Work in Progress Wednesday- October 27th, 2021

Halloween is almost here, and it's crunch time to find a costume for my daughter! I hate buying a costume early, because usually, she changes her mind about what she wants to be. Not this time. But it turns out, it's hard to find a girl werewolf costume locally. But anyway...

Hibernation season is also nearly upon us, for better or worse lol. The part that's "better" is that I have fewer urgent things to do, like harvesting and canning. The "worse" part is that it's cold and I hate it, and I don't get to sleep for the next six months straight...On the plus side, I can wrap myself in a blanket and work on some writing! Here's an excerpt from Chapter Four.

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Dad wasn't home when Nathan dropped me off, which wasn't surprising. I just hoped he'd sober up before he got in his pickup to come home. I went straight to the barn, afraid someone may have let the horses out again. Everything was fine, so I threw them some hay and checked their water buckets one last time, then headed for the house.

It was pretty well dark now, with just a faint glow over the mountains in the west. I couldn't wait to get in bed. All of a sudden, I realized just how tired I was. I put my key in the door and let myself in. I couldn't see anything when I opened the door and pulled my boots off. I had my second boot off and froze.

Weird. A light breeze blew against my face from the direction of the kitchen. I listened for a moment, trying to figure out what was going on. There were no windows that opened so the breeze would blow in from that direction- only the back door. I stepped in the three steps to reach the light switch- I don't know who designed this house, but they didn't plan where the light switches were very well.

When the light flicked on, my heart stopped. The back door was wide open, barely hanging onto broken hinges, the prairie wind blowing in. A stack of papers that had been on the kitchen table were scattered everywhere after they must have blown around.

Oh, crap, was someone still in here?

I strained my ears to hear any possible noise. But of course, it was so quiet, I couldn't hear anything. It was like my ears buzzed and hummed the more I strained, and then they started playing tricks on me, making it sound like there were whispers and faint footsteps. I could almost hear things, but couldn't be sure they were real.

I took a deep breath, trying to slow my heart down. It pounded so hard against my ribs it actually hurt, and I couldn't hear anything over it all of a sudden. I stepped slowly toward the kitchen out of the entryway, scanning the living room to my left. There was nowhere to hide in the living room, so I focused on the kitchen.

I looked for something I could use as a weapon. Of course, Dad had finally put away the tire iron I'd been tripping over in the entryway for a month. I made it to the kitchen island without anyone jumping out at me. I slid a butcher knife out of the block on the edge of the island, and pulled my phone out of my pocket.

I went to the door. It was destroyed. Other than that and the mess of papers, nothing looked out of place. I wasn't going upstairs to check things out, though. I wasn't taking any chances getting trapped up there by a burglar.

I called Dad's number. It rang five times, then went to voicemail. I hung up and tried again. And again. And two more times. Crap.

My hands were shaking, and I was getting dizzy. I couldn't stop hyperventilating. I was about to dial 9-1-1, when I heard the rumble of a diesel pickup.

Oh, thank God. It must be Dad, or even Danny driving Dad's drunk butt home. I went to the window.

And saw tail lights slowly heading out the driveway.