Stella got home a lot later than she wanted. That meant that dinner was going to be pizza from the freezer, paired with a beer. Before she had even turned the key in the front door, she could hear both of her cats mewling on the other side of it. Being over two hours past dinner time, they were convinced that they were going to starve to death at any moment.
"Yes, yes. I know. I'm very late. I'm sooo sorry!" Stella baby-talked to them, as she shuffled out of her shoes.
They rubbed themselves on her legs as she took off her bag, her coat and her scarf, meowing desperately the whole time. If only they could comprehend the number of hours of work that she put in, just so they could have run of her home and the freshest mail-order food available; maybe then, they would cut her some slack. In the kitchen, she fed the cats, then turned on the oven to feed herself. A frozen pizza, the staple of the overworked nurse, would do. She twisted open a bottle of Japanese beer and took a long, deliciously cold swig. Despite the winter cold outside, she had had no time to cool down.
A twelve-hour day of work, became a one hour, icy commute, which led to feeding frantic felines-- before she had a moment to herself. So, she found it completely acceptable to remove her scrubs right there in the kitchen. In her black bra and panties, her body still sticky from the long, arduous day at the hospital, she leaned on the counter, sipped her beer and watched the cats go to town on their food, while the oven preheated. She ate the pizza in the kitchen, standing in her underwear, the cats lying, fat and happy, on the tile, cleaning their crumby little faces as she stuffed hers. Stella knew how it would work if she sat down, relaxed, and actually savored her dinner. The momentum of the day would come to a crashing halt, and the exhaustion would hit her like a tractor trailer loaded with cinder blocks.
If she could stay on her feet, she could squeeze just a little me time out of the day before she was right back in her scrubs, and her scarf and hustling the halls of Spirit Mountain Hospital, chasing code after code. Rinse and repeat. She needed a little me time-- she had earned it. No one could stop her from having another beer and another piece of pizza. And though she was in cool-down mode, it was as if all the stress, the overtime, and the running around-- had made her so hot, she just could not cool off. The cold tiles felt good on her bare feet as she strode to the sliding glass door that looked out over the big, snowy field behind the townhouse.
It didn't matter that she was showing more than a little skin, as there was no one for miles in that direction. It had only just been bought up and slated for construction. And since her townhouse was on the corner of the little block, and she was the first to move into the new pop-up neighborhood, Stella had an abundance of privacy. At first, it had creeped her out, knowing that she was the only person within a couple of square miles. But Spirit Mountain was a quiet town and not exactly bustling at night. So, she had the snowy, dark expanse of the soon-to-be condo community. The other nurses had reacted like startled hens when she had told them about her living situation.
Coming home late to a dark house in the middle of nowhere?
What do you mean most of the streetlights aren't even put in yet?
How can you do that?
A woman like you, all on your own? You are going to get murdered! These were some of the things her coworkers liked to parrot ad nauseam. She had brushed it off with a smile, and most of them had commended her on her bravery; though, she knew they really thought she was nuts. What she didn't tell them was that she sort of liked it. She had always been a bit of a thrill seeker. But it wasn't roller coasters, or partying, or bungee jumping; Stella liked the fear of the unknown--the spookier, the better.
That, and sex.
Her first boyfriend had broken things off when all she wanted to do was fool around in graveyards and haunted houses. Back then, her goth princess persona would have given her away to her coworkers. But the makeup, spikes, and black leather had gotten to be too much work. There was no time to fly her freak flag as a nurse. At least she had kept her underwear game-- black, lacy, and racy. Her goth teenage-self would, at least, approve of that. So, when she came home to the dark, and gazed out into the cold, blowing abyss, there was a delicious excitement. The bitter wind howled into the open door and swept across her sweat-glistened skin.
Anywhere that wasn't covered by black lace instantly erupted in prickly goose flesh. Stella shivered and laughed at the little chill, part cold, part fear of that never-ending black beyond her home. Following the call of the void, she stepped out onto the back step, gripping the neck of her beer bottle, and turned her body slowly in the gentle but frigid wind. The concrete was slick with ice and she spun on her heels, smiling, knowing fair-well how she would appear to an outside observer. Somehow, that idea made it better. The thought of someone watching her from the dark made her... horny. Stella couldn't help but laugh at herself, spinning in the cold in barely there underwear in the dark, smiling, getting worked up.
"I am really a freak." She laughed out into the open night.
"What is it that makes you freakish?" came the voice of the dark.
Like the winter wind itself had spoken, Stella heard the question come from behind her. Just beyond the threshold of the light that spilled out of her back door onto the snow. She turned and faced the black. There was nothing there but the endless void and the drifting clouds of crystalline snow blowing across the field. But, there was something there. She could feel it. She could feel its gaze. And as her eyes adjusted, and the adrenaline heightened her senses, she could see the bright lights from inside her kitchen reflecting in the mirror, like eyes of... something.
"Who's there!" she demanded, fighting the desire to retreat into the house and slam shut the door. The beer bottle became a glass cudgel in her hand. The lurker in the dark did not answer her question, though it repeated its first.