Woman at Night

Thunder exploded and artic water poured. Bill whined and used those pity-me eyes Susan was sick of seeing.

‘Don’t look at me like that,’ Susan said, ‘this was your idea.’

Dog and owner ran for shelter under an ancient elder tree, towering over a crumbling half wall. Bill shook his chocolate-coloured coat and once free from his lead, stuck his nose into the dirt, not allowing the storm to interrupt the walk he'd been pining for all day.

 ‘Don't take too long,’ Susan called as he ran into the night. She tried to call her newest boyfriend Dave.

‘No signal, great.’ Her breath evaporated into blue-grey mist. She could hear Bill’s collar jingling while he manoeuvred through wild woodland. This was his favourite walk, he dragged her to it every time, but they'd never been when it was this dark. In the day, this usual patch of unattended woodland was like a miniature Eden, but at night it was uninviting. The ghostly-grey darkness masked the distinctive features that made it beautiful. Her cough echoed around absent space and she saw someone walking towards her fast. She jumped, sucking in air, ready to flight, but it was just the light from the single lamppost creating a double-moving shadow. She kicked herself for being so paranoid, but couldn’t help looking all around, unable to shake the feeling that she was being watched.

‘Please don’t take long,’ she called into dark abyss, hoping it made it to Bill’s ears. Susan cleaned her steamy glasses on her wet cardigan and with the light from her phone, wiped slimy leaves from her pumps. She scraped her frizzy-red hair into a ponytail and hopped left to right, her feet squelching in her socks. She curled her toes to try and get slight warmth and rubbed her hands on her aching knees but received zero relief. The cold made her arthritis flare. She wished Bill would hurry up but, out of guilt from locking him in the house all day because she worked late at Ray Lodgings, she waited.

The moment she heard her dog barking stupidly, probably at a squirrel she shouted;

‘That'll do now. Let's get home.’ Bill went silent. Susan hollered his name again, but he didn't come. This wasn't like him.

The heavy rain had slowed to wisps. Susan left the safety of the elder tree, pulling her leggings up as she walked, tucking in her sagging stomach tightly. She stood below the flickering streetlamp, the sound of a loose electricity wire buzzed and tinkered. She walked up and down the path, straining her eyes through grey wood and leaf. She shouted Bill's name again, and put on her phone torch shining it through the trees, unable to see anything but bush. Her battery was on 10%, so she turned the torch off to save it. The back of her neck prickled. She called for Bill again, but only the wild, whistling wind, rustling leaves and furrow of small creatures answered.

The rain picked up, it’s drops feeling like bites against her goose-pimpled skin. Susan made to scream Bills name, but before she did, an awful scream shrilled and echoed towards her. Susan went rigid. Did the scream belong to a woman who needed help? If so, why did she sound so angry? Susan’s only instinct was to run, but it didn't matter how much she wanted to leave, she couldn't, not without Bill. Incessantly, the ear-piercing screech went on. Susan picked at her manicured fingernails, trying to think, but, before her brainwaves formulated a plan, the screaming stopped. The night went deathly still and thickened into a dreamlike haze.

She heard Bill barking in the distance, opposite from where she heard the wailing. Relief temporarily melted her frozen body. Acting on probably a foolish impulse she headed into the thickets towards him, fighting through thorny vines fuelled by the determination to get her dog and get home. Clumsily she tripped on a stray bramble landing on fallen sticks, grazing her palms.

‘Tssssst,’ she said, trying to suppress the sting. The smell of rotting wood made her think of insects, and she stood up fast, waving her arms dramatically as though they were on her, hitting her body to kill any that might be. Unable to see, she put the phone torch back on, but saw nothing but her cold breath, and small areas of thick weeds. It didn’t bring her any ease, but she couldn’t bare the idea of losing this small bit of light.

‘Bill,’ she whimpered, quietly, she didn’t want whatever screamed to hear her.

Her phone felt hot, the battery was at 6%, and the anxiety of losing her only light helped her realise she could save it if she turned off the data and Bluetooth. As she worked on doing that with numb, cold hands, another shriek sounded. Susan's hair stood on end. This time, it was close, and whatever made it sounded threatening. She tried to run back to the path but the trees and bushes were too thick. Thorny vines punctured her skin through her thin leggings. She was stuck, and instead of being the mature 40-year-old woman she was meant to be, she dropped to the ground, and sat like a lost child. Cramped and cold, tears fell down her cheeks and onto her knees. She didn't know what to do, she was lost, she couldn't find Bill, her phone was about to die, she…

The crunch of a branch made her look up, but all that faced her was blackness. With shaking hands, she lifted her phone and pointed the torch light towards the sound of rustling.

A withered humanoid figure stared at her wide-eyed. It had long grey hair and bald patches exposing a growth-covered scalp. The creature cocked its head to the side. Its repellent, cloudy-white eyes squinted when the light hit its sallow face. Susan tried to scream, but only a squeak left her mouth.

‘Let me go home!’ The grotesque being hissed, with another ear-splitting scream. Susan crawled backwards upon noticing a trowel in its skeletal, hand. Its penetrating screams tore towards Susan so strongly the sound felt solid, it lifted the trowel above its decaying head. Susan scrambled up and ran.

