The Trap

The fading daylight outside the window causes the room to darken as I sit motionless in the chair positioned in the corner. Yet, I dare not move to turn on the light; dare not take my eyes away for even a second. For the trap is set.

For hours I have sat and kept watch. This time it will not happen; I will not let it get away. People think I have gone crazy, but I know; know that it is true! And once I capture it, I will prove it; prove it to the world!

However, in the dimming light, my eyes have grown heavy with weariness, and my head threatens to nod under the weight of fatigue.

Then, just for a moment, only half a breath, I close my eyes and I am instantly snapped back awake by the rustling noise I hear on the night stand across the room.

I spring to my feet and slap on the light switch to flood the room with brightness.  Staring over at the table beside my bed I see them; my headphones that I had left perfectly straighten and untangled. But now they sit; a mess of knots.

I rush over to them with an infuriated cry of frustration and snatch them up. Flames of rage fill my eyes as I look at the complex and deliberate workings of knots and tangles the wires are in and I hurl them to the floor.

Scanning the empty room frantically I see no trace of anything else moved or disturbed. With a shout I declare that I know they have been here and that I will catch them in the act when amischievous giggle freezes me where I stand.

From behind me, back at the window by the chair I had just been sitting in, a hateful little laugh sends a shiver down my spine.

Slowly, I turn to see it; a horrid little imp figure standing on the window sill. Its face a mass of knobby warts and growths, its rotten teeth glistening with putrid saliva as it cackles at me.

“Oh, you’ll never catch me!” it mocked with a creaking voice. “And no one will ever believe you, stupid human! I’ll drive you mad! For I, am the Tangler!”

I lurched toward the wretched beastie, but with a snap of its gnarled fingers it disappeared from existence before I could take one step.

Nearly sobbing with anger and frustration, all I could do was drop down to my knees to pick up the insane mess of my favourite headphones and start to try to detangle them. All the while vowing my revenge on, the Tangler!