In 500 Words: Round Five!

A continuation of
Round One | Round Two | Round Four

I did this one last night, so Dictionary.com’s word of the day was refulgent.

July 12, 2025
The Exhausting Evening Continues

I had walked away after she uttered those strange, stilted words. The very notion of what she seemed to be was ridiculous! Her smell was pungent and proliferating throughout my house. My poor Jacob was cowering underneath my bed. I had never seen him in such a state; not even when I give him his monthly baths! Part of me wanted to coax him out of there, but common sense dictated otherwise. There was no way of knowing what that thing would do to him if she managed to get herself out of the guestroom.

I paced the length of my dining room for a long while. My eyes couldn’t help but follow the milky film left from the woman’s hand on the backdoor. It seemed to glow as the porch lights reflected against the glass from outside; it was refulgent almost. I spun around and went for my room. I dove under the bed, pushing my dear friend aside, and grabbed the narrow case behind him. With several quick motions, I had the thing opened and my pool stick ready for whatever misgivings I would have to bear. I carried it back to the guestroom door.

“Your name,” I hissed, raising the stick as I would were I playing for the San Francisco Giants.

“Olivia,” came the chortled reply. The door rattled as something—she—thumped against it. The dry, cringing sound her body made when it slid down the length of the door made me take several steps backwards.

“Olivia,” I said sometime later. I had stood there, pool stick and all, for at least an hour. No sounds emanated from the woman since she slumped over. I didn’t want to risk serious damage to the thing, so I crept for the door and cracked it open. She was lying on her stomach, face down. Her white hair was strewn about her bare back in tentacle like tendrils.

Swallowing the bile threatening to unleash itself on the floor, I lowered my pool stick and gave her side a soft prod. When she didn’t move, I backed out and went straight for my phone. One of my good childhood friends was a doctor.

…

“I can be discrete, with the healthcare reform they approved in the teens; don’t get me wrong! It’s been a good thing! So many people have been helped who otherwise wouldn’t-“

“James, please. I don’t want to hear any of your speeches right now. Just go in there, look at her, and tell me what’s wrong with her.”

I stepped to the side, still holding my pool stick. I had gotten lucky that night. James had the evening off and readily came over…The poor man…I had neglected to mention just what the woman looked like, though, being a doctor, he was probably used to such things…so there was no reason to mention that minute detail.

“Wait here,” he said, reaching for the guestroom door. The thing opened quietly, and James dropped his portable med kit.

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