The Madness Within ✓

VII.

„Good morning. What brings you here?” a young, blonde police officer, who was sitting by the table and typing something on the keyboard, asked. „Please, take a seat.”
I nodded and sat down on one of the chairs that stood by the table.

After seeing the strange writing on my house, I was shocked. I stood there for a moment, as many terrible thoughts freely roamed around in my mind. I wasn’t sure what to think of it. Was someone pranking me? Because if so, this was not funny whatsoever.
For a moment I also thought about the possibility that it might've been the creature that I saw in the living room, but as soon as that thought came to mind, I quickly brushed it off and ignored it. Whatever it was that I saw in the living room back then, it's very likely that I might've just imagined it. But still, it felt so real..

When I saw the writing, I took out my phone and took a picture of it, then I ran back home to put on my boots, grabbed my car keys and ran back to my car. I drove off to the village and did as the repairman told me. I went to report it to the police.
The police station's building was fairly small compared to the one we have in my city. But I can't compare a village's police station to one in a city now, can I? The paint on the walls of the station was slowly peeling off and the sign above the entrance was ready to fall down any second now. Maybe they should fix that before it falls on someone..

„So please, tell me why you're here,“ the police officer said, not really paying much attention to me, as he was still focusing on something on his computer.
„Yes, um.. Someone keeps coming to my house. There were footprints in the snow on my front porch, and someone also used red paint to write threatening words on my house."
The policeman looked at me in disbelief as his right eyebrow slightly rose. He stared right into my eyes for a second, then sighed.
„Alright ma'am, where do you live?"

I gave the police officer my address and he looked at his computer, fully paying attention to whatever he had on his screen again. The clicking sound of the mouse filled in the silence that prevailed in the room as he continued searching for something on his computer.
„I'm sorry, I'm afraid we can't go check it out,“ the officer responded shortly after the clicking noise stopped. His facial expression showed no emotion at all and neither did his monotone voice.
„What? Why?!“ I raised my voice and stood up from my seat, wanting to demonstrate the urgency of the situation to the police officer. But clearly, he did not care.
„We simply can't. If that's everything you wanted, you may leave now."

„No, wait!“ I quickly reached out to my pocket for my phone and opened the gallery, then scrolled through the pictures until I found one of the photos that I took recently. I opened the photo that showed the footprints on the porch and handed the phone to the police officer, then sat down again.
„Here, proof! Here's a picture of the footprints, and I also have one of the writing on the house," I quickly added, then waited for his reaction.
He took the phone and inspected the photo. He looked at it for a few seconds, then burst out laughing.
„And what the hell is this?“ he asked between his laughs, then returned the phone to me. I froze in place, feeling humiliated. Did he really find this situation funny? Or did he simply not believe me because of the weird shape of the footprints?

„Please, show me the other photo then," he said after he was finished laughing, then crossed his arms and watched me as I scrolled through my gallery with a light smirk on his face.
I kept searching for the last photo as fast as I could, but I couldn't find it. I decided to go over the photos once again, but this time I looked through each and every photo slower to make sure I don't skip through it. I sorted the photos by date, but the latest photo taken was only the picture of the footprints, there was nothing else after that.
„What?“ I mumbled, not understanding where the photo I took went. I swear I took it, I remember taking it!

The police officer let out a cough and looked at the time, then back at me. „Well?“

„I'm.. I'm not sure where the photo is, but I swear I took it! I really did!“ I responded, clearly in distress, trying everything I could to make the officer believe me. But he just shook his head and sighed.
„Look, without proof I won't even budge.“

„Please, at least come and check it out! It's still there!"

„No. Without proof I won't go anywhere, are you deaf?“ he responded, raising his voice. He was becoming angry with the constant pleading of mine. I sighed and stood up.

„I'll take the photo again and come back!“

„Sure, do whatever you want I guess,“ he said and chuckled, then crossed his arms again and looked back at the computer screen. I sighed and left the police station.
The way he was acting towards me was terrible. He shouldn't be acting this way, does he act towards other people like this too? If so, why do they allow it? Even the repairman told me that I need some sort of proof, or else they won't do anything about my situation. Why? What is wrong with the people in this village?

I got back into my car and drove back home. If I have to take the picture again, I'll just do that and come back. But after seeing the way he was acting, I really wished I'd never have to go back there.
The people in this village were clearly letting me know that they want me to go away. They didn't like me for whatever reason. Did my grandma really do something so terrible? And if she did, why won't they just tell me what it was? Why do they let out their anger on me instead?
With, yet again, many questions in mind, I drove back to the house. The whole ride home I looked around the village as I drove, trying to see if there was any suspicious activity around the village. Maybe they were all in on this together and that's why the police officer refused to cooperate with me.
And that could maybe explain why my grandma lived so far away from the village. And it would also explain the suicide. Maybe they drove her to it after getting constantly bullied by everyone in this village. But if that was the case, she should've told us!

But even after this, it still made little to no sense to me why she would commit suicide. Deep inside, I still believed that something else must've happened here. Maybe it was simply because I hoped that wasn't the case, but either way, I still found this whole situation weird and completely off. If they really hated my grandma so much, there had to be a reason why.
According to the three women that visited my house, my grandma betrayed them somehow. But how could she betray the whole village? Did she do something that hurt everyone who lived here?
Maybe she revealed their secret that they had or something. But what secret? And whom to?

Once I was back at my house, I parked my car where it was preciously and got out. I grabbed my phone and opened the camera app to prepare it for taking another photo, then looked back up at the house.

But the strange message wasn't there anymore. It was gone. It disappeared!

I frowned, baffled by the sudden disappearance of the text. I could've sworn it was on this side of the house. Just so I could be sure, I walked around the house and looked at each side of the building to check if it wasn't, by any chance, on some other side. But no - there was nothing.
It was gone. No red paint, no threatening message, nothing at all. Just like the photo that I took magically disappeared, so did the message on the house.
At that moment I really wished that at least the repairman might have seen it, but then I remembered that he left before I even found the message. If he saw it, he probably would've let me know.
Does that mean that I just imagined everything again? Just like I imagined the creature, I may have imagined this as well..

Just what the hell is going on?!