the "Refrigerator" - First draft (590 words)

It was cold and lonely, darkness had crept upon her and she was trapped. The body lying next to her, dead still, suddenly shifted and she, paralyzed with fear, began to surmount the obstacle before her. She'd awoken into the cold night air and trapped in the blanket of warmth and love she felt that leaving this comfort, this pleasure, this sanctity, was wrong. She had to go. Indeed the large body rustled at her passing, she hoped she wouldn't rouse him, his growl and howl of a snore confirmed to her that she had disturbed his slumber but not woken him. As she picked her way by, one limb at a time moving ever so gingerly over his carcass, she dreaded what she knew lay ahead for her journey back. She was assured when she left his cradle by the realization that he'd not noticed her departure from his presence. As her bare feet hit the ground beyond, her body recoiled with a shiver, the scarce threads she wore for him were not good defense against the silent night air. She swiftly departed in the direction she knew she must pursue. His hearing was keen, she knew, and she was still within distance that the sound of a rustle beneath her feat would indeed rouse him. Her eyes adjusted only slowly to the pitch-black, but not before her feet found unforeseen trouble. She cursed the creature as she stumbled to the ground with an audible thud. He woke, and in the night she could hear him reaching for where she had been. She held her breath and preyed her absence would not be noticed. He mumbled, he murmured, he fell back to sleep.
She scrambled off into the darkness, on her hands and knees she found the path much easier and made her way across what seemed an endless field of black and cold. When she reached her destination, she clawed at the door and found no handle. Frustrated, exhausted and alone, she cursed herself for having allowed such a thing to happen. And she preyed for the light to see the way. She needed guidance into the salvation and the comfort, she needed relief, she needed to find the handle. Collapsing to the floor, leaning against the door she longed for the gentle kind light she knew would not rouse him, the kind she remembered would flow from the refrigerator late at night when her father would get her a midnight glass of milk. She longed for that milk, for that refrigerator... And at that moment it occurred to her, the refrigerator! She knew the refrigerator would not rouse him if she cracked open the door gently. Her room was a mess, and more-so in the dark, she cursed herself for it. She eased the fridge door open, it resided nearby, just enough to see the door handle on the bathroom door and she found her sweet salvation. Relief achieved she re-entered the room contemplating her journey back to bed, back to her lover's side. She thought for a moment of how her father would bring her a cold glass of milk in the night when he roused her coming in from work. She poured her lover a glass of milk; her eyes still not adjusted to the night's darkness, she decided to leave the refrigerator door still open for its light, she almost floated back to the bed-side, to set the cup at the bed-side. She then returned to the refrigerator and the gentle light closed off.