This week at Mindlovemisery’s Menagerie, we are diving into the depths of PERSONIFICATION. Our challenge is all about the use of personification in our writing. You will need to use the statement provided in your response – which can be poetry or prose.

Our statement using, personification is:

There was a heavy thunderstorm, the wind snorted outside, rattling my windowpanes.

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There was a heavy thunderstorm, the wind snorted outside, rattling my windowpanes. What a crappy night for Hallowe’en.  I got up from the couch & looked out the window: not a trick-or-treater in sight. Not to mention all the money wasted on candy.

On my way back to the couch, I grabbed a few fun-size Butterfingers. I wonder why the call these fun-size? To me, fun-size would be about five times the size of this. Now that would be fun! In any case, I tore the wrapper off of one, stuffed it in my mouth and began flipping channels. Given there were some 200 channels on my TV, you’d think there’d be a good scary movie on that I hadn’t seen. No luck.

I was about to turn it off and find a book to read, when all of a sudden I heard a popping sound and the TV began to sizzle like Sunday morning bacon. Then, the lights went out. All of them. Even the street lights outside. I guess a transformer must’ve blown or something. It was so dark that it made no difference whether my eyes were open or closed.

That’s when you know true darkness.

Usually I’m a pretty tough broad, but I felt the tingly-tickle as the hair on my neck stood up. A chill sliced through my body like a machete.

“Chuckie?” I called for my cat. Not that he was going to protect me from my imagination, but still. “Chuckie, c’mere!”

Not a sound. Usually he came running when I called his name, but not this time.

Now I was really creeping myself out. I was afraid to move from the couch until I remembered the flashlight I kept behind the end table. I reached for it, and sure enough, there it was. I flicked it on, and only darkness came out. Batteries must be dead. Shit!

I sat on my couch as still as a rock listening to my heart trying to pound its way out of my chest. My mind was running wild. I tried to calm it by thinking logically: the lights would be back on soon, the power company was working on it now, nothing to be afraid of, it’s just darkness, etc… .

It was no good. I was scared shitless and that was that.

Footsteps in the kitchen. Whoever it was wasn’t even trying to tip-toe. It sounded like a big man in heavy work boots — it certainly wasn’t Chuckie’s little paws.

“Who’s there?” I tried to sound tough, but a quivering squeak came out instead.

Suddenly I smelled the odors of cigarettes and coffee breath. The man was standing in front of me. His breath was hot.

“Remember me, Jeannie?” He was playing with my hair, twisting it around his fingers.

I knew that voice and my heart stopped. How did this crazy bastard find me after 20-something years?

“Why…How…y-y-you’re supposed to be in p-p-prison!”

“Ain’t you ever heard of parole, baby?” He laughed.

I couldn’t speak.

I couldn’t scream.

I couldn’t even move. All I wanted was to wake up from this nightmare to the shining sun and Chuckie curled up next to me.

But I couldn’t.