As long As You Live

The Uninvited Guest

Every moment that passed after, hindered me speechless. First, a mysterious card with a single sentence sent chills down my spine. The second, I recognized the symbol in the centre as beta. The Science revision had paid off. The third, the symbol was eerily familiar. I had seen it somewhere earlier. But I couldn't pinpoint. I decided to check for evidence. Everything was clear. The bedroom, the kitchen, the basement, and the control room. Right. An idea struck me. I ran up to the control room. It was a store room, converted into a mini control room. It was filled with computers with control over anything electrical in the house: the main power supply, the gate, the TV and all the CCTV surveillance around the house.

Thank my brain. It was my idea in the beginning to install surveillance cameras around the house, to monitor Simba. I never expected myself checking out the footages for any other reason. I ran upstairs, and reached the control room in record time. I played the footage of the camera monitoring the living room. Minutes seemed like hours. But nothing suspicious turned up. Even Simba was fast asleep in his indoor kennel. But just when I was about to give up, something moved in the video.

Simba's ears perked up. The dog's senses never failed. I knew something bad was about to happen. An anonymous person came to view outside the window, holding some strange gizmo. She fixed it to the window, and seconds later, the window popped open. And everything that happened after went in a haze. By the end of the footage, I was shocked, speechless and confused.

The person entered through the window with great agility. Must be a female gymnast, I thought. For a moment, I guessed the person to be a petty thief. Simba began to bark immediately. The thief just dislodged a weapon and fired at Simba at point blank. Simba dropped on spot. I almost cried. The dog had been a friend, a companion for as long as I remember. But Simba wasn't dead. She didn't kill the dog. She daren't. She'd just injected some sort of sedative into the dog. So that's why Simba didn't wake up when I entered the house. I helplessly watched as the thief broke all the decorations, spilled all the water in the vase, and shattered the TV screen. But there was a pattern in the commotion. The probable 'she' was searching for something. But then, the thief dropped blank. Then she moved closer to the glass case where the stolen vase used to stand. The surprising part was that she didn't break open the container. She moved her hand across the surface of the stand, and stopped when she reached a particular point. Then she put pressure to it, and a trapdoor opened to reveal a small compartment. I'd never knew about it. She skillfully fiddled with the security alarm and Bam! The case opened up. She lifted up the vase and carefully slipped it into her bag. But when she got up, she didn't head for the open window. She headed for the camera, and looked straight at it, as though she was looking straight into MY eyes. She then took of her mask, exposing an ugly, melted face full of blisters and wounds. And she just said "I won at last, Alpha."