Monstrous claws from trees and bushes grabbed at her as she went, ripping her clothes and skin. Susan's lungs burned, but she didn't slow down. Terror helped her unfit body move. The moment the screams sounded like a kind of demonic drone, indicating distance. Susan stopped and clutched the stitch in her side. Susan had never believed in the supernatural, but what the fuck was that? Unable to run further, Susan checked her phone, desperate for light, for anything, but it was dead.

‘Shit,’ Susan whispered hoping that hag-like creature didn’t hear. She sat on the ground and hugged her knees, catching her breath. Her heart felt like it had moved to her ears. Her body, felt like it shook the earth below. The bushes ruffled. Her throat seized. She shuffled back against a tree. Her heart sounding like an execution drum, but what appeared was the most beautiful amber eyes. His moss-covered nose was like a miracle.

‘Bill!’

He directed his head like he wanted her to follow. Susan put on his lead so she wouldn't lose him again and he pulled with a clear purpose. The branches did not slap or scratch at her, it was like he was a beacon of safety.

The sight of the flickering lamppost, on the footpath was more beautiful at this moment than the rising sun. A cup of tea, a bath… gin! Was waiting in the comfort of her meticulously clean home.

Bill pulled against the leash as though he wanted to go back.

‘What are you doing?’

The high-pitched screeching reverberated again, causing small silhouettes of winged creatures to scatter from the trees. Susan tried to run, but Bill wouldn't let her.

‘Come on, you stupid dog.’

His legs wouldn't budge. She stopped tugging and swallowed. Bill blinked smartly. Susan reached his level. The smell of his wet fur soothed her consternation. If that was a person out there she had to report it.

‘We can find someone on the main road.’

Bill didn’t resist. Together they headed out through the alleyway.

Susan avoided the overgrown nettles, the compacted passage felt like deep space. A part of her felt as though something was following behind, but the moment she saw light all the anxiety lifted.  

She tried to get cars to stop by waving. Susan felt colder in this spot, especially knowing her little house was only 15 minutes away, but she wanted to get this reported now because once home, she was dropping into a ball and numbing herself with pain meds, junk food, and T.V. Susan signalled to cars, which ignored her. She saw a jogger, but he didn’t slow down. A teenage lad on a bike with his hood up said, ‘fuck off, Karen.’ Maybe he thought she was someone else. She’d lived in this area for fifteen years. It was simply a long patch of main road, forest… and… then she saw it. A sign outside a driveway leading to that mansion-sized building. How could she forget the nursing home? She drove past it every day on her way to work.

Susan walked down the drive, moving faster on seeing flashing blue lights. A wave of worried voices met her ears, and she walked towards them. A police van was pulled outside the Tudor-built care home. A group of panicked nurses talked to neon yellow figures. Susan overheard their conversation.

‘…she must've escaped through the door Emma left open when she went for a fag...’

It was a light bulb moment.

‘You’re not looking for an elderly woman are you?’

The police were quick to work. One of the staff, wearing a green tunic, made Susan a cup of tea. She explained the woman’s name was Dotty, who had dementia. 

‘I thought she was a ghost. I…ran away from her.’

‘She's done this before,’ a carer with a large gap in her front teeth said. ‘Last time, she found a spade and tried to break a window in one of them houses, thinking it was hers.’ 

The police returned leading a wailing Dotty out of the vehicle. Her paper-thin skin was covered in aggressive scratches. She wasn't wearing shoes, and her deformed feet were covered in dried blood or mud, Susan couldn’t tell.

‘Oh, Dotty, you've 'ad us all in a tizzy,’ one of the nurses said over the sounds of her dreadful agony.

‘Please, just let me go on. I have to get home. Let me go!’ Dotty scratched out towards the staff, who struggled to restrain or calm her.

The sound tore at Susan’s heart and she left the moment the ambulance arrived. Susan felt that she couldn't accept the gratitude the teams gave her for finding Dotty and reporting it. Dotty's terrified cries followed as she walked away.

Dave was waiting outside Susan’s front door when she arrived home. He was worried when he didn't get her phone call. She cried into the warmth of his broad shoulder. Enjoying, for the first time his overuse of Polo-aftershave. Dave took care of Bill so Susan could bathe. Susan nursed the many little scratches and chose her fluffiest PJs.

Susan put her heating on full and they ate the pizza order. Susan not caring that the doctor said this type of food made her arthritis worse. She deserved a treat after today. She had a memory from reading something online, something about the autoimmune disorder that caused her arthritis led to dementia, but when she took the first bite of glutinous joy the overpowering pleasure she got from melted cheese, meatballs and garlic butter pushed the intrusive thoughts away. She would work on being healthier tomorrow.

Dave handed her a large gin and tonic. Her hands were still shaking, but she didn't know why.

‘You did all the right things. Why are you so upset about it?’ Dave said. Bill put his head on her lap.

‘I just… can't stop thinking about it Dave. She was so lost. She could me one day. It could even be you.’