• Tabitha laid on her bed in her dark room with the only source light being her smallest laptop on the table beside her. Her ears listened carefully to the soft sound from it. In the distance, the occasional car drove past. But it too, was a soft hum in this dark world she had created for herself.

    She smiled. She loved the night and the soft stillness that enveloped her. She knew there was nothing in this dark world of hers that could harm her now. She was safe, warm and at peace.

    Then it started, the little pattering sound against galvanised iron. Slowly, slowly, like the rhythm of water dripping from a faucet. Paranoid thoughts plagued her mind. What was this intruder that was barging into her silent world.

    The pattering grew louder. The sound of it hitting the concrete path outside her window added to the symphony of the galvanised iron. She laughed to herself. It was just rain. Rain creating a shield to enclose her in her warm and dry world.

    Now and then, a howl of ghosts could be heard whooshing past her room. The wind played with the rain, throwing it against her window and making it rattle. While the silence was gone, these natural sounds made her still feel safe and happy.

    Then, it all ceased. She sat up in bed and lifted a corner of her blind. She couldn't see anything. The wind and rain and splattered her window with droplets. She knew the flyscreen would have also contributed to the obscured vision.

    The silence worried her. Could the wind and rain really stop just like that? Getting up, she put on her slippers and stepped outside of her secure room. Everything was still dark and no movement could be seen. Carefully, she looked out the back door...

    Dark clouds lazed across the sky allowing only thin shafts of sunlight to peek through. The light coloured the world a dark gray. The pattering slowly started once more. She watched from under the galvanised iron covered patio the rain place an almost glassy shine to everything.

    Cold, she went back inside and into her bed. Warmed spread through her body once more and she drifted of to sleep with the sound of the rain pattering through her head.