Inktober 2022

Malory lifted her arms above her head and stretched with a tired yawn. The digital clock on her nightstand showed its dull red numbers; 1:44 am. Seeing the time, Malory closed up her binder, sending a few loose papers flying out in the process, but she was too tired to care. With a decisive close of her computer, Malory stood from her desk. Screw studying, you gotta sleep right?

Just as Malory sat down on her bed, her stomach let out a miserable growl. Thinking back, she’d skipped supper tonight to study more, which honestly wasn’t even worth it since she was just as confused as she was before her studying session. Malory tried to ignore the grumble, but her hunger kept gnawing at her and soon enough, Malory shook her blanket aside and headed for the kitchen.

She walked across the floors barefoot, knowing she arrived at the kitchen from the cool linoleum tiles beneath her feet. With the faint glow from her room’s lamp still a bit visible, she didn’t bother opening the lights and reached for the fridge, illuminating a portion of the kitchen. Her eyes swept over the transparent shelves, not finding anything that she deemed a good midnight snack in there. She then pulled open the freezer and grabbed a small box of lasagna, which were some of the best things she had ever bought. Decently sized portions for late night ‘snacks’, the cooking method is 8 minutes in the microwave and they taste fine too. She nudged the freezer close with her foot while she opened up a corner of the lasagna’s plastic sheet on top of its container and placed it in the microwave.

As she watched her ‘supper’ rotate under the strangely cozy microwave light and a nice smell starting to reach her nose after a few minutes, she suddenly heard a rattling noise. She easily blamed it on the old machine and ignored it, but another sound came from outside again. Then the microwave stopped with a few loud beeps, temporarily grabbing Malory’s attention back to her food. She took out the lasagna and stabbed into it with her fork, although now keeping an eye on the kitchen window. She couldn’t see much honestly, but still.

The noises persisted though, going from the weird rattling to some other weird sound she couldn’t recognize. Malory grabbed her phone from her bedroom and came back to the kitchen, opening the flashlight and aiming it out the window. She slowly scanned the yard, finding nothing out of the ordinary.

Then just as she looked at her utmost right, she froze at the large figure outside that stared at her, attracted by the light. The creature that looked at her was dark coloured with a big round head and heavy paws that she immediately recognized as a bear and stepped backwards, heading straight for her room and as far as possible from the window.