Sally

Sally looked out of the window into the darkness.

Rain was hitting the glass panes with increasing force and Sally knew that the storm was going to get worse as the night wore on.

She'd lit the fire in the fireplace behind her, because it'd also gotten colder.

She walked back towards the fire and felt it's warm on her skin.

She rubbed her hands together briskly to try to take away the feeling of unease she felt tonight.

She couldn't understand why she was feeling uneasy, but she had the strangest feeling that something bad was going to happen tonight.

She'd not often had these feelings, but when she did, she usually paid attention to them.

It'd had saved her one before when she felt this way.

She'd felt uneasy once before on a night the same as tonight.

Wet and stormy.

She had been about to fly off to see her sister who lived in Boston.

However just before she was due to board the plane, she'd felt something crawl over her grave.

She'd decided not to board the plane; the feeling of someone walking on her grave seemed to ease as she re-booked the flight for the next morning.

She'd been driving home in the storm with the car radio on and then came a news flash.

There'd been a plane crash at the airport she'd just left.

She listened as they said what flight had crashed, killing nearly all on board.

It'd been her flight!!!

Something or someone had been looking after her that night.

Sally still couldn't seem to shake the unease that was within her.

Even the warm heat from the fire didn't seem to help.

She walked back towards the window and stood there trying to understand the weird feelings within her.

She was looking out into the darkness, when suddenly; a flash of lighting lit the blackness outside, scaring her.

She'd jumped back away from the window with a frighten gasp as the lighting flashed across the sky.

She walked back towards the window to see if there was anything out there causing this unease within her.

Maybe something was wrong with her sister?

Sally turned and walked over to the telephone and picked up the receiver to call her sister to make sure everything was all right her end.

All she heard from the earpiece was silence.

Her phone line was dead.

The storm had most likely brought down some lines somewhere.

The feelings increased as the storm increased intensely.

Sally rubbed at her arms, which had become covered with goose pimples.

Sally replaced the handset and walked back towards the window.

Just as she reached the window, another bright flash of lighting lit up the entire front yard.

Sally's hand flew towards her mouth to smother a scream.

There was someone standing in the rain in her front yard!!!

Then the darkness returned to the outside world.

Sally stood there by the window waiting for more lighting to flash again, so she could see the person standing outside.

It took a minute or two before lighting flashed again.

But try as she could, Sally couldn't see anyone standing outside in her yard.

"Nah, I'm seeing things now." Sally half laughed, but even to her own ears, her laughter sounded hollow.

Sally waited for the next bolt of lighting and when it came, she tried to make out a man standing in her yard, but where he'd stood, or more to the point, where she'd thought he stood, was empty.

Sally's house was miles away from the nearest neighbor.

She'd brought this place a couple of years ago, not long after her husband had been killed in a car accident.

She'd needed to get away from all of the bad memories of her and her husband's life together.

Even in death, the memories of her brutal husband scared her.

He'd been a very cruel man, beating her every time he felt like it.

When he made love to her, it wasn't love as such.

It'd been pure and painful rape.

He enjoyed hurting her every time he entered her.

He'd ram his penis as hard as he could into her, pinching her nipples hard as he did so.

She'd wake in the morning covered with bite and pinch marks all over her body.

She shuddered as she remembered his cold seed leaking out of her vagina and her anus as she stood in the shower, trying to scrub his presence from her body.

When he'd been killed in the car accident, Sally had felt no remorse for him.

They'd never found his body; it was believed to have been washed away in the flash flood that'd caught his car, as he'd been crossing a small ford near their house.

She'd had to wait for seven years for the law finally decided he was indeed dead.

They released the money in the bank account and insurance that'd been tied up all that time.

Sally had had to work as a barmaid and as a waitress to make ends meet until the money came through.

But even though she'd hated it at first, just the fact that her husband was no longer beating and raping her anymore, was more than enough for her to put up with those jobs.

She'd never been with another guy since her husband's death.

Sally was far too scared to trust another man in her life, let alone her bed.

