Fait à la Perfection

18

"Robert? Bobby, we're home!"

Hermione was annoyed with her mum as they walked into the house. She wanted to keep playing with her new friend but mummy said it was time to go.

"Mummy, why couldn't we stay at the park?" Hermione whined.

"Because daddy is at home, remember how you promised you were going to help him prepare the late Christmas presents for your Grammy."

Hermione huffed and let her mother remove her coat. She grabbed her Strawberry Baby Doll once more and her mother helped her out of the books.

"Bobby?! Honey, we're home!"

Hermione looked up at her mother.

"Why isn't daddy answering?" Hermione asked.

"Maybe he's playing hide and seek," her mother smiled, "count to five, and well go look for him."

Six year old Hermione beamed at the thought.

She always loved playing hide-and-seek with her dad. He was always the best hider.

But she was getting better at finding him.

Hermione immediately covered her eyes and began to count.

"One..."

"Two..."

"Three..."

"Four..."

"Five!"

She looked at her mother who gave her the approval. She began in the living room. She looked behind the Christmas tree and behind the couch. He wasn't there. She entered the kitchen and once again there was no sign of her father.

She checked all of the first floor. The bathroom, guest room, and closet space under the stairs, she called into the garage but he wasn't in there.

"Maybe he's upstairs?" Hermione's mummy whispered playfully.

Hermione beamed and slowly began going up the stairs. She reached her room first and didn't see him anywhere, he wasn't under the bed or in her closet.

She chewed her lower lip.

"Daddy?" She called out. She checked in the upstairs bathroom but he wasn't in there either. Entering the guest room he wasn't there. He wasn't in his and mummy's room either.

"Daddy?"

She reached his study and twisted the doorknob. She entered and her smile fell.

Her Strawberry Shortcake doll fell into a small creeping puddle of blood as her mother ran in. Jean let out a scream and immediately hid Hermione from the view.

But unfortunately...she was too late.

"DADDY!"

Hermione woke up with a scream. She scrambled on her bed as she took a moment to realize where she was. She let out a ragged sob and curled up. She cried into her knees as her body shook.

She grabbed her phone and dialed her mother's number.

"You have reached Jean Granger, I can't come to the phone right—"

She hung up and called Alan's number.

"You have reached the telephone number of Dr. Alan Bates, I'm sorry to inform you that I am unavailable—"