Tethered

Chapter Thirteen

1

Cynthia and Mr. Wilson came back an hour after Sarah had woke up. Cynthia informed Sarah that the cops would be coming to see her for questioning about the tattooed man. Like every other night, Sarah went to bed again with a lot on her mind. She laid there, awake, staring at the ceiling.

She laid awake for a while, thinking and overthinking about things she couldn't put together. When did all this start? Was it that night? And what else happened that night? If it was only that night, why couldn't she forget about it and move on? Why did it feel important for her to find out? Why did it feel so important to connect the pieces together? Why couldn't she stop thinking about it?

A sound outside her door stopped her thoughts. She strained her ears to catch the noise again. She heard the noise again. It was that of scratching against the door. She climbed out of bed and placed her ear to the door. She heard a new sound—not the scratching...but that of something heavy tapping hard against the wooden floor, like a large stick. Then, came muffled cries. Sarah's heart jumped.

The muffled cries, the hard tapping on the wooden floor and the scratching overwhelmed her with a deep feeling of curiosity she could not shake off. The muffled cries increased and that's when a dreadful feeling of horror came over her. She tried to shake off the feeling as mere paranoia but she couldn't.

The muffled cries increased, along with things being dragged across the floor. She wanted to open that door and look. She hesitated but the sound of a door opening and closing made her hand seize the doorknob. Gathering her strengths and conquering the queer fear that was so elevated in her temporarily, she twisted the doorknob, and the moment she stepped into the corridor, a woman dashed past her, screaming.

Sarah froze, eyes wide, breathing ragged, and rapid. The scream came again, and Sarah found the courage to trot as fast as she could down the stairs. Another scream reached her ears. The kitchen. She stormed into the kitchen, fully alarmed.

And then she froze again.

2

Cynthia fell hard on the floor, then she was lifted into the air by a man in black clothing, and thrown to the wall. Sarah was paralyzed with fear, and couldn't utter a word. The man picked her up again, and slammed her to the wall. Cynthia screamed, blood oozing out of her mouth. She was bruised and wounded. She was trying to grab something—anything that she could use as a weapon.

"What do you want from me?" Cynthia screamed. "What do you want?"

What happened next, let Sarah unable to breath. The man in black grabbed Cynthia's hair, and pulled her up. She held her head, and screamed, trying to free herself. Within an instant, Cynthia was slammed on the glass kitchen counter, breaking it in the process. Pieces of glass pierced her skin.

The man climbed on top of her weak body, ignoring the glasses on the floor.

"Get off her", Sarah whispered involuntarily. She took a few shaky steps back. "Get off her!" She shouted. "Get off!"

The man faced her and Sarah nearly passed out with terror. "Kent", she murmured. The man grinned, grabbed the silver bowl beside him and started hitting Cynthia's head, smashing her skull in. Blood splatted everywhere.

Sarah started screaming and crying at the same time. She collapsed to the floor, her strength failing her completely. She heard heavy footfalls speeding down the stairs. The man in black stood up, still holding the bloody bowl and threw Sarah a dirty look, then vanished.

3

Sarah crawled away from the door, grabbing a knife that had fallen on the floor, and pointing it at the people standing in the doorway. They were all blurry, nearly closer to silhouettes.