“Egmont woke from a dead sleep at the sound of a heavy thump. He bolted upright in bed. His ears hungry for sound detected just the normal night sounds of summer. Yet Egmont knew in his heart that something else lurked in the midnight. He quietly padded across the floor, switched on the flood lights, threw open the front door. A beetle the size of a dinner plate perched on the screen, hideous spots across its carapace, vicious pinchers eager for flesh worked open and closed. Egmont was overcome with emotion, but he stammered, “My Precious, you’ve finally come home!”
© 2013 James Frederick Leach