I expect silence and am surprised to hear rustling from the inside.
The house is small and it takes me aback to hear noises coming from far away, from deep in the structure.
Nervousness creeps up on me as I wait while the noises slowly become louder and nearer.
Scraping, shuffling sounds.
A hunched, hairy form appears with blue eyes that peer at me dispassionately.
"Yes?" it says with a grunt.
"I'm here to explore the recesses of my psyche" I say with a kind of purpose in my voice that I don't feel in my feet. Immediately after I say this the inner critic starts up in my head.
Really? Recesses of your psyche? Sound a little more preteeeeeeentious. That'll help!
"Yea, that's what you said before too." The blue eyes look unamused. Not mocking, but not caring either.
After a moment of not knowing how to continue. I glance around.
"Can I come in?" I ask.
"Do what you want. I don't run the show here." It turns away and begins shuffling into the darkness without urgency.
I stand in the doorway and wait until the rustling has become faint. I wish I had spoken more to it.
I wish it hadn't left..
I expected more resistance. Expected to be barred from entering like before.
Now the apathy is almost palpable it hangs in the air so thickly.
They're calling my bluff...
I came across this place in a dream once but it had looked very different. Like something from a postcard.
A bright red door gleamed with a shining doorknob.
Nothing out of place. The blue cloudless sky. The bright yellow sun and green grass and a tree in the yard.
A bright white house in the middle of a friendly neighborhood, complete with two car garage and rose bush hedges in bloom.
I would have kept walking but the white gate opened so easily. I walked up the stone path toward the door.
A porch plant stood in the corner of the small stoop.
As I raised my arm to knock something at my feet caught my eye.
A small, round furry animal was curled next to my foot, shaking and whimpering.
My heart dropped. Bending over I reached my hand out to comfort it.
Before I could touch it turned on me furiously. Wide, frightened eyes and a mouth sharp with bloody teeth lunged at me.
I was startled awake, breathing too heavily.
That had been the first time. A sharp contrast from the dark and humid woods that surrounded me. The small shack that was held together more by the curling vines than anything it was constructed with.
A spider in the brush near the doorway crept lazily toward newly entwined prey.
I should call the hairy thing back.
It's the closest thing to a friend I have here. I've never tried that before...
Maybe it could help me? Guide me?
Why would it help you? You're more of an inconvenience than anything.
"Hello?" ....
