I Am What Waits

Written for dVerse Prosery: “Of Jaguars
and the Night”. Our host, Merril, invites us
to write prose in 144 words incorporating the
line below from “Jaguar Song” by Arthur Sze.

You think you are alone when you check the locks, when you pause on the landing and listen for nothing. But nothing is never nothing. I am what waits in the gap between your ribs, the thing you feed each time you rehearse an apology you’ll never give. I am the creature who smells your darkest thoughts and, as you turn the key in the lock, day or night, out of the darkness I spring. You believe the door is a boundary. It isn’t. I have already slipped through every threshold you’ve ever built and made myself at home in your chest before you finished unlocking anything. Go on …. turn the key all you like. I was inside before you even reached the door, and I will still be here after you’ve convinced yourself, over and over again, that tonight is different.

NAR©2026

Nancy’s Notes: Our prompt line is ” I am the creature who smells your darkest thoughts and as you turn the key in the lock day or night out of the darkness I spring” from “Jaguar Song” by Arthur Sze.

This is “Cat People (Putting Out Fire)” by David Bowie

Prosery: Of Jaguars and the Night

^{Everything on The Elephant’s Trunk was created by me, unless otherwise indicated. Thanks for your consideration. NAR©2017-present.}