It was the howling wind. You’ve heard it said that way before, how the wind howls during a storm. But you didn’t understand it until last night, or was it already morning, when the sound, angry and cold and demanding, hurled through the gap in your window and pulled you out of slumber. Did it save me from a bad dream? Was it a chase or a free fall into an abyss or a scuffle with zombies this time? You think about crawling out of bed to shut the windows, secure the bolt in the door, because of course the wind wants in from there too. You finally make the decision and do it. Untangle yourself from your sheets. Peel yourself off your warm mattress. Lock the windows, bar the door. You settle back into your bed, back under the blanket, legs bent, arms around your knees, gripping and rocking. Eyes shut, brain whirring. Listening to the howling of the wind as you wait for sleep to reclaim you.
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Typhoon Maring for the prompt
