Breaker

I bolted to the cupboard when the lights went out. I had overloaded the circuit knowing that it would shut down everything in my house. It was a little quirk the realtor had told me when I bought the place. I could have had it fixed but it didn’t seem like it was worth the cost at that moment. I was now glad I had been so stingy.

I sat in the small cupboard in my kitchen, just barely able to fit. I had to twist my ankle to an uncomfortable degree to get the door shut. I crouched in there with a paring knife in my hand ready to strike if I needed to.

I would have left out of the kitchen door, but something was propped against it from the outside. My front door felt like a mile away and apart from the previously mentioned kitchen door, there were no other entrances. I had assumed whoever was in the house had crawled through a window.

I waited, knowing that the person who had broken in wasn’t here to simply steal. They had put something against the back door and, though I hoped it wasn’t true, had very likely barricaded the front door as well. I would check if I could but otherwise my only way out would be through a window.

A loud “clunk, clunk” echoed around the house, he was wearing boots and sounded like a large man. That’s not what scared me about the sound, it was the fact that he wasn’t sneaking, wasn’t being careful about how much noise he made, like he knew that there was no escape and he would soon find me.

I grasped my knife tighter in my hand as the echoing footfalls got closer. The cupboard I was in had a shutter style door I could somewhat see out, but a thought weighed on me, ‘would he be able to see in? Was it dark enough for me to really hide?’ My hand tightened again to the point that I could feel every groove of the wood grain handle.

He stood next to the cabinet. His raincoat brushed against the door and I saw it was dripping wet. I didn’t understand how it could be, it had not rained in a few days.

I heard a strange noise coming from above. Was he… sniffing? He was. I’m not usually someone who covers myself in perfumes or cologne, even my deodorant is unscented, but I suppose, with only moonlight here and there to light his way, he was trying to use his other senses.

The sniffing stopped, then silence, complete silence. He had stopped breathing. He was listening for my faint breaths. I instantly stopped my breathing as well, though, in the silence I could hear my heart pounding in my ears. He turned toward the cupboard. A pale beam of light cut across my kitchen floor and I could see what had been dripping off his coat. It was dark and most definitely not rainwater.

I sat completely still wondering if my neighbors would be able to hear my screams. They were maybe two and half acres from my back door. The startling thought came across my mind, ‘what if the blood was theirs? It was fresh, was it possible he killed them before coming for me?’ Another line of questions came to my mind, ‘was this man a serial killer or was he looking for someone specific? Don’t serial killers usually go after one or two people at a time?’

A sudden desire came over me, I wanted to see his face. If I was going to die, I wanted to see who it was. I didn’t want to be taken out by some unknown boogeyman.

A loud thud above my head startled me. I clasped my hand over my mouth to keep from screaming. His hand fell next to the door of the cupboard. I readied myself, preparing to fight for my life, but then he charged away. I heard him moving quickly from room to room opening each door before slamming it in frustration. I also heard what sounded like an occasional raking along the walls.

Finally, after a few minutes of his mad searching it was quiet. The last noises sounded like they were near the bedroom window. Did he leave? No, there was that same clunking noise coming from his boots as he circled the house. What was he looking for? I could hear more scraping noises but this time it was along the outside of the house. I wished he would stop. I wished he would just go away. I didn’t see his face, what could he have to worry about? I wasn’t too far from town, but it would still take time for the police to get here. He would have a good head start if he left now.

The thumping continued until I heard a click under the kitchen window. I couldn’t take it anymore. If I ran at this moment, I might be able to make it out the same window. It was on the opposite side of the house. I popped open the door moving slowly. I hoped that he wouldn’t be able to hear me. I was sure he wouldn’t see me. The moonlight had moved slightly away from one of the kitchen windows, so I wouldn’t be seen.

I held my knife -which now seemed ridiculously small- so tightly in my hand I thought my palm would start bleeding. For a moment I panicked thinking it had started bleeding, but it wasn’t my blood. The small puddle left by the intruder’s jacket was in front of the door. The hand which held the paring knife had landed right on it. I cringed at the feeling and the metallic smell of the cold blood

All this took only a moment but it felt like an eternity. I raised myself off the floor, as I did so I looked out of the kitchen window to see the man standing there. He was bigger than I thought. I froze but then a slight bit of relief came over me as I saw his face, illuminated by the night sky, he was scanning his eyes across the house. Never once did he focus on me and I was elated by it. I heard another small click.

I felt the color drain from my face as I realized, the circuit breaker! It was outside the house. The lights came on, the man had disappeared from the window and all I saw was my own reflection.