Mr Night

𝟐| 𝐇𝐞 𝐤𝐢𝐝𝐧𝐚𝐩𝐬 𝐦𝐞

-𝐇𝐄𝐑-

The ball was over shortly after I returned to the ballroom. Elizabeth and my aunt seemed to be in a very unnaturally high spirit tonight after the ball but I couldn't have cared less. My mind was somewhere else now. They chatted away everything about the ball as we went back to my uncle's house. Generally, I would have sneaked in a comment or two between their chatter but tonight I remained very unnaturally quiet while my eyes searched the dark roads outside the carriage.

I saw shadows on the roads again. They were of different shapes and sizes but all of them kept reminding me of that shadow of that particular tall figure I had seen in the garden. I thought I saw something in the darkness and it made my heart pace. I straightened up and focused my gaze on that particular shadow before the carriage could drive away from it. For a moment, I thought it was that man following us but turned out it was just my mind playing tricks with me.

Was it?

I couldn't tell. I wanted to get back home as soon as possible and get into bed and sleep the night away. I would just pretend from now on that I didn't see anything. I would just pretend that I was in the ballroom that night dancing with a faceless and nameless person but oh, this wasn't as easy as I thought.

After we returned home, I tried my best to concentrate on the book that I was reading but my mind wouldn't stop replaying the incident in my head again and again. I just couldn't stop thinking about it.

Was it a dream?

The pain on my arm that I got from the fall didn't say so. Even the speck of mud on the hem of my dress was there to advocate for it. It certainly wasn't a dream. I had certainly seen that man kill the Godwick's servant. I shuddered as the sound of that muffled click rang in my ears followed by the thump of the servant falling on the ground and turning into a dead man. I had witnessed a murder tonight but here I was laying in my bed now, finishing the crime novel I'd bought after saving every last penny I could find in my uncles' house.

I decided to go to sleep when I was unable to concentrate on that book. I kept the book away and blew the candles off and laid in my bed silently. It was a quiet night. Only the rain whispered outside my window and I was starting to fall asleep but then I thought I heard something outside the house. I froze in my bed, scared to even open my eyes.

Footsteps. They sounded like footsteps among the pitter and patter of the rain. I didn't want to believe it at first because I was sure my mind was certainly playing games with me and even if there was someone outside the house, I didn't want to acknowledge this because that would prove a lot of my speculations true, further feeding my fear.

I stayed in my bed and waited for the night to pass but it was a very long night. I stayed awake for the most part of it and even though I'd been sleeping in that small pantry room for years in that house, it was the first time I was feeling very scared in that room.

Even the slightest noise made my heart stutter and the shadows— they were playing hellbent on driving me mad. I laid in the bed with my eyes squeezed shut for the most part of the night. The morning finally drove the darkness away but how I wished out could do the same with my fear.

I was feeling exhausted due to the lack of proper sleep but that didn't stop my aunt from hauling me out of the house to run some errand. I was very anxious to go out at first because of what I saw last night. I didn't want to go out at first because I knew that that the murderer might be looking for me because I'd been the sole witness of his crime.

The streets would be flooded with the crowd and he'd be hiding among the crowd, planning to take me down as well. This struck even more fear in me though there was really nothing I could do but obey my aunt's order because I didn't feel like getting threats of being thrown out of the house right in the morning. I preferred to have them in the afternoon with my tea.