A Blackness Absolute: A Collection of Short Horror by Caitlin Marceau

Author:Caitlin Marceau [Marceau, Caitlin]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Publisher: Ghost Orchid Press
Published: 2023-02-21T00:00:00+00:00

It’s not her alarm that wakes her the next morning, but Gordon shifting his weight as he sleeps on her chest, purring against her ribs. His paw digs uncomfortably into her breast and she tries to shift him into a more manageable position. He doesn’t fuss when she pushes him to the middle of her chest, instead closing his eyes and continuing to sleep. She rubs the top of his head, running a bony knuckle along the bridge of his nose to between his ears. He looks so comfortable, curled up on top of her bed covers with a paw tucked under his chin, and she envies his ability to sleep in. She looks around the room, trying to figure out how early it must be. Her alarm still hasn’t gone off but the room is already aglow with morning light streaming in from the curtains, which were left partially open when she fell asleep.

She turns to look at the small alarm clock on her nightstand, trying her best not to disturb the sleeping cat while craning her neck to get a good look at the glowing green numbers.

12:34 P.M.

She frowns and pulls herself closer to the alarm clock.

12:34 P.M.

“That’s impossible.”

She picks Gordon up and moves him onto the bed beside her, then rolls onto her side and pushes herself up into a seated position. Her bones hurt, back stiff and joints creaking in protest under her paper-thin skin, as she gets herself up to sitting on the edge of the queen-sized bed. She picks the clock up and flips it over, her frown deepening when she finds that the switch for her alarm is still set to ON. She pushes herself to her feet and shuffles slowly across the cold floor of the bedroom to her closet, which she opens to retrieve a housecoat from, before draping the cloth around her thin frame and making her way into the living room.

She checks the clock on the wall, hoping that maybe there’s a problem with the alarm in her bedroom. It’s old, after all, and the batteries haven’t been changed in some time. Maybe the clock has stopped working and is frozen on the time it died? Or maybe the alarm says it’s set to ON, but the switch is defective?

12:35 P.M.

She makes her way into the kitchen, sliding her feet into her slippers by the La-Z-Boy as she walks past, and puts on a pot of coffee. She fills the water receptacle and empties the old coffee grounds from the mesh basket, filling it with new ones from the canister she keeps on the counter. It doesn’t make sense that she’s so tired, especially with the nap she took yesterday, not to mention the early bedtime last night. Although she might still be sleepy from oversleeping, it doesn’t explain why her joints are painful and raw, like they’ve been overworked in their cartilage-less sockets.

As the coffee percolates, she makes her way to her medicine cabinet in the bathroom to take her morning medications.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.