Finally, deciding that she must have mistaken a small tree for a man in the semi-darkness, sally went back to the fire and stoked it up enough to cast an even brighter light in the lounge room.

But the feelings of unease stayed with her.

Sally had dimmed the lights in the lounge room so that the warmth and brightness of the fire filled the room.

Suddenly there was a loud crash of thunder shaking the entire house.

Sally jumped with fright as the lights went out.

"Damn, first the phone and now the bloody lights." Sally muttered, trying the light switch

"Oh well, at lest I've still got the fire." She giggled nervously.

Sally lay down on the lounge in front of the fire, feeling its warmth sweep over her.

She was just dozing off into sleep, when she heard the sound of glass breaking downstairs.

"Shit, now what?" Sally cried out, sitting upright on the lounge.

"Damn storm's broken a tree limb off and thrown it against one of the downstairs windows." Sally said to herself in annoyance.

Sally climbed off the lounge and walked towards her bedroom.

Forgetting for a minute that there was no power, Sally tried to turn on her bedroom lights.

"Fuck" Sally exclaimed.

Her tempter was starting to get the better of her, what with the phone dead and the broken window, now the damn power was gone too.

Sally walked over to her wardrobe and by feel and memory, managed to locate her dressing gown.

She donned the dressing gown and then walked back out into the lounge room.

Sally then remembered that she had a torch around here somewhere, and then she realized that she had left it in her garage on the top shelf.

"Oh well, I'd better go and get it, otherwise with the way my luck is going, I'll finish up walking on top of some broken glass from the damn window." She muttered to herself.

She left the lounge room, and walked to the top of the stairs.

Feeling her way down in the blackness of the night, Sally managed to locate the door to the garage.

She placed her hand on the doorknob to open the door and as she did so, she felt the doorknob starting to turn in her hand.

She felt ice course through her veins when she realized that someone was on the other side of the door.

She quickly moved to one side of the door and held her breath.

She heard the faint click of the latch opening and felt a cool breeze against her face as the door opened inwards.

She felt rather than saw someone enter the hallway with her.

The person was barely inches away from her.

At first, all Sally wanted to do was to run screaming away from the intruder.

But somehow, she managed to stay where she was.

The person then slowly closed the door and carefully started to walk towards the stairs leading to the second floor of her house.

Sally let go the breath she'd been holding slowly and took another cool breath of fresh air into her hot lungs.

She heard the person step on the board, which creaked slightly and knew he was near the top of the stairs.

Sally carefully opened the door to the garage and slipped inside.

Then she quickly ran towards the door leading out into the side of the house.

Sally opened the door and ran out into the lashing cold rain of the storm.

She finished up under a tall tree about 50 yards from the house, which gave some relief from the rain.

Leaning against the tree trunk, Sally gathered her breath and waited for her heart to stop beating so fast.

Looking back towards her house, Sally wondered who had broken into her home?

She was determined to stay outside until she knew he'd left.

It was too far for her to walk to her neighbor's place, even in good weather, let alone in this storm.

She thought about sneaking back into the house to get the torch.

But quickly changed her mind.

Sally sank down to her knees onto the wet ground and prepared to wait until she thought it'd be safe enough for her to go back inside the house.

Water was dripping through the leaves of the tree onto her, but Sally knew that there was nothing she could do about the water.

The only dry place around here was her house and she wasn't about to go in there right now.

She must have been under the tree for maybe 10 minutes, when she saw light flicker in the lounge room.

"Ahhh, the power is back on." She muttered to herself.

Then, she saw lights being turned on inside her house and knew that the person who'd broken inside her house was searching for her.

Suddenly, there came from the house, loud crashing sounds.

"What the fuck is he doing to my house?" Sally said to herself.

She wanted to go back inside to find out but she wasn't that stupid.

After about 10 more minutes, she saw the lights come on downstairs.

He was searching for her down there she knew.

It wouldn't take him too long to discover that she wasn't inside the house.

