The security guard, Mickey Vartabetian, slept in a plastic lawn chair propping open the door between The Villa's courtyard and the entrance lounge. As he slumbered, a beam of light lay across him at an angle, casting him half lit, half in shadow.
Mickey snorted and slid down in his chair falling further into the light. He was a thin but muscular man with a dark complexion and a haggard, slightly bug-eyed look; a look that was at once beaten down and simultaneously wild. A bead of drool dripped from the corner of his mouth and into his unkempt beard clinging to the edges of his jaw line. It hung there for a moment, then slid away as Mickey's chin fell down, then jerked back fighting the exhaustion. Mickey startled up, bleary-eyed. He blinked, on the edge of waking, and then his head nodded and resumed its slow descent, his chin tapping methodically against his chest. The battle with sleep was utterly lost.
Off behind him, all was still in the moonlit courtyard. Half a dozen sun chairs surrounded a rarely used pool, safety lights casting a dim glow over the blue water. The still surface broke, gently rippling under a soft breeze. Over the pool it gusted, on through the fronds of four palms standing sentry at each corner of the courtyard, and over a nearby cluster of empty patio tables and plastic chairs.
No sounds could be heard, save for the occasional slumbering snort from the guard, yet each of these reverberated throughout the courtyard. The construction was lousy, and this central enclosure, which should have been a social center for The Villa apartments, served instead as an echo chamber.
Up above, on a third story balcony, a form moved in the darkness. Mere moments before, it had slid past the sleeping guard, and now it crept its way towards a sliding glass door. The interior blinds drew up and for a split second the shadowy form was caught in silhouette. Quickly it shot back into the dark hitting against a window box of flowers as it did. The box teetered briefly and then tumbled over the railing, flowers and all. Down from this third-story apartment the ceramic garden fell, smashing against the pavement.
YOU ARE READING
The Violation in 314 ✔️
HorrorMickey Vartabetian works as the night security guard at The Villa apartments. Estranged from the tenants, he has come to view himself as less than human - but all of that must come into question when he meets something even darker than himself.
