The silence was absolute. It consumed the room like a living presence. There was nothing except for the white light filtering into the room through the blinds. That didn't bother the silence, but rather seemed to compliment it. Gretchen lay still, careful not to disturb the silence as she blinked her eyes. It was early in the morning and the morning hadn't seemed to decide for itself yet whether it wanted to be cloudy or not.
A sharp clacking on the concrete outside of the apartment announced someone walking out to the parking lot, destroying the silence. It tried to cling onto its short lived power, but the day had already begun without it.
Gretchen drew the sheets off of her body and sat up in bed with a stretch. There was something about the morning silence after a night of heavy snow that enchanted her. She enjoyed making it last as long as possible for she knew that moments such as these were rare. The world was often full of noisy irritating people.
She had known it was going to snow heavily this week from the forecast and had been bummed out that she couldn't wear her heels--heaven forbid she slipped on the ice and broke one of them--until she went shopping over the weekend. She found the cutest pair of fuzzy UGGs in the mall that were only $200 and decided she would wear those around campus instead.
Gretchen spent a lot of time at the mall most weekends. She loved shopping because it helped to relieve stress. Her mom had gotten her a credit card as a graduation present two and a half years ago which she had said she would pay for every month as long as her grades continued to impress them.
After she took a shower, Gretchen checked her phone--which was also paid for by her parents--to see if Sarah had texted her yet about their study session. They had agreed to meet up at 8:30 to give them at least an hour before class. Sarah was a short blond girl that was in her Stats218 class. She had been very quiet and reserved until Gretchen had complimented her on her Coach purse. Once they found out that they had a lot in common Sarah had invited her to start studying together every week.
She had a text from Brad--whom she was no longer talking to, he had gotten annoying--and a text from Derek. Derek had been fun to flirt with and he hadn't tried to get into her pants yet. It was okay for them to scope out her finer attributes and buy her drinks and gifts, but she kept the physical stuff to a minimum. Unfortunately there were no messages from Sarah about their study session, so she decided to bridge the gap herself.
"Snowed a lot last night," she wrote. "Hope ur still able to make it. :) See u @ 8:30!"
While she brushed her hair she thought about how much work she had put into all of her classes lately. She should make a point to go out this weekend. She certainly deserved some time to have a drink and scope out the local studs.
Gretchen was picky about men. Not just any guy would do, they had to pay attention to only her. She wasted far too much time with boyfriends back at Clearmont High who had wandering eyes. And the gall of some guys! Caught looking at another girl's cleavage only to lie and say-
Her phone bing-bonged, waking her from her daydreams. She set down her brush and saw that Sarah had written her back.
"I'm heading out the door right now. SYS"
Gretchen finished her makeup and locked up her apartment. Someone had already shoveled a small path through the snow out to the parking lot, revealing faded doodles on the concrete beneath. A discarded stick of chalk poked out from a little pile of snow nearby.
As she brushed the fresh powder off her windshield her wandering mind tried to recall the last time she had seen the little neighbor girl.
- - -
Gretchen walked into the library around 8:50 and saw Sarah wave to her from across the room. She had already logged onto one of the computer in the lab and downloaded the powerpoint presentation they agreed to use as a study guide. She pulled up a chair beside Sarah so they could share notes on the same screen and gave her a brief smile.
"Sorry, I had to stop at Starbucks on the way over," she smiled. "I knew you wouldn't mind if I was a few minutes late."
Somewhere in the midst of reviewing Gaussian processes she began to daydream about the snow outside. How long had it been since it snowed this hard in Massachusetts? When was the last time she'd made a snow angel?
When she came back to reality, Gretchen realized that it was time for them to get to class. She escorted Sarah to class and they took their seats.
During the exam Gretchen continued to glance around as she usually did to keep an eye on how many other students were getting up from their seats to turn in their finished test. She always tried to avoid being one of the last few because it made her feel like everyone who finished before her was gloating.
When she finished more than half of the other students were still working and she tried not to smile as she walked to the front to hand in her test.
- - -
That afternoon, after she had gone to all of her classes, Gretchen returned home to find that her apartment door had been drawn upon. She dismissed it as the neighbor kids playing with chalk again. Crude. It was an odd looking scribble that seemed intentionally placed there. As she placed a hand upon the doorknob and pushed inside she wondered at their intent.
Was it a game they were playing where she was to be a target of some type of prank? Or was it something more innocent than that? Maybe they just had bad manners and wanted to try their hand at tagging. Were kids that age into gangs?
She pressed the door closed behind herself and felt a tingling on the back of her neck like a wisp of breath, causing her to shudder. She locked the door and instinctually looked out through the peephole. Of course there was no one there--she was just outside. Was she really worried about this? She walked into the other room and glanced out the front window, just in case. Still nothing.
She turned around with a sigh, preparing to let go of her paranoia when she caught a glimpse of a form moving in the shadows of the hallway just outside her bedroom.
She grabbed a nearby stiletto defensively, planning to jab the heel into the eye of her assailant if he charged her. She glanced down and dropped the shoe when she realized she had grabbed her pair of Sergio Rossi's. She found a cheaper heel and ventured cautiously into the hallway.
When she got close enough to make out the form, she realized it was a cat curled in the corner. She shook her head at herself and laughed. It was just the neighbor's cat. It must have snuck in behind her while she was distracted by the scribble on her door. She put down the shoe and bent to gather the animal and take it outside.
Its fur was matted with some kind of dark syrupy goo. She pulled her hand back in disgust and looked at it in the light.
Blood?
The slightest of sounds came from the carpeted floor behind her causing her back to stiffen. A pair of sinewy arms grabbed her about the middle before she could even finish standing up. She tried to wrench herself away from her attacker's grip, but the arms held fast. She was being squeezed so tight that it was hurting her arms--which were pinned down to her sides and now useless.
"No, please!" she screamed frantically. "I have money! Let me live and I'll give you whatever you want!"
