A Night In The Country

A NIGHT IN THE COUNTRY

Darkness came quickly, moving from the soft glow of twilight to night's sooty blackness.

            It startled Olivia as to how dark it was. 

In the city, it was never totally dark. There was always an orange tint, to the sky, that lit the world like a nightlight. Not brightly, but with a friendly softness. Night in the country, she was discovering, was completely different. Pressing forward like a threat.  Definitely non-friendly.

Shadows here were deeper and tugged at her imagination in ways they never did in the city. Olivia was sure there must be wild animals, or worse, wilder men, lurking in the darkness. Waiting for her…

The old house rattled and creaked as she made her way up the three-story hanging staircase, her hand gripping the handrail, worn silken smooth from generations of hands sliding over its surface. The sharp, ugly bare hall light bulb casting her flickering shadow on the wall as she climbed. Shivering, when the house made noises she wasn't used to, Olivia hurried along the corridor towards the room she'd chosen earlier, uncomfortably aware of the sudden leaping of her heart, spooked further by the old windows, clattering in the wind that sprang up as night fell. 

Olivia was now wishing she'd waited until morning to arrive. Somehow big old houses were friendlier during daytime. She hadn't thought about being alone when she arrived, late in the afternoon. Then, with the western sun gilding the house, and the golden glow softening the peeling paint, she'd felt welcomed, and happy to finally be here. 

She'd explored the house again. Finding two rooms not seen before. Olivia had been sure that she'd been in all the rooms when she was there previously. But what did two more rooms matter when there were so many? Twenty, no, now twenty-two rooms. 

All that space and all that work. 

The old 1880’s summer hotel had been a true find and she was eager to start its renovation, but the first thing she needed was a bedroom… The room Olivia selected to sleep in was in the front of the house on the second level. She had chosen this bedroom because of its triple bay windows facing east. The windows were tall elegant Victorian sash windows running from about two feet above the floor almost to the ceiling. The bed was placed with its back to the middle window and flanked on either side by the other two windows. Her choice made. Olivia opened the windows to air out the room and made up the bed.

Now, she was almost running to that room, her shadow chasing gamely after her. She reached the bedroom, throwing herself through the door, slamming it shut behind her, fear twisting her insides, for no real reason other than the unexpected terror of being on her own, at night, and in a house with twenty-two rooms that could hold anything. 

 Not only alone, but also way out in the country in a house with no locks. Worse, with no close neighbors. Just open farmland between her and the nearest house. 

Breathing fast, feeling foolish, but still afraid, Olivia moved to the bed and switched on the bedside lamp.  Then turned back to the door to secure it with a chair wedged under the doorknob. She closed two of the windows, hesitating over the third but finally leaving it cracked open. She needed the fresh air.

Feeling immeasurably better now she was safely cocooned in a room, closed off from the rest of the newly scary house, Olivia went to bed. Forcing herself to focus on decorating, she drifted off to sleep, her fears easing away, as she occupied her mind with plans for improvements.

Initially she wasn’t sure what woke her, but something startled her awake, her heart once again accelerating; fear crowding in on her. She lay listening, but the house was quiet, the wind that rattled the windows earlier was gone. Moonlight trickled across the floor from a fourth window and onto the chair still firmly wedged under the bedroom door. A quick glance at her watch told her it was barely past 3am. Snuggling back under the covers, thinking it must have been a bad dream that woke her, Olivia was sliding into sleep again when she heard the noise…in her almost asleep state she was idly wondering what it was when she realized it was… heavy breathing, and it was in the room with her.

It was at that point that every night terror that she had ever experienced swamped her. Bile rose in her throat as she realized she’d locked herself in the bedroom with no means of escape, and in a room at least sixteen feet off the ground, with no ladder... Olivia lay very still, listening to the breathing sounds, In. Out. In. Out – almost asthmatic in sound. In. Out. In. Out.  For almost five minutes she lay trembling, waiting with all the worst possible scenarios flooding her mind.

It was then that Olivia realized: The breathing wasn’t coming from inside the room; it was coming in through the open window.  The man, for she was sure it was a man, must be standing outside on the porch roof, waiting to make sure she was asleep before making his move.

Instantly Olivia knew what to do. Throwing off the covers she dived for the open window screaming:

 “Whoever you are, I have a gun! If you come in here, I’ll shoot!! Go away!

I’ve called the police – they are on their way! Leave!  Go!”

            She slammed the window closed and locked it. And waited.

Nothing.

And waited.

Nothing.

After half an hour, she crawled back into bed and, despite trying to stay awake, slept fitfully until the sun rose, pouring its light through the three windows, waking her.

Everything looked different in the morning; Olivia was happy and grateful to be alive.  She danced downstairs, resisting the temptation to slide down the banister. She made herself a cup of coffee and went outside, walking to the front of the house to see if she could find out how the man had climbed up to outside her window.

Olivia was standing outside looking upwards when she heard the sound again: Heavy breathing, coming from just behind her. She froze.

In. Out.

In. Out.

Turning round, very slowly, Olivia’s hazel eyes locked eyes with the dark brown ones of the source of all her terror. Seconds later she was helpless with laughter.

        She’d never known a cow could breathe so loudly.