Hairs rose on her arms and goosebumps prickled her back, she had to go, she had to know why these calls reached only an audience of one.

Padding across cold marble with a flashlight, Shelia slipped into the corridor. Nothing stirred. The howling continued. She needed a vantage point, there she could pinpoint a location, a source, maybe even see who or what is making these sounds.

The moon is full tonight. Shelia looked up, streamers from the last rooftop party framed a perfect moon. Shelia looked northeast to the buildings across the river. Darkened shadows of concrete rose behind warm streetlights, illuminating the riverwalk. The last stragglers of the night before stumbled home.

The howling stopped.

Shelia stood in her slippers and a nightgown amongst a disarray of tables, chairs, and used party hats. Surrounding by a deafening silence thick in the pre-dawn sky. I'll hear it again, even if it's further away; if it returns, I'll be ready.

Daybreak. Shelia watched the sky as it tinged orange and red, night giving way to dawn. Turning from the birth of a new day she descended the stairs, back to her bed and into the folds of a dreamless sleep.