Nightfall Rattle

The darkness crept back in, swallowing up every gleam across the metal shelves. Sitting perched on my silk cushion under the birch awning, I listened as the nighttime wind began to pick up outside in the alley. The tin door shuddered in the cold draft, giving a hollow clatter that shook dust from the ceiling seams. With a raspy wheeze of laughter, I raised my clawed glove and dragged all four silver blades slowly across the edge of the propped washer by the hinge. *Clink-shriek-ting!* The noise echoed fiercely through the entire box, drowning out the alley gusts and claiming the cold black air for myself.