The Dancing Intruder
The intruder stood, eyes gleaming in the darkness of night, a mocking smile playing on his lips. Half concealed by shadows, he tapped his feet on the ground, dancing. Clearly, he held no concern about getting caught. On the contrary, he began to masterfully play notes on the flute he held. Her silver flute.
Aisling’s eyes narrowed as she tried to comprehend what he was doing. She saw the open window, but it did not quell any of her burning questions. How did he know she had a silver flute? Something about this struck her odd, though she quickly dismissed her concerns. It didn’t matter how he knew; if she didn’t do something, he would get away with her flute!
The trespasser couldn’t have been more than three feet tall, yet every one of his actions seemed to dare Aisling to try to catch him. The jig got faster and faster, the surefooted figure not stumbling even once. Unable to resist any further, she lunged at the figure, almost desperately, despite knowing what a nimble trickster he might be.
A cackle erupted from the strange figure.
True to her suspicions, he leapt out the window, disappearing into the murky night. Aisling couldn’t quite place a finger on it, but she had a nagging feeling that there was something familiar about this, especially the small thief, but she didn’t remember seeing him before…
Her eyes opened with sudden ferocity, and she sat up, her pounding heart finally coming to a steady gait. It was only a dream. Aisling nearly laughed at the absurdity of it all. Of course there was no figure! Her window wasn’t even open!
Looking at her calendar, Aisling saw that it was March 17th, Sunday. Unfortunately, all her desire to sleep late had deserted her. Yawning, Aisling stood up. She walked toward her flute stand, a bit embarrassed to even consider that the dream might have been real.
Rubbing her eyes with tiredness, she turned toward the flute stand, slowly opening her drowsy eyes.
She groaned to herself inwardly. Why was she suddenly so concerned about the flute? After all, it was but a mere dream.
Nevertheless, she figured that she might as well look anyways, if only to ease the suspense. Tranquilly, her eyes opened.
As if by their own accord, her eyes suddenly widened, round reflections of amazement.
Gaping, she stared at the empty stand.