Rude Wakening

I awoke with a start; feeling disoriented, from a dream, but could not remember what it was, which is unusual for me. Sometimes when I dream and wake I can go back and restart my dream and it carries on till I am ready to arouse and analyze it.

A sound from next door sharpened my senses. I heard a soft moan coming through the wall. My first thought was that she had company stay over. Then came a low thumping and the moaning grew louder. Yes, it sounded like a good time was happening.

I always slept with my windows open with a lock on each one. The curtains did not move and I felt clammy all over my body and the day had only started. Her moans kept seeping through the wall.  The heat was blistering already, far too early for me to open my sliding door and interrupt my neighbour and her friend.

I was now wide-awake, needed to shower. I turned the water on full to cold, standing with the stream pulsing down my body and started to come alive with goose bumps. Turning off the water I could still hear the banging coming from next door, it was getting louder.

The moaning persisted, but sounded more like a whimper now. I could hear someone moving about and the shower go on. A small noise again, I was getting annoyed and went out on the patio and peeked through a crack in her drapes.

I saw a body lying with blood all over and it was my neighbour lying there with her back to my wall hitting it with her foot. She was trying to get my attention.

Someone who did this was still there and in the shower. I ran back to call the police before I returned to help her. She looked up and her terrified eyes went towards the bathroom door. I quickly helped her up and we slipped out the door as I heard the shower go off.

She was bleeding from her mouth and had cuts all over her body. I hoped we were not leaving a trail of blood. Inside my place, we heard shouting and swearing. I helped her to my bed. We were both shaking with fear. I could hear sirens a distance away.

Then he was at my door banging, swearing and calling her name. A crash as the window smashed into pieces. I reached for my bedside drawer as he came pummeling through the window with his knife and a contorted grin on his face. I grabbed my gun from the drawer.  

He stopped dead in his tracks.

Don’t bring a knife to a gunfight.

His smile disappeared as I pulled the trigger.