Nightcrawler

1

             Thunder struck the window like drums, shaking the glass panel viciously like rubber until the beat jolted Lilith awake. By habit she groaned and sat up limply, irritated with the thought of school, work, family, and the monotonous daily routine she had endured for years. The bedroom was much too dark for her pupils to dilate to so they simply decided not to. She couldn't see something if it smacked her in the face, which wasn't new. Lilith got into the nasty habit of waking earlier than she ever needed to. There was never enough sun at four in the morning much less five to brighten up her room, but after a while she had gotten used to the confident feeling of orbiting around blindly in the shadowy abyss of the morning. 
             With bedsore aches she hung her feet over the bedside tapping on the ground with her toes before finding a solid level to stand on. The dark had brought an eerie chill to the room, especially for it being the summer season so chilled she found the closest crumpled blanket on top the covers and wrapped it over her shoulders before inching across the dark space. She ran her fingers against the cold wall searching for the lightswitch, but it didn't feel right. Unlike her room, the surface was brittle and flaked away at the touch like rust. It was unusual for sure but it was also morning and for the past several hours Lilith had peacefully put all the weight of her heavy head on her fragile fingers until they went numb and thought nothing different of the wall's funny texture. Nothing could be heard over the roaring thunder echoing around periodically and in the slightest of pallauses in the roars was the smallest of splashes. Her foot stomped down into a warm puddle on the hardwood. Quickly she ripped her dirted foot from the puddle, retaining enough balance to continue fobbing about in the dark.
             "Damnit lou!" She cursed to a dog that didn't make a sound much less a whimper.  "I'm getting tired of this," with a new tick of irritation she smacked her hands against the brittle walls going further with each step searching for the light switch. "God knows how early it is and I'm starting off the day with not a cheery bowl of toast crunch, but instead cleaning up a senillie pouche's pis—" Lilith's face collided sharply with the room's end, a bleeding crunch as her nose met with yet another wall. She winced at the feeling and snapped back around to face the bed. Even in the dark she knew her room was larger than this. She should have known, should have realized sooner, Arizona mornings are never this cold in the summer, much less the winter.
           "Lou?" Starring in the direction she hoped was the window she waited nervously, timing a different kind of lightswitch. Then, a bolt of light shot up from the ground and brightened the bloody scene like an Edvard Munch painting. The walls weren't rust, they were rock, and the window wasn't a window at all, rather a slim hole in the rocks completely open to the battering elements. Waiting again for the next strike she shuttered her gaze to the bed. Ratty as it was, it was still a bed with a normal metal frame and cushioned mattress. Then, mortified, her head dropped down to the puddle. There were no dogs in the room to make a mess and no way for the rainwater to trail to the cave's center. She stared at the ground, clutching the ends to her crumpled shirt  too scared to look away. And then, for a brief moment, as light spilled in she saw it, the man, dead on the floor in a pool of his own blood. Without any control Lilith's legs gave out beneath her wight and crashed to the ground sobbing. So clearly now she could see the body and the footprints she had made from his blood and let out a shrinking scream in sync with the thunder that roared outside the rocks like tremors.