Sally moved around to the other side of the tree, just in case he came outside and saw her, even though she knew it was highly unlikely that he could see her this far from the house, but she wasn't taking any chances.

The front door suddenly burst open and Sally saw the man standing there, his body outlined by the light behind him.

Though she couldn't see his face, the shape of his body reminded her of someone.

For the life of her, she couldn't remember whom.

Then the man left the house and walked away, walking towards the driveway.

After a few minutes, Sally heard a car start up and knew that he was leaving.

The car screamed away from the entrance to her driveway and Sally saw the receding taillights disappearing in the darkness of the storm.

Feeling safe enough to return to the house, Sally left the protection of the tree and ran back towards the house.

Once inside her home, Sally wiped water from her face and decided to go upstairs to see what he'd smashed.

When she entered the lounge room, she was shocked to see, written across the wall above her fire place, the words " I'll be back bitch" scrawled in something red.

Then she saw her lipstick case sitting on the floor and knew that is what he'd used to write the message on the wall.

Sally quickly tried the phone but found it still dead and wondered if he'd cut the telephone line outside the house?

She gathered her purse and some clothes, plus the keys to her car and ran downstairs to the garage.

She knew that he could come back at anytime and catch her here if she didn't get away quickly.

She opened the door to her garage, half expecting him to be standing outside in the pouring rain as she did so.

Then, leaving the lights on inside the house, she quickly drove away.

The town of Forest Lake was about an hour's drive from her place, but Sally knew she'd have to take the risk of driving in the storm.

It took her nearly two hours to reach Forest Lake, because of the condition of the roads, caused by the storm.

Sally drove straight to the police station and locked her car and walked inside the brightly lit station.

The policeman sitting at the desk looked up at her as she entered.

His mouth dropped open at the sight of her standing there, wet and disheveled.

Still in her dressing gown, Sally knew she must have looked quite a sight, but right now, she didn't give a shit what she looked like.

She was too pleased to be somewhere safe.

"Well, hello there." The policeman said to her, getting up from the desk and walking around it towards her.

Suddenly it all caught up with her and Sally felt her legs starting to give way beneath her.

The policeman grabbed her just as she fainted.

Sally came too with two policemen standing over her.

One was holding a paper cup with water in it and the other one was holding her hand and talking to her.

"Are you ok, lady?" he was saying.

Sally realized that they'd placed her on a bench seat in the hallway.

She struggled to sit up, still feeling a little weak.

"Yes...yes I'm fine, thank you." She replied to the policeman holding her hand.

She reached up and took the cup of water the other policeman was holding and drank half of it straight down.

She felt slightly better and swung her feet off the bench and sat upright.

"What happened to you lady?" the first policeman asked, looking at her as if he might attack him or something else as weird.

Sally realized she must look a terrible mess, with her hair hanging down either side of her face and sitting there in her nightie and dressing gown.

"My house was broken into tonight." She explained, looking up at both policemen as she said it.

"Were you hurt at all?" The policeman who'd been holding the cup of water asked her.

"No.... no, I managed to slip out of the house without him realizing it and I waited outside in the rain until he left." Sally told him.

"That explains your dress then." The first policeman said with a wryly grin.

"Yes, I don't normally drive into town looking like this." Sally joked back at him.

"What time was this, that he broke into your house?" The 2nd policeman asked.

"Ohhh... I'd say around 9pm." Sally told him.

"Did you get a good look at the person who broke into your house?" the 1st policeman asked.

"No, it was too dark and the rain was coming down far too heavy for me to see clearly, but he wrote on the wall in my lounge room, that he's coming back to get me." Sally exclaimed, again feeling the terror she'd felt back at the house.

"So he knows you then?" The 2nd one asked.

"It sounds like it, but I don't know of anyone who'd want to hurt me." Sally said, wiping her hair back from her face.

"Well, we'll send someone out to your place right now, and see if he has come back." The 1st one replied.

"Would it be possible for me to change into some dry clothing and maybe get a cup of coffee please?" Sally asked hopefully.

