The knock

Tap, tap, tap.....

She'd heard it before and was adept at ignoring. "Go away", she mumbled to no one in particular, "I've got this under control. Just leave alone." But loud and unrelenting, the knock continued, grating her to the core. In a surge of sudden rage, she flings the door open prepared to unleash her fury.

"Why, she asks scathingly, "would you continue to knock when it's clear I do not wish to answer?"

The stranger moves in closer, as if to study her before she responding to her wrath. His  grey/blue eyes remind her of her dad. A tranquility in his tone envelopes in for a moment, what feels like peace.  "You must learn to trust, he whispered, his steely gray eyes peering into her soul. Let someone in before it's too late."

Hysteria wells up in her belly. "You don't understand", losing her words in a sob, "I can't, because....  I don't know how."

The sun drops quickly behind the horizon leaving her to wrestle her fears in the dark. Her entire life she has spent constructing her walls. How could she let someone in?

Tap, tap, tap.....

Instinctively she knows the stranger's returned. Fighting the feeling of dread that attempts to invade her, she opens the door, focusing  only on the tinge of hope. She knows it will not be easy, but it's time, and God knows it's the only thing she can do.