@@DESCRIPT="A Stranger...by TS" 

                     A Stranger at the Door


     The dogs started barking downstairs.  The doorbell's loud call
rang through the house.  Vicious growls, hammering barks, the dogs
attacked the door which protected the man behind it from their
fangs.  The once silent house was now alive with commotion.  The
dogs barking echoing in the house, the doorbell rings once more as
the stranger becomes impatient.
     I rise from the toliet bowl and toss my Sunday Times onto the
floor.  My pants hang like old skin below my knees and I pull them
up.  "Shit" I say.  Who could it be?  The dogs pounding at the
front door like ravaged wolfs pounding on the wounded sheep.  My
hand slides across the sink looking for my glasses.  I swipe at
them and they fall to the floor.  My sixteen year old body
wrestling with my half-on half-off pants.  I find my glasses and
place them over my nose.
     Bloody screaming coming from below as the dogs yell at the
stranger to go away or let them have a piece of him.  I try running
across the carpet, my hands trying to find the zipper to keep my
pants up.  I go over to the window and look down at the doorway and
there stands the stranger.  A dark baseball cap covers his face. 
Dark hair as black as coal comes seeping out of the back of the
hat.  A dark gray coat covers what appears to be muscles upon
muscles.  Black army boots stomp at the cement of the doorway.  
     He rings the bell again.  The dogs explode again, barking and
screaming, feeling his evilness which even I can feel a floor 
above him.  I look out into the street and I see no car or truck he
could have come in.  The streets are empty, the streetlights glow
a radiant smile down.  He is alone and so am I.
     I hide behind the shades looking down at him, cursing him to
go away.  The dogs won't shut up but for the first time I want them
to continue their screams.  He steps back off the walkway, finally
understanding that no one is home except for the two dogs that wish
for him to leave
     and he looks up at me.  His eyes somehow looking through the
blinds and finding my own eyes.  The tough snarl on his lips rise
and I hear him speak "Come down and open the door" even though he
actully says nothing.  His eyes a dark black round dot rolling in
a cloud of gray.  His hand rises and looks as if its going to point
at me and then grow long and stretch until it reaches me and then
pull me down to face his pychotic face
     but I fall backwards, a reflex to get away from the fear.  I
stay lying on the ground with my pants once again down around my
knees.  The barks start to slow down, I rise.  The man has begun to
walk away.  I thank God for small miracles.  He walks into the
darkness of the night and I rush back into the bathroom.  
     I close the door and hear the last of the angry barks.  I
clean myself up and calm myself down at the same time.  I can still
feel my heart racing with the reflection of those eyes looking at
me.  My pants now snug around my waist, my hands with a slight drip
of water falling to the carpet, I open the door
     and he's there, standing less than an inch away with foggy  
eyes staring at me.  My mouth opens wide trying to release a scream
but not finding the power.  Something invades me, piercing into my
stomach and I already feel the blood running warm down my side. 
That dark face breathing cold breath into my face watching for me
to die.  The dogs are quiet somewhere below while I stand, falling,
next to the stranger.  
     His icey razor leaves me and then comes back in.  My vision
begins to fog, cloudy mist looming in my brain.  The taste of blood
spilling over my lips.  Hot blood streaming down my leg.  Cold
shivers making me lose my balance and fall dead to the floor.  He
hovers over me, I watch his eyes, I welcome death.
