Excerpt: **Under Construction

"Aren't you going to eat too?"

"Oh, I will. Don't worry about me though, dearie. I've eaten recently, and I really just want to make sure you're comfortable. Now aren't you tired? You must be! You can sleep right there on that couch, I'll get you a blanket to keep off the cold. We wouldn't want you getting cold, no no! Nice and warm is best!"

"Um, sure." Selfconciously Tsubame sat back against the couch whiel the woman bustled about, she took the soup away and the bowl and spoon were also swept off somewhere. After thirty minutes in the back room she produced a moth-eaten blanket and a similerly ragged pillow. Far too polite to complain, the girl took them without comment.

"Now sleep tight dearie! Sleep very deeply, it's a very good thing!" Giggling at her own private joke the woman went off again, this time closing the door for good and leaving Tsubame alone.

She took the pillow and sat it down, hopelessly trying to fluff it up a bit before she did so. She may as well not have, when she pulled the blanket around herself and lay down along the couch the pillow didn't feel much better then the leaves she could have found outside. Of course, the pillow didn't rustle.

A sheer need to rest caused her to drop of quickly, but she awoke what must've been only a few hours later. The fire had burned down and no light came from under the door or through one of the three holes in the cieling. For a minute she sat there, but a shiver made her realize just how cold she felt. She cast about for some sort of log pit that she could use to build up the fire more, but there was none.

'Maybe I can find some outside,' she mused. Sleep had become a distant thing and there was no way she could just drop off now. She stood and wrapped the blanket around her body, tighter than ever. She had just started for the door when she heard the very soft creak of another door opening. On silent feet she turned, a faint glow from about where someone's head would be clued her in that it had to be the old lady; there was no mistaking those silly teeth, even in this darkness.

Tsubame opened her mouth to speak, the question about more wood on the tip of her toungue, but something stopped her. Maybe the woman just wanted to go outside, if she was sleep-walking or something it was be ever so rude to wake her like that. It might even give her a heart attack, which would be awful.

Something else too, froze her tongue and made her mouth go dry. Held in one crinkly old hand was a long thin knife, a faint red reflection from the coals gave it a sinister look as the woman held it close. "Come on now.... Come on, girlie...." The whispers were so faint that if it had been any other time with any kind of wildlife active and making noise outside, she would have missed it. As it was Tsubame barely had to strain her ears to hear the words, they carried well in the eeriely silent night.

"You look so good asleep, so... delicious."

Wait, delicious? A shiver ran through her body, sweat breaking out all over her body. Surely it was just a phrase, a strange country compliment...? The woman must have a weird way with words, after being out here for so long.... Yes, that was definitely it!

"I'll eat well tonight," she whispered,"And tomorrow and tomorrow's tomorrow and the next day after that too!" Her movements were barely perceptible in the dark, but by the barely-there light of the dying fire Tsubame made out her thin old arms rising high above her head, the blade of the carving knife poised above where her body should have been.

The blade fell, connected solidly with the couch and going straight through to the frame of it. Tsubame's blue eyes were wider then she'd thought possible at the implications of the woman's words, no to mention her actions. Finally her common sense kicked back in and she ran for it. She left the old lady standing by the couch, looking innocently bewildered at the front door that had suddenly banged open. "Is the meat running? Why does it run from me?" she asked, wide-eyed innocence on her elderly features.