I tucked her in for the evening, making sure she was nice and snug in her bunk for the night. I leaned over and blew out the candle on the bedside table before stepping into the hallway and locking her door. From behind some of the doors that lined the long hallway I could hear cute little sleeping noises. All my little beauties- sound asleep and dreaming.
Content and smiling, I sang quietly as I walked toward the staircase at the end of the hall.
"I used to be a renegade, I used to fool around..."
Something clicked behind the door to my left and I froze. Something about the sound was wrong, it was far too close. None of my beauties should be able to get within five feet of the door... curious.
I slowly and gently put my ear to the door and listened. My heart began to pump furiously in my chest. I could barely make out a faint scratching noise coming from beyond the door. A mouse. Simply a mouse that I would dispose of in the morning and nothing more. Admonishing myself for my lack of faith in my own system, I continued on my way.
That's when the door flew open and knocked me into the wall. She was on me in an instant- all teeth and nails.
Lovely Joanna. My beautiful, sweet, dark haired Joanna now transformed by rage into this shrieking thing on top of me. Still dazed from the sudden assault and laying on my back, she was nearly able to get the best of me. I reached behind her head and snatched a fistful of her hair. With all the force I could muster I drove her head into the floor where it made a quite satisfying thud.
Not nearly as hurt as I and even malnourished as she was, she was on her feet before me in a flash and racing for the stairs. I struggled to stand and gave chase but she hit the door at the top of the landing without breaking stride and bore straight through it. I could hear her struggling with the deadbolts at the rear of the house as I took the stairs two at a time.
Panting, a thousand different wounds screaming at me in unison and a stitch forming in my side, I arrived at the back door just in time to see my fair Joanna disappear into the woods.
I sighed and went back inside, locking the door behind me. I cried for her that night and hunted for her the next day.
It's so much easier to dispose of the mouse if you don't let it get out.