The Axeman's Game

Chapter  1

May 3^rd- 12:15am.

The popping sound of popcorn in the microwave echoed throughout the house. Soon the fresh popped smell made its way into the bedroom and slowly caught the attention of the young lady who was sitting on the edge of the bed. She was alone and although she spent her days training out of shape business executives at the local gym, she had one vice and that was a nice, fresh bag of microwave popcorn. She could never admit that to any one of her clients but she figured that after all her hard work she deserved a treat.

As she made her way from the bedroom towards the kitchen she stopped near a hallway mirror and stared. She turned from front to back carefully scrutinizing every inch of her body and then lifted her long black nightshirt and stared at herself some more.

“Not bad for a lady at 41” she thought.

Then her mind turned towards that popcorn she had been craving and the hope that she could get it and be back in front of the television before the commercials ended and”Frasier” started again. She walked through the house towards the kitchen. It was dark and quiet in there, for the popcorn had stopped popping.

The house was quiet, it was a small pre-fabricated house that had been thrown together much like the other seven houses that were built on the block. It was red brick on bottom and white siding on top. It had a one-car garage and a small yard, just big enough to put a grill, a table and some chairs when the weather was nice. The neighbors were all new, and seemed like good people. So far there had been no problems, outside of a barking dog that she could even remember.

Once she had made it into the kitchen and retrieved her prize, she made her way back towards the bedroom hoping that she didn’t miss her favorite show. As she passed by that hallway mirror one more time she took a quick glance at herself and thought “Eleanor Battle, you’ve still got it girl.”

She entered the bedroom and sat on the edge of the bed. The room was small, but not too small for her. It held a black metal canopy bed in the middle and two small, matching black metal end tables on each side of the bed. The television sat in the middle of a shiny, black entertainment center. On top of that entertainment center were several framed photos of Eleanor and different friends and clients. The highlight of her photo collection was a picture of her and former Giants quarterback Phil Simms who used to come into her gym for a workout every now and then. She had always liked Simms, thought he was too cute to be a football player.

There were two paintings hanging in the room. One was of an ocean with a single ship of white hanging over the bed. The second was a picture of a lighthouse shining its beacon of light out into the fog. The rooms was painted an off white color and had light blue drapes on the windows. There was nothing special that stood out in the entire room and that’s the way she liked it. She didn’t have a boyfriend at this time but if and when she did have a man in her bedroom she wanted her body to be the only thing standing out in there.

It had been a long day at the gym and finally she was going to relax, eat some popcorn and watch some re-runs and enjoy herself. She spends most of her day attending to others needs and as “Frasier” played on the television set, she finally felt like she was doing something for herself.

The wind picked up outside and sounded like a giant whistle as Eleanor finally pulled herself under the covers and settled in.

It was about 12:40am, “Frasier” was on now and Eleanor was almost finished with the bag of popcorn. The wind continued to howl outside and the two big trees that were near by started making a loud banging noise as several of their limbs banged together in the wind. In the mist of the wind and the trees and the television Eleanor heard a strange sound. It sounded like a door opening and a footstep. She quickly reached for the remote, which was on the floor next to her and muted the television. There was silence, she remained very still and listened intently as she stared into the dark hallway of her house. She could still hear the wind and the trees but no footsteps and certainly no doors opening.

“I think these late nights are starting to get to you “, she thought.

She sat on the edge of the bed for a few moments and continued to listen. Nothing, she took the remote and turned the volume back on and slipped back under the covers. No sooner had she gotten comfortable then she heard the sounds of a step creaking in the house.

“  Tabby, is that you come here girl, pss,pss”, she yelled.

There was no answer but now her mind was racing with all kinds of horrible thoughts. Was someone in her house and if so what should she do? She sat up again and again shouted “tabby, here girl.” There was no answer.

“Fucking no good cat, if that’s you scaring the hell out of me I am going to give you to the shelter”.

She put her feet on the floor and fumbled for her slippers. After finding them and putting them on she knelt down and reached just under the bed. She pulled out a small can of mace that she had bought some time ago for those nights when she chose to walk home from work. She shook it and there was still a good amount in there.

“If anyone is in here, I am armed and not afraid to use it.”

“That ought to scare the hell out of any prowler” she thought.

Slowly she made her way from the bedroom towards the hallway. She turned on any light she could find. As she neared the middle of the hallway she heard another creak of the floorboards and now she was officially scared. She clutched the mace even tighter and wished she had a man here for times like these. As she made her to the top of the steps she looked down towards the kitchen. She saw nothing but darkness and heard nothing but silence. Her hands began to tremble with every step and she considered going back and locking herself in the bedroom and calling the police. But the thought of the police racing over here and finding her cat making all the noise was a little too embarrassing for her to take right now.

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