It Comes in the Night, a Sudden Fiction story

The door flung open as its fur splattered against the wall. It drew a long gurgling breath and lunged at the fluorescent bulb, breaking it. Darkness fell in an instant.

I could barely make out its decaying form; what was left of it at least, as it dripped down the wall, peeling the wallpaper and slithering against the paisley.

Then it poured onto the table with a wet sloshing sound, skin and flesh oozing onto the floorboards below.

I couldn’t see it now, but it was impossible to ignore its gurgling breaths as it dragged itself towards my bed. It was clawing at the floorboards, calling me to play. *scratch, scratch, gurgle, gurgle* It was the same every night.

Heart beating and breaths measured, I prayed for the gurgling to persist. As long as it clawed… as long as it gurgled… it would not hurt me. I’d fed it as it told me to. It was full.

But then the scratching ceased and the room went quiet. It had lied again.

The End