TRAPPED (Short Story)

Trapped: One

'Tap! Tap! Clap! Clap! Snap those fingers before getting trapped!'

"You lose again, Jie Jie! Now go inside the wardrobe."

"Can I not go inside the wardrobe! It's suffocating."

"I don't care, now go inside! Don't come out unless I release you!" said the brother and pushed his Jie Jie inside while locking it from the outside.

THUD!

The house door banged shut, followed by the sound of a woman's high-heels click-clacking hastily up the stairs into the room and quickly locking the door.

"My child! Where's your Jie Jie?" The mom picked up her younger child in panics. Her dripping wet hair, along with her red dress, was soaked from the rain, leaving her lips and limbs quivered from the coldness, only added to the visible fear in her eyes.

"Mom, I'm trapped in here!" The older child inside the wardrobe yelled. She was about to unlock the padlock, but suddenly the sound of window glasses shattered from downstairs.

"No! No! They're here!" She immediately hid her younger child under the bed, "Shhh!" She lifted her index finger to her lips and turned her head to the wardrobe, knowing that her child could see her through the gap. She then mouthed a silent message.

"Now, listen to mom, let's play a game, okay. Close your eyes, close your ears, and count to 100, don't make a sound and DON'T!! Don't you dare open your eyes!" She quickly rose from the floor, wiped her tears and grabbed a baseball bat as the sounds of footsteps now stomping up the stairs.

She stood in front of the door, tightly gripping onto the bat. Her gaze locked on the doorknob.

Approaching footsteps now stopped at the door. The knob began twisting gently at first but quickly shook violently and abruptly halted. Now came the intimidating silence, which was suddenly cut short by the booming of thunders. In a split second, the lights went out as the door swung open.

Floods of rain poured harder, and thunders roared ever louder, sending flashes of lightning that illuminated the sinister faces.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

19 years later,

Click Clack! Click Clack! Click Clack!

Footsteps walked through the polished hallway and entered into a dimmed room. The person headed to open a cabinet, wiping down histories of collected dust. Carefully flipping through files, searching and smirking, then promptly took out a folder.

~~~~~~~

"It was a dark and stormy night, with ominous clouds enveloping the skies, unleashing torrential rains. At an instant, a peaceful family was obliterated and torn apart by the rampaging fire."

"Okay! Stop! What the heck are you reading! I told you to find useful information." Yunlan slammed his hand on the table from the frustration of not being able to solve the case.

"Yes, Chief! I'm reading through an older detailed police report, which I think might be related!" said Ling Jing while placing the file in front of his grumpy Chief, who gestured him to continue.

"This cold case happened 19 years ago. A mother and child died in the house fire. There were some clues pointed at the suspects. But at that time, forensic and technology were not too advanced to check for DNA or fingerprints. So, in the end, there was not enough evidence to arrest them." Ling Jing explained and gave Yunlan the victim's family photo that somehow survived the fire.