Out After Curfew

Chapter 2

After a wide-eyed night devoid of sleep Melissa rises from her bed the following morning just as the sun is beginning to crest over the horizon. This sight is one hidden from her, enclosed in the light-sealed armoured box that is her flat.

She switches on the lights and sits by the window in her living room, waiting for the familiar and faint successive beeping sound that can be heard from the little black box under the windowsill. This device, attached to the wall, functions as a timer to control when it is time for the vertically sliding, matt black painted clamping steel shutters to rise. She looks at the clock on the wall opposite, indicating that it is almost 7:40am: the time when the shutters rise at this autumnal time of year, this being when the sun is considered to be appropriately high in the sky.

As she waits alone in total silence she can't help but continue to think about the traumatic experience she had undergone the previous night; savagely attacked right outside her home by someone she had only good intentions towards. She had been trying to help that man – simply warning him that where he was sleeping was not safe. She had been trying to save his life and in return he tried to take hers.

That had been the second decision she'd regretted from that night after staying late at work. What's more, as if that experience alone wasn't bad enough, after having been saved from it, she'd watched under the obscurity of darkness, her attacker being mercilessly killed and devoured by the hideous, monstrous creatures which had inadvertently perpetrated her rescue. This is the same trail of thought from which she has been unable to escape all night – the very thing that had made it impossible for her to sleep.

She had been trembling uncontrollably and sobbing when entering her flat directly after the attack. She'd craved a whisky or something else, anything else strongly alcoholic to calm her nerves but she had nothing of the sort in her possession. As much as these imprisoning shutters on her windows deject and aggravate her at times for their cold, unpleasing appearance and the necessity of their very existence, last night Melissa had felt truly grateful to be behind their protection from the monsters outside, be they vampire or man.

As she continues to wait in silence, expecting the first external sound of the morning she hears to be that little beeping noise from the device next to her, she is surprised to hear a different sound first instead; the sound of a vehicle pulling up outside.

Before the curfew days it would be perfectly normal to hear the sound of the occasional vehicle at this time, however few there may have been so early in the morning. But now no vehicles are generally heard before the shutters have come up. At least not in this part of the city. Melissa always gets up early to prepare for work and has become familiarised with this particular aspect of her neighbours' schedules. In the past, she has very occasionally heard people talking or cars driving around at an earlier time, but this tends to be somewhat of an anomaly.

Car doors can be heard shutting soon after the vehicle pulls up. Melissa leans in closer to the window in an attempt to hear what may be going on out there, if anything, but she doesn't have to wait long to find out.

The clock hits 7:40am, a little red light flashes on the black box under the windowsill as it emits its low beeping noise before the comparatively abrupt and sharp sound of the shutters unlocking, sliding up and clanging into their open position. Light pours in through the window and the scene of Melissa's attack is revealed to her outside.

Outside also is the car she'd heard pulling up – a police car – parked on the curb outside the park and next to the street sign which reads: "Garner Street". But there are no people to be seen.

The previous night, after having collected herself slightly Melissa had called 999 to inform the police of her attack. She had been questioned thoroughly over the phone, being asked to provide as much detail of her encounter as possible, including information such as, the time it happened, what the man looked like, where it happened, whether she had sustained injury, and finally, the question which seemed to be stressed above all: was the attacker definitely dead?