All Dolled Up!

Charlie

I got back home and wanted to collapse onto my bed, but it was time to make hay while the sun shined - essentially, there were repairs that had to be done around the house. Repairs that I would need help with, and that meant I couldn't go around calling people in the middle of the night when I would actually be awake with my new schedule. And given the weekend was coming, that meant that I could catch up on sleep later.

I supposed the first place to start were the windows- it would soon become unbearable when winter would finally set in, and it was a miracle the place wasn't swarming with mosquitoes or the like. I wanted them to be done with at the very least, and the glazier gave me an estimate that they could start Tuesday and be done by Friday. My heart sank at the prospective cost and the fact that I'd have to stay awake a while those days while they worked if only to let them in and out of the house. Still, it was one thing that I couldn’t do myself, so there was no helping it.

Other things that I could handle on my own like the dusting, mopping, etc. were things that I would have to tackle piecemeal. It might take some time, but I was reasonably confident that eventually I could get things all in order. Not like I had much else to do anyway, though I also realized that there were places where the wiring seemed to be faulty, and that was yet another thing that I would need help with.

I called the electrician as well, but they couldn't be in until Monday, and so after making myself a small meal I went to go to sleep.

Charlotte

Again, the world turned, and again, the sun went down and the magical moonlight shone upon the land, and I opened the door of my glass case.

I had resigned myself to a terrible fate when I realized I had left the knife in my hands again and thought that there was no way that I would be handed a second chance at escaping my fate, but I was wrong.

This time I was certain that I wouldn't make a mistake. I was more careful as I tiptoed down the stairs, and in that same room as last night, there was that man again, fast asleep.

Hmm... did he work the night shift? It seemed so, which was rather inconvenient for me given that was the only time that I could be active, which was why I needed to seize the opportunity right now when it presented itself.

I ended up returning to my original idea, and stabbed the knife into the floor with as much strength as I could muster. Part of me wept that I was doing even more damage to my own house, but it was but a scratch, and it was a necessary sacrifice.

I then crept back upstairs, biding my time and smiling to myself as I imagined what his reaction might be.

Charlie

I once again had very little clue as to what time it was, or where I was for a while as I opened my eyes.

Strange, I hadn't felt so sleepy in a while. But I guess it was only a natural consequence of the move and all the stress that was involved in that, as well as that of changing my circadian rhythm.

As I stretched my arms I inadvertently withdrew my hand as I felt a sharp pain that jolted me wide awake.

I flipped the lights on - although I initially couldn't see what had happened to my hand, it felt far more painful than it would've if I'd just hit it against something. I was quite surprised to see blood dripping down my fingers, and alarmed, I looked around until I found the culprit.

It was that knife that I had been missing - it was impaled into the floor near my mattress, and my hand had brushed against its sharp edge. When I calmed down and examined it, the cut was superficial, and though it would be annoying to deal with as much of my work involved my hands now, it would heal up quickly enough.

Swearing, I made my way out of the bedroom and into the kitchen, running the cut under tap water until it stopped bleeding. Yeah, it was just a superficial cut and much of my panic was likely from the shock of it happening in the first place.

I was so annoyed it wasn't until much later that I went back and noticed how weird it was that the knife was there in that manner - even if I could assume that I was the one who had accidentally forgotten it over there, never mind the fact there was no need to bring it into my bedroom, there was no reason I would impale it into the floor like that. And I would have absolutely remembered if it had been there before I went to sleep.

So who put it there? The idea that I had done it and just forgotten about it was laughable given the situation at hand, and if there had been an intruder in the house, which I doubted as nothing had been taken and nothing else was out of place, it was odd for them to walk into my room and put that knife in that way and do nothing else. How would anyone get in anyway? Some of the windows were broken, but the gaps were not big enough for someone to fit through without risking cutting themselves, not to mention most of them were on the second or third floors. I didn't even see footprints outside or signs of another car- and I lived miles away from any other house!

Needless to say it very much creeped me out- so much so that although I was sure I was alone in the house, I decided to spend this night at a motel like I had the first night when I had come here.

I considered calling the cops, but given that there were no signs of forced entry and the fact that I had no clear idea regarding who had broken into my house or why anyone would do so, I decided to hold off on it. As a matter of fact, as I replayed the events in my mind I realized I would come across as some kind of drunkard who had dropped their knife and forgotten about it.

I did give my mother a call on the way to the motel- just to confirm that my sister wasn't around and this wasn't some kind of sick prank of hers- turns out that it wasn't and my sister had not dropped everything to visit me.

Charlotte

I heard the sound of an automobile leaving. Elation filled my heart as I wondered if my plan had been successful. Was the man leaving for work - or had he wised up and just left the house for good?

Any sane person after seeing what I had done would have certainly left forever, I felt, but only time would let me know if I was right.

He did not return for the rest of the night, so I allowed myself to hope.

Once again, I had defended my home. Once again, I had cleansed it of the intruders who polluted it. And now, I would be all alone again, safe and content within my fortress.

Charlie

I ended up regretting going to the motel.

I had just woken up and couldn't get back to sleep so soon, so I spent hours essentially just staring at the wall or scrolling through my phone. Time that I could've spent working on the house or unpacking. And if I wanted to do something outside the house, I could've just grabbed my car and went back to the park and I didn't need to cough up the money for a room like this.

Regardless, I did eventually fall asleep and woke up just before noon.

I had made up my mind at that point- rather than buying anything else, my first priority would be to set up a security system around the house.

Of course, I didn't have the budget to set up cameras all over the house - with the size of the thing I'd need to hire a security guard just to keep track of all the screens, let alone monitor them. But, I only needed to watch a few areas.

There was a camera aimed at the front door, the main back door (there were two side exits, though they were very securely locked, and to be doubly sure no one could get through I stacked some old furniture against each of them). one across from my bedroom, one in the kitchen, and one in the main hallway between the two wings.

And with that done and the monitors set up in the kitchen, I went to go sleep, my heart finally at ease. This time though, rather than leaving the door open a crack like I usually did, I made sure to lock my door.