Priscilla
Priscilla tried to open the door. She noticed it was standing slightly ajar. That was strange. Was Mom back? If she was home, it was unlike her to leave the door open. She opened the door and walked in. It was a bit dark.
“Mom,” she called out loud. There was no reply.
She switched on the light. She was shocked at seeing the living room in disarray. The room was a mess with her mom’s favorite vase on the floor, broken.
“Mom,” she called out loud again. There was still no response.
“Max,” she called out. He often came out from wherever he was at the sound of her voice.
Still there was no reply from either of them.
She saw traces of blood on the floor. She froze. She lost all her senses of reasoning for a moment. She felt a cold fear that sent shivers down her spine.
“Mom,” she called out louder. No response.
She followed the traces of the blood with her heart in her mouth. It led to her room. She opened the door and it was quite dark inside, but she could see the silhouette of a figure lying on the bed.
She reached for the light switch with a shaky hand and switched it on.
There it was. A puddle of blood on the floor beside the bed and on it a seemingly average-sized body covered by a blood-soaked white blanket. She could hear her heartbeat and the world was at a standstill as she walked towards the bed.
“Mom,” she called again. The unresponsiveness of the figure sucked the life out of her, but yet she hoped it could return the call.
The worst was already pictured in her brain. She was so scared. She hoped for the love of God, taking off the blanket would reveal another face other than her mom. It was a selfish hope, but she was fine with the humane selfishness.
She was beside the bed, standing in the puddle of blood dripping out from the body. She reached for the piece of the blanket slowly with a tremored hand and pulled it off.
She tried to scream, but no voice came out of her throat. She stood frozen, staring Max’s dead body soaking the linearly arranged pillows. She was so scared to touch its body.
She felt an intense headache. She had never seen something so gory.
She brought out her phone to dial 911 with a shaky hand.
She heard the solemn voice of the operator.
“911, what’s your emergency?”
“I want to report a break and entry.”
After speaking to the cops, she sat down in one corner of the living room holding her tennis racquet. She contemplated what to do. She noticed being here alone scared her. What if they came back, whoever they were? She called her mom, her expectation was confirmed by the sonorous voice of the operator. Her number was unavailable. Janet wasn’t an option either. There was no way she could transport herself here this late.
She tried to call Phil. He would be here in a flash. She would feel safer in a man’s company. She dialed his number several times, but his phone was unreachable. She was very frustrated. Where were they when you needed them?
She had only one choice left.
He picked up on the third ring.
“Hey, Priscilla.”
“Please, I need your help.”
“What’s wrong?” His voice switched at once.
“Our house was broken into. They stole some stuff and killed Max. Neither Mom’s cellphone nor Phil’s is reachable. I’m scared and home alone.”
She wondered how he took all that information in at once.
“Where are you now?”
“Inside my room.”
“Are you hurt?”
“No, I’m not.”
“Call 911. I’m on my way,” he said with a clearer voice.
“I already did.”
“I’m coming.”
“Hang in there.”
He hung up.
She sat on the cold ground trying to make sense of what happened. What was worth stealing in the house? She hadn’t noticed anything missing. And why did they have to kill Max in such an eviscerating way? Did it attack them? And why did they line it up with pillows and cover it with a blanket? Did they do that to Max because there was no human at home to inflict such misery on? The very thought of it made her head thump even harder.
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She was jolted out of the trance by the sounds of sirens outside. She felt a bit of relief. She was getting claustrophobic and she was too scared to go outside. She stepped outside with her hands crossed over her chest to prevent her violently shaking heart from bulging out of her chest.
There were two police cars outside with three policemen and a policewoman. One of them approached while the others went into the house, probably to check if any of them was still there or whatever. She would be dead if they were. He introduced himself as Officer Joe.
“What’s your name, kid?”
“Priscilla,” she replied.
“So, Priscilla. We are here to help.”
“Are you hurt?”
She shook her head.
“Can you recount what happened?”
“I came home to meet the door slightly ajar. I walked into the living room and found it messed up. There was also drops of blood on the floor which traced to my room, and there I found my cat left in the most horrifying way and left there just for me to find.”
She saw there was an indifferent expression on his face. He didn’t care about the death of a cat, or he had probably seen worse.
“Where are your parents?”
“My mom traveled to meet her bereaved sister.”
“And your dad?” he asked with a click of his tongue.
“He died in an auto accident years ago,” she replied.
“I’m sorry to hear that,” he said.
No, he wasn’t. He said it indifferently without any trace of emotion.
“So your mom left you all alone?”
She knew what he was insinuating.
“Because I can take care of myself.”
“I’m sure you can, kid.”
He said it with a trace of mockery that irked her.
“How can we contact your mom?”
“I already tried, but her number was unreachable.”
“When is she coming back?”
“I’m not sure yet.”
“So she left a minor all alone without a means to contact her.”
“Because she knew I could take care of myself, and I never said I had no means to contact her.”
“Yeah, right.”
