Lies And Deception (Excerpt)

• Caitlin Oma, Grade 12
• Poetry
• 2007

Sleeping has been hard these days, I don’t know whether it's because on some level I am still afraid of not waking up again or maybe it’s the noise. It's always so noisy at night, the clock ticking, the cars outside, dogs barking. That’s why I woke up so easily, although it's noisy I still manage to tune all that out. But tonight I hear something out of the ordinary and I am instantly alert. I was laying there in my limbo that I have now accepted as sleep, and I hear the almost inaudible squeak of the opening of the down stairs window.
Breathing heavily, I creep down the dark hallway, the only light coming in through the windows from the moon, watching as my shadow winks in and out. I notice in my mildly blind panic that the street light is out, broken. I feel the floorboards under my feet, each step colder than the last, my mind screaming at me to run, but my body moving onward. I guess curiosity really is what killed the cat.
I reach the end of the hallway (staircase), I crouch down so as not to be seen and cautiously peer around the corner. Luckily my eyes are adjusted to the dark and see them, and I see five silhouettes standing in front of the now open window. I manoeuvre myself carefully around the corner staying in the shadows, again feeling that strange sense of familiarity. But they spot me, the light comes on and I am struck instantly by the blinding light. Then it's off again, with spots still blurring my vision I can’t see a thing in the newly darkened room. As I begin to panic, instinct takes over and I stop, I stop thinking, I stop moving and I almost stop breathing completely. I stop trying to see. It was in that moment that a realisation swept over me, I can hear them, feel where they are. No more than that, I know where they are. Two of them begin to approach me, one on either side. I can hear their breathing, short and sharp, each step carefully measured. I wait until I they are so close that I can hear their heartbeat, then with swift precise movements, I attack. All I remember is the feel of the wind as I moved, the sound of it as it whistled past my leg, then the contact, a direct hit in the guys stomach. I grab him quickly as he doubles over and throw him into the other guy. I hear him gasp, but I am already across the room. My hand makes contact with a women’s jaw, I spin quickly in the air and hear a satisfying crunch as I make contact with his nose. I land on the ground trying to gather my thoughts, and in that moment of hesitation the two left, I can tell they’re women by the way they move, strike. As the pain floods through my shoulder I feel another blow to the back of my knee cap. I’m down. Game over.