'Noooo!' My mind screamed, as I started to reach for the handle. 'This can't be!' I was scared, yes --dreadfully so--, but was I crazy? Perhaps it was true; the stress had been building for months. I again listened, closing my eyes, letting my senses reach out to the sounds of the night. A subtle breeze through the pines, branches against the window in the living room, and the clock on the wall, its second hand softly ticking away. If I was mad, would my hearing be so acute?
I inhaled a deep breath to sample the fragrances around me; the hint of pine still present even in the cold of winter, the coffee grinds and banana peels from the trash I'd knocked over, the roses in the vase on the counter and even the smell of pea-soup lingering on the paper towels from where I'd dropped them. Could I be insane if the lightest scent does not escape me?
I opened my eyes to what lie around me; the ceiling light cast a yellow tint upon the room; the roses a deep red, capping the porcelain vase of black and gold, and the walnut cabinets a rich contrast of deep browns. If I were truly mad, would my sight be so sharp and colors so vivid? If not one of my senses had been dulled, am I not fully aware and in command of my faculties? Or . . . is sanity more than awareness.
I thought myself clever coming here, a chance to focus on my work. But, it is possible I was too clever for my own good; at least it does seem that way now. The strangeness of it all was suffocating, the isolation, the abnormal quiet, and perhaps the thought of creatures unknown to me watching from all the hidden places 'out there'. There was just so much, 'out there', miles of 'OUT THERE', it was maddening and to my mind un-natural.
I needed the sound of the city, the glow of lights to push back the dark. Here the dark was total, a void where everything lurked, ready to pounce, when you least expected it. 'How could anyone live like this?!' No wonder my mind plays tricks upon me, how could it not?
Somehow, I must get through this. Maybe, if I can clear and settle my mind, the snowmen will go away. Just focus on zombies, this book is about zombies, not crazed snowmen gone wild. I grabbed my laptop and went back into the living room to get comfortable. I opened it up and as I began to type, the noise came again.