Tomorrow is a new day

Short Story

Kathleen likes giving. She loves taking care of people and taking recognition from it. Her huge opal eyes and fruity voice are always after her pupils. That is why she is an English teacher. According to her, teaching, looking after people and sharing her knowledge with others have always been the most beautiful thing to do.

Kathleen and William, her husband, do not have a very exciting life; they both work, go home, eat and sleep. The only thrill they have is when they argue over irrelevant things. They both feel that something is missing in their lives. Obviously, over years of marriage, a routine has taken hold of the house. They get up at 6, eat their breakfast at 6:30 and kiss goodbye at 7 to be at work on time.

25th September 2016.

On that day, something was different. William was in London for the weekend for a new bank programme that was being introduced; Kathleen was left alone.

She was looking for a book in her bookshelf that would suit the English school educational programme. The scent emanating from old books made her stop for a moment. God, she loves that smell. Frowning, she was thinking about several books that could be interesting. She started to turn the bookshelf out when she found a leather black coated book with no name on it. "Where the hell does this come from?" she thought. Maybe it is William's intimate diary when he was a teenager, or just a notebook she doesn't remember buying. She sat at her desk and opened it; the book had blank pages. Suddenly, a butterfly fled out of the book and once it stepped on her desk, black dust popped; the butterfly was gone.

When looking back at the book, she noticed a sentence handwritten saying: "They say I am powerful. They say I am the darkness. They say I instil fear into the hearts of many. It is even said that the Devil himself is afraid of me." She immediately threw the book in the air and ran out of the room. Her heart was pounding. She went to the kitchen downstairs and took a glass of water. Was this a hallucination? Is she becoming mad? Her husband would not believe what just happened.

Night was there. The sky was gloomy and the clouds were fearful. The ominous moon was barely lightning the Victorian streets. Kathleen was preparing a salad for tonight when she heard violent knocks at the door, echoing in the whole house. She became stoic. "Who can it be at this bloody hour?" She thought. She actually did not know what to do. As a lonely woman in her house at night and because of what happened this afternoon, she doesn't think it is a good idea to open the door. What if it is a person who seeks help? That would be considered as non-assistance to a person in danger. She quietly took a kitchen knife with her and hid it behind her leg. While she was slowly walking towards the door, another series of intense knocks banged. She put her hand on the handle and deeply inhaled before actuating it. Kathleen was unexpectedly pushed away by the door when a huge black foggy figure loomed in the entrance. The latter became less and less foggy as the seconds passed by. Kathleen ran towards the figure knife in hand, jumped on the silhouette and fell on top of it. When she was about to attack, the silhouette had become a human body. She stopped her actions seeing his frightened face.

'Hail...fellow.'

Kathleen looked at him intensely, still straddling him with the knife in her hands.

'Can you put this away? I swear I don't mean any harm.'

'Who are you?' she asked sharply.

'I-I'm... Please, let me get up and I'll explain everything.'

She sighed and carefully get out of this unusual position. Once he got up, she started to examine him from head to toe. He is tall, strong and has dark long hair, a thick beard and sea green eyes but what strike her the most was his clothes. He was wearing a crimson red costume and a back protection made of steel with a huge heavy golden satin cape that was flying around him.