this time it would be the worst punishment of all. He would snatch them from their hideaways and punish them. Silent tears drenched their cheeks and glacial fingers seemed to squeeze their small hearts. There in their hopeless sanctuaries they held their whimpers but were unable to control the chattering of their teeth and the nervous fidget of their limbs, for they knew that eventually he would find them, that he would seek them out one by one.
The children found refuge wherever they could - behind furniture, beneath tables, inside cupboards, anywhere they might sink into the umbra and be hidden while they prayed they would not be found. Some of them took to the stairs, scurrying past the tall, almost ceiling-high window at the turn, rain beating at its glass, the fierce wind rattling the frames, lightning flickering outside and casting darker shadows across the stone floor. The sound of their stockinged feet was soft on the hard stone floor of the cavernous hall. The shrieks and cries of the fleeing children rose above the noise of the storm outside. THEN They scattered into a darkness scarcely tempered by oil lamps, the soft glow easily repressed by the deep shadows of the house.
0 kommentar(er)
