Single Shriek

I lay awake in bed, unable to sleep. Past midnight already, the clock taunted me. A ghastly feeling hung thick in the room; clouding my thoughts. I lay still, clad with fatigue when I heard it: a single scream; a gruesome shriek. I tried not to be afraid, thought it had electrified me, leaving me in a state of shock. It must have been something else. Like a screeching door, I reasoned, but I couldn’t fool myself much longer. I grimaced at the idea of what could have happened for someone to cry out the way this person had. I simulated the screech in my mind over and over, until I couldn’t take it any longer.

I succumbed to the temptation to sneak a peek and satisfy my curiosity. I immediately rose from my bed and rushed to the window. I gingerly drew the curtains, just enough to see the street and the townhouses right in front. I didn’t know what to expect when I made a cursory search of the street, only dimly lit by the few street lamps. From the search I derived that the cry hadn’t come from the street. I surmised that the shriek had come from the town house directly in front of mine. With no one awake to corroborate what I had heard, I decided to only alert the police of a suspicion of foul play. I thought again to that horrendous scream. I must endeavor to give the police every detail in order to save the old man...if it wasn't too late already.