Katie wasn’t sure why she stayed up so late watching that horror movie. It wasn’t even very good. There were some interesting plot twists but in the end it was all just your regular gore and descent into madness for the main character. It was the imagery that was troubling her. There was a very vivid eye gouging that she had trouble shaking from her mind. If there was anything she didn’t like it was anything involving the eyes. She had been troubled by eye gouging since she was a little girl and her father let her watch The Toxic Avenger and he gouged out four bad guys eyes and then wore them on his fingertips. It still gave Katie a chill to think about it.
She turned the TV off and checked the wall clock. 12:41 a.m. That was far too late for a Wednesday for her. She could have gone to bed two hours ago but was unable to tear herself away from the horror movie. She mildly shamed herself for not being more responsible. Getting up in the morning is always so much harder when she stays up past 10:30. She turned the light off in the living room and headed to the bathroom to brush her teeth and complete her pre-bedtime rituals. She thought that she should probably cut back on all the face washing, hair tying, primping and plucking before bed because it’ll be 1:00 a.m. by the time she finally gets under the covers. But habit is habit and she mechanically completed all her tasks.
She looked at the temperature gage on the air conditioner in the bedroom window and it was holding steady at 73 degrees. Katie smiled to herself and was glad the heat wave was finally over. Most nights it could be 80 degrees in her bedroom even with the air conditioner running. At least tonight she could curl up under her sheet and be nice and comfy, for a few hours at least. She turned off the bedroom light and flopped down onto her pillow. She got herself settled and was quickly asleep.
Katie’s eyes opened at 2:34 a.m. She had been dreaming about her girlfriend and something to do with her dog or something. It was a very confused dream and it woke her up. She had to look around her dark bedroom for a quick minute to realize she was awake. She looked at her clock and groaned. 6:30 was getting closer and that was bad. She rolled over to the cool side of the pillow and sighed.
A flicker of light in the corner of the room caught her attention. She hadn’t ever seen it before. It looked sort of like a fishing lure, dangling just under the surface of the water on a sunny day. Or the little light effect theater companies use for Tinkerbelle as she pixies her way across stage. Katie tried to focus her eyes on the little flicker but it just didn’t seem to come into focus. She figured it was probably a reflection off something outside and was just making it through her bedroom blinds just right. She yawned and closed her eyes again and tried to get back to sleep and her girlfriend/dog dream.
She heard a thud and her eyes flew open. She looked at her clock and its red digital numbers flashed a furious 3:00 a.m. She froze in her bed for a moment, trying to decide if she really heard a noise or if it was something she dreamed. She strained to listen for any other noise. She could barely hear the room because her heart was pounding so loudly in her chest. She tried to calm herself and took a deep breath and that’s when she heard it.
Soft music. Soft, gentle music could be heard in her apartment. It was like a violin playing softly, but not a violin, more like a tiny violin that could fit into a music box; just like the kind of music box with the little pink ballerina in it that every little girl seemed to own at some point in their lives. The quiet little song sounded familiar, haunting.
Katie sat up and rubbed her face and strained to listen for the music again. It might be coming from one of the apartments; maybe a little kid was awake and playing with a music box. Damn kids. Katie was pretty determined not to have kids. She quieted her thoughts and breathing and listened again.
Another thud came from her hallway by the bathroom, near her bookcase. The thud sounded like a book had fallen or maybe more than one book. The tiny violin music continued to play, and it almost seemed louder, closer. Katie started to get nervous but she had to check it out. She wasn’t a coward. She’d been through worse than this. That time in college when she came out and the whole campus seemed to think she was some kind of leper. That was tough. Some mysterious music box noise in the hallway, that was easy.
She stepped out of bed and tried not the make the floorboards creak. She was trying to listen for the music. It wasn’t as loud as before. She stepped into the hallway and looked down at the bookcase. There was enough ambient light from the street lamps that her eyes didn’t have to adjust too much. And sure enough, nothing was there. No books had fallen and the little violin music had stopped. She sighed and put her hands on her hips. The whole thing was silly and she was annoyed she had to get out of bed to investigate nothing, being so early in the morning, with work rapidly approaching.
She turned back towards the bedroom and got into her bed. She put her head on the pillow and instantly remembered the tune. The song that she had heard from the music box was something her grandfather played when she was a very little girl. He had learned a sad gypsy song and he would play it for her when she was tired but wouldn’t go to bed. Katie could now hear the gentle and soothing song more clearly in her head and she drifted into a deep and calm sleep.
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