Curiosity and the Cat

////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
NEW PROMPT:
Write a story or poem that contains the line: "In the dark house, a lonely light burned."
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

Darrel’s loud snores bounced off the bedroom’s walls. His wife Ellie, knowing the futility of complaining about the annoying sound, continued to sleep with the aid of her earplugs. Their two teenage sons tossed and turned restlessly in their bedroom nearby, but didn’t wake up.

In the dark kitchen, the family’s 12-year-old beagle raised his graying muzzle to sniff the air. After sensing something was different, Edgar slowly climbed out of his wicker basket and started prowling around the deserted room. He was soon joined by the family cat, Monster. The female Maine Coon had got this name as a kitten after attacking and disemboweling a brand-new beanbag in the family room. Ellie was still finding tiny beans scattered throughout the house months later.

Half an hour passed with the two animals investigating every inch of the kitchen without finding anything out of place. In the dark house, a lonely light burned. Monster eventually left the kitchen to return to the family room where she’d been sleeping. Edgar went back to his basket, still uneasy, but soon joined Monster in sleep. Upstairs, the four humans were unaware of the restlessness of their two pets.

The lonely light flickered up and then returned to its previous dimness. Time passed with the tiny light waxing and waning in intensity. Around two in the morning, Monster decided she was ready to go outside. When she passed the fireplace in the family room, she paused. An ember, missed by Darrel when he had banked the fire the night before, had jumped to a small piece of tinder hours earlier. Monster’s copper-colored eyes reflected the glow from the tiny fire. Since she’d never heard the old adage about curiosity killing the cat, she reached out one furry paw and touched the orange flame.

* * *

“What was that?” yelled Darrel, suddenly awaken by the sound of frantic howling.

“Nothing…go back to sleep.” Even through her ear plugs, Ellie had heard her husband’s loud shout. She heaved an exasperated sigh when, as usual, Darrel ignored her. She felt the mattress move when her husband slid over to the side and got out of bed. Darrel swiveled his head back and forth like a radar dish, trying to identify the sounds from below. When the howling stopped almost immediately, he shrugged and returned to cuddle up to the warmth of his wife’s body underneath the blankets.

* * *

Monster licked the singed fur on her paw. The tiny flame she’d touched now was crawling further into the small pile of tinder wood at the front of the fireplace. One by one, the various pieces of dry wood smoldered before catching fire. The glow from the fire started to fill the family room and pushed the shadows further back into the distant corners.

At the sound of Monster’s cries of pain, Edgar once again left his basket. He strolled into the family room to join Monster in front of the fireplace. His old bones soaked up the heat from the fire, and drool of contentment dripped from his mouth as he once again fell asleep. Monster curled up beside him to stare unblinking into the rapidly increasing fire.

The sudden popping sound from a damp piece of wood startled Edgar out of his peaceful sleep. He sneezed when the thin stream of smoke reached his sensitive nose and continued to sneeze a second and third time. When Monster began gagging from the taste of the smoke, both pets moved away from the fireplace and headed for the kitchen. Monster reached the back door first and pushed her way outside through the pet door. She was followed by the slower beagle. Both animals pulled the cold, fresh air into their lungs, and their sneezing and gagging soon stopped. .

* * *

While more and more wood caught fire, the rapidly increasing smoke snaked its way from the family room to the two nearby bedrooms. One piece of wood that had been burning undisturbed fell from the fiery pile of tinder. It rolled out of the fireplace onto the marble hearth to slowly find its way down onto the wall-to-wall carpet. The ancient carpet smoldered for some time before a finger of flame erupted from the dry material.

Ellie wasn’t the neatest of housekeepers, and the crawling flame found an old newspaper shoved underneath the nearby sofa. This new source of fuel was eagerly enveloped by the meager fire that had been on the point of dying out. Energized flames raced through the sofa, and the curtains on the big window behind the sofa quickly caught fire. Darrel’s stack of priceless vinyl albums stacked on the floor next to the sofa began melting into a worthless, black mess.

* * *

The smoke creeping into the bedrooms became thicker with each passing minute. Darrel, asleep once again beside his wife, moaned in discomfort from the acrid taste of smoke. That and the sound of a dog wildly barking outside slowly brought him awake.

He vomited from the dizziness and nausea caused by the smoke. When he rolled out of bed to land on his knees, it took long seconds for him to grasp the danger he and his family were facing.

Finally awake, Ellie screamed, “We’re all going to die!” The panic in her voice and the continued sound of Edgar barking spurred Darrel to action. Remaining on his knees, he crawled below the layer of smoke to the window. Behind him, Ellie continue to scream, and Darrel heard the crashing of glass from the room next to his. Praying this meant his sons were breaking the window to get away from the smoke, he tried to open their own window. Like the boys’ window, this one had storm windows installed against the cold weather. He managed to break the first layer of glass before being overcome by the smoke.

Outside in the cold darkness, Edgar and Monster waited patiently for their owners who never appeared again.

////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Microsoft Word count = 1,000

"The Writer's Cramp"  daily winner for 10/22/08
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////