"Sure, we'll soon find you somewhere to change and while you're changing, I'll rustle you up some coffee." The senior one replied.

They took Sally down to their change room and shut the door behind her.

Sally took the opportunity to take a most welcome shower and stood under the hot water, enjoying the warmth of the water and the safety the police station provided.

Sally re-entered the hallway to find the senior policeman waiting for her.

Of the younger policeman, there was no sign.

"We've had a call back from one of our officers who is still out at your place. He confirmed your story about the writing on the wall and found that the person who broke in, had also cut your phone line." He told her.

"We've got a term going out there now and hopefully they'll be able to find some fingerprints of the man involved, then if we're lucky, we may even know very soon, just who it was that broke into your house." He added.

"Thank you." Was all Sally could think of to say.

"Would you like me to ring the hotel in town to book you a room for the night, as I don't think it'd be a good idea to return home just yet." He asked her.

"Yes, that'd be fine, thank you." Sally replied, grateful, as she didn't want to return to the house just yet anyway.

After filling out all the reports and forms that seemed to have no end, Sally left the police station to finally get some sleep.

The officer had told her that they'd get in touch with her first thing in the morning if they'd found anything out.

Sally paid for the room and took her wet clothes to a dryer that was set up in the bathroom of her room.

After placing the clothing in the dryer and turning it on, Sally lay on top of the bed and tried to figure out just whom it was that the person's silhouette reminded her off, but for the life of her, she couldn't remember.

She finally drifted off into a fitful sleep.

Sally awoke; feeling as though she'd hardy slept a wink.

She ordered breakfast from room service and was halfway through it, when there was a knock at her door.

She rose and walked to the door and opened it to find the senior policeman standing outside.

"Good morning, Sally." He said with a grin.

"Good morning to you too, have you found out anything yet?" She smiled at him.

Sally looked at his ring finger and was somewhat pleased to discover that he wasn't wearing a wedding ring.

He noticed where her eyes had fallen and smiled at her.

"No, I'm not married." He laughed.

"Would you like a cup of coffee?" Sally asked, trying to hide her embarrassment at being caught out by him.

"Sure, that'd be real nice. I've finished for the night and was about to go home to an empty house." He said, grinning as he did so.

The "empty house" bit wasn't lost on Sally.

She knew that he'd dropped that hint just for her.

Sally hadn't been with anyone for a very long time and wondered if it was time she started to rejoin the human race again?

"What is your name, by the way?" She asked as she poured him a cup of coffee.

"It's Brian... Brian Harris." He replied.

"Hi Brian." Sally smiled as she passed him the cup.

"Hi, yourself Sally." He smiled in return.

"And no we didn't." Brian told her, his face no longer smiling. " He must have been wearing gloves the whole time he was inside the house."

"Damn, and I was so hoping that you'd already have arrested someone for it." Sally replied.

"I wish we could arrest everyone that broke the law that quickly." He grinned at her.

Sally liked his face when he grinned and smiled.

They spoke about the case for a while, and then Sally was surprised when she realized that he'd turned things around, so that instead of the case, he'd got her telling him all about herself.

When Sally finished telling him all about herself, he then told her all about himself.

She learnt that he'd been born and reared in Forest Lake and haven't wanted to move from here.

He'd been a policeman now for the past 5 years and loved his job.

By the time an hour had passed, Sally felt very comfortable in his presence.

"Would you like me to drive back to your place with you...just to set your mind at rest that he's not inside the house when you return?" He asked.

Sally didn't want to appear to be a helpless female to his eyes and shook her head.

"No thanks, Brian. I'm sure that if he came back, he would have seen the police cars there and would have decided that discretion was the better part of valor." She joked.

"I really don't mind in the lest and it is on my way home anyway. I live about 15 mins further on than you." He explained.

"Well, in that case, I'd be delighted. Thank you." Sally replied, grinning at him

It was obvious that he was attracted towards her and Sally found herself strangely attracted towards him.

Sally couldn't remember the last time; someone had attracted her in this way.

Even her dead husband hadn't affected her in quite this way.