She saw a familiar car coming from a distance. She was focused back on the policemen and woman coming outside.
“We’ve swept through the house and collected some samples,” the policewoman said.
“Whoever killed the cat must be a psychopath.”
“Have you figured out if anything is missing?” Officer Joe asked.
“I’m yet to check,” she replied.
“Hey, Priscilla.”
“Good morning, officers.”
She heard his voice behind her. She turned to look at him. He looked really worried with his hair messed up. He was still in his earlier clothes.
“Are you hurt?” he said with concern visible in his voice.
“No,” she said, shaking her head.
“Who is he?” Officer Joe asked.
“My friend,” she replied.
“Go in and check if anything is missing.”
“Make a note of it and put it in your statement.”
She went in to check with Peter accompanying her. She scanned the living room and rest of the house. She didn’t have to check twice to know nothing was missing.
“Nothing is missing,” she said.
“Nothing?” he asked.
“Absolutely nothing,” she replied.
“There was no reason to break into the house in the first place. We don’t keep anything expensive.”
“But the burglars are not to know that.”
They went out to tell Officer Joe the same thing. He looked quite surprised.
“We can’t figure out the motive of the break and entry then. It seemed like robbery at first, but since nothing was stolen we can rule out robbery. But the manner of the cat’s death seems quite appalling. Too appalling to be ignored.”
“Perhaps the cat was killed out of anger at having nothing to steal,” one of the policemen said.
“Or it was probably to scare or spite her. Do you have anyone who has a deep grudge or malice against you?” Officer Joe asked.
David. He was quite unstable, but not enough to do this. She didn’t want to do this or believe he did this, but this was a clear threat to her and her mom.
Officer Joe must have noticed her change of expression.
She hesitated a bit.
“Come on, kid. You have to help us here,” he said.
“David.”
She saw Peter’s worried face turn into a frown.
“Who is this David?”
“He is my ex.”
“He threatened me earlier today.”
“Give us his contact and how to find this David.”
“Officer Ruby, let her get her statement now and write down this David’s contact. I want to close this as soon as possible. Either it’s her deranged ex or a psychotic thief.”
She took Priscilla to a corner to get her statement.
She recounted to Officer Ruby all what happened while she recorded, from finding the door ajar to calling 911 for help. She asked the questions calmly and Priscilla answered what she could.
She sat on the door steps with Peter as the policemen went on with their activities. She was asked to help with providing elimination fingerprints, which she did.
After an hour or two, they rounded up and were about to leave.
“We will ask around the neighborhood if anyone saw anything suspicious.”
“We will track down this David and see what we can get from him.”
“In the meantime, remain as calm as possible. We will handle it.”
“I will station some officers to patrol around here in case the criminal returns to the scene of the crime.”
“But I’d advise you not to stay alone. You should probably sleep over at a friend’s house.”
“We may contact you during the investigation, and we might decide not to contact you till we are done with it.”
“What about the mess, sir? Who would help me clean it?”
She nodded and watched them drive away.
She was still shaken. She’d never been so insecure in her life. A threat to her life or being a victim of a break and entry had never been something she ever envisioned.
“I have to clean the house now,” she said, walking back into the house.
Peter shook his head “No, you can do that in the morning.”
“I can’t go to sleep knowing Max is still there, eviscerated and rotting away every second. I won’t be able to move on from that.”
“Do you know how to do it?”
She shook her head.
“I will help then,” he said, rolling his sleeves.
He followed her back into the house.
“Do you have a pair of gloves?”
“Yeah, we do,” she replied.
She grabbed a pair and handed them to him. He put them on, one at a time. She watched him wrap Max up carefully in foil.
She watched him dug up the soil in his background and bury Max.
“And that is all.”
“Trust me, it’s better this way,” he said, taking off his gloves.
She gave a nod and handed him the hand sanitizer. He applied it and gave it back.
“Thank you for tonight.”
“I really appreciate it. Responding to my distress call and helping take care of Max.”
“You are welcome.”
“I would be more offended if you didn’t call me. We are friends now, aren’t we? And friends look out for each other.”
Yeah, friends, she thought.
“Thanks,” she said again.
She stood there staring at him. She didn’t want him to leave, but she couldn’t stall him any longer. She turned back to walk into the house.
“You plan to sleep here with the broken locks? I presumed you would sleep somewhere else.”
“Not that I wanted to.”
“Going to Janet’s this late isn’t an option, and Phil probably has Daniel over at his house.”
“You can come sleep over at mine.”
She was quite astonished. Did she hear wrong? Did he offer her to sleep over at his place?
He mistook her hesitation for refusal.
“If you don’t want to, it’s fine. I just want to be sure you are safe.”
“Yes, I do.”
“I’d be happy to.”
“Thank you very much.”
“You are welcome.”
“Let’s go. It’s cold outside.”
“We can get the cleaning done tomorrow and change the locks.”
She realized he kept using “we.”
She smiled wryly as her ushered her to the car and held up the door for her.
