It was dark. The room has a little hint of unkeptness. Stacks of papers, old magazines, and browning text books.
Perfect, the intruder thought.
So it slipped through the door with ease. The intruder is agile, almost inhumane. Then something stirred. A shadow whisked by the intruder leaving a gentle gust of wind. The intruder stalled its infiltration and stood as still as one of the furniture. There he hope to avoid detection
***
Waking up before the alarm does its job probably doesn’t make much sense. Deprived of sleep the night before; a result of catching a late night screening of Marley & Me with one of his close pal followed by the ungodly hour to be awake to carry out his duties to his ancestors, Ching Ming.
Still sun burnt, he slept at most of the daylight but woke again for transmission coordination of India Open and the Spanish World Cup Qualifiers. Half conscious while checking the clock, he rose from my bed and lumbered out of my dark room in the chill of the morning.
After taking a piss, which concluded by a shiver of satisfaction, he headed back to his room. Then he felt something was amiss. His keen sense of smell detected a presence before his eyes does. Not quite a creature, but it was one of his greatest childhood fears. I kept my act and opened the fly screen. The intruder did not move. Calling his own bluff, he stepped into the room testing it to see if it’s aware of its own detection. No movement.
The room owner paused and retreated back out the room, almost breaking into a run, but in a pretentious act of forgetting something. Before exiting the room, he eyed the still intruder again. No movement again.
Good, he thought. With a plan cooking up in his head, the sleeper left the room with a smirk.
***
Not very sure of his own success in concealing himself from the master of the room, it decided to keep still. Zero movement! That’s what he wants the other person to know.
As the half awake being passed him and out of the door way, the intruder risk a glance to his back. Moving every muscle ever so slowly and to his relief, he was gone.
In a snail pace, it move its legs to sidestep his way out of sight and into the darker shadow. Daylight will soon envelope most of the room, given in few hours. The intruder know if it were to survive, it has to stay and hide for hours or days. It flinched at the thought of the latter but it realized that it was a Sunday. The end of the weekend. From his observation, Monday is usually when the occupant leave his room to make a living.
Releasing a sigh of relief, its determination is now shifted on putting a step slowly to its right to the shadows with its back facing the doorway.
Making a living? That’s what I’m doing now is that not? The intruder cursing his own current situation.
The sudden cracking noise to his back startled him. Before the intruder could react, the shadow of the occupant overwhelmed him.
*****
He made his way back to his kitchen to look for a weapon. Something light and fast. Something he can control and at the same time, delivering a devastating attack.
He saw it almost at once. His mom’s favorite. If only I used this more in my room, he thought. Grabbing the weapon, he tests its balance and swung it to test its speed. Not the best but it’ll do, he thought.
Sneaking back to his doorway, he closes his eyes to play his planned action in his mind. I can’t afford any mistake. He’s going to be fast judging from his size.
His sudden fluidity surprises himself. In almost a single motion, he step into the doorway flinging open the fly screen. Eyes locked on his target, he swung his weapon.
***
Move! Screamed its mind. Its mental quickness almost matches its physical ones. Like a flea, it veered and sprang towards his attacker. In the chaos, the intruder kept its mind in check. It does not want to bring down or do harm to its attacker but to survive and get the hell out of the room with its life. The sight of the weapon which is famous to bring down many of its brothers in the history of its kind even further almost made its heart stop.
It’s now right next to the attacker. The attacker was surprised by its speed. The intruder allows himself to smile but quickly continues to dash pass the dangerous man. It dashed in zig zag direction not giving his attacker a chance to hit him. The intruder ran until its safe and out range from its wheeling attacker. Seeing him doing so, it cursed and decide to dash across the kitchen. Confrontation is not the best thing it could have judging from the frenzied state the room owner is now in.
Its panic increased tenfold when he crashed itself on hard concrete. Dead end. It turned and realized its attacker liked how things are turning out.
***
He was surprised by the speed the intruder has. He now realizes that raw power and an direct attack will not be sufficient. Calming himself down, he continues to track the escaped target. It is now cornered and probably stunned by the crash with the low cabinet.
He tosses his broom and went to the living room for a more suitable one. He picks up a few old newspapers and rolls it with his strong hands. He tests the stiffness on his thigh and he likes it.
Slowly, he stalks towards its dazed target. He lift his strong arm and with a grunt, he bring down his new custom-made weapon to his target.
***
Besides the fact that it was stunned and drown in panic, the intruder was at awe with the attacker’s renewed fury. But it collected himself in record time and it waited for the blow to come down on him. It never doubted its own agility, and it now has no reason to do so. It dodges the mighty attack and the loud collision of the weapon deafens his senses.
There! He ran under the table and hoped that the attacker did not see him now.
***
He was frustrated to see the intruder dodged his weapon again. He turned around to look for something to throw at his target but couldn’t find any. When he turned back to where his target was, he found himself staring on the blank floor.
Then, a sudden movement to his left gave his intruder away. His sharp eyes caught the reflection of his intruder hiding under the table by the squeaky clean tiled walls.
Setting aside his current weapon, he picks up an Isetan newsletter. Not so useless after all, he chided.
Now, he went back to the broom and picks it up. Double checking the position of the intruder, the room occupant displayed his ingenious battle tactic called diversion. With the broom in his right hand, he let the newsletter hang free from his left and slowly move into position…
***
The intruder take its time to catch its breath. Covering such distance in such short time is making it a little nauseous. It quiet down its breathing and listen for any clue of its attacker whereabouts. Nothing. It peered under the shadow to look for any sign of him. Still nothing. It slowly move back to the shadow leaning back on the table leg.
Not long after that, the familiar sight of the furious looking weapon suddenly appears on his right. Startled, and this time, the trespasser let its instinct and adrenaline takes over. It darts out of the shadow with lightning reflexes. It’s now or never!
As soon as it was out of the cover of the table, a shadow hovers over him. Its coming down on him fast. This is not good! It now tries hard to change his direction but the floor was too slippery for his nimble legs. It stopped hard and tries to turn the other way but suddenly it all went black.
No! Not like this!
In the darkness, he awaits whatever fate that will befall on him.
***
The dweller let loose a satisfying smile on his face. His plan was flawless and now he stands overlooking his helpless intruder. Dare he come in my room! He shouted in his mind. Leaning back to the wall, his head now is more collected and his thoughts straighten. Maybe if I kept my room cleaner, this idiot won’t come into my room, lamented the victorious man.
His urge to sleep is now taking over and he steps closer to his captured objective. Without a word, he put his mighty foot down on the Isetan newsletter. Beneath it came the sound of the satisfying sound of cracking carapace which then dampened by the following flow of body fluids.
If it can survive a nuclear blast, it will not survive this!
He turns his foot left and right again pressing down on what remained of the smashed intruder. The rudely awakened sleeper lifts his foot up and picked up the cadaver along with the Isetan newsletter. With his physically powerful right hand, he crumples both and casually drops it into the bin.
Without remorse, the master of his room returns to his bed, enjoying the chill of dawn.
Screw the tenses! It was so hard to keep track!
