Never Again

Chapter 5

Katie's - POV

I searched the house for anything that I could see missing but found nothing. The only sign there was, was some household objects having not been where I had put them the night before.

When mum got back I told her straight that someone had been in and out of the house without any of us seeing them.

She asked me if I was positive and I explained all the discrepancies I had found around the house and the mud tracked in, which hadn't been there when me and Jessica had fellen asleep -  I had washed away the evidence because of my nerves.

She called the police and while they were on their way, I told her how the rest of the night panned out and most of the details I could remember. I was still too shacked up to have fully recalled everything that had transpired.

"What time would you say you first noticed there was someone else in the house?"

One policeman had been questioning me while another two checked for forced entry or any indication that someone had been here.

"At around two in the morning." I answered, suddenly glad that we had a clock stationed in the kitchen.

"And did you see anything unusual or hear anything?" He asked me.

"I heard some noise coming from upstairs," I mentioned, as a shiver climbed up my spine as I remembered the fear from the previous night. "But by the time I got there whoever it was was already out of the house."

I zoned out as I heard the policeman describe what was going to happen and to call if anything else like this happened again.

After they were all gone I talked to my mum about the incident as she wanted to know more, although I did know that it was just because she wanted reassurance that I was fine, and I was happy to give that to her.

Later on, after I had spewed all the details of the past night, over and over again, I went up to my room ready to fall fast asleep as the adrenaline had now worn off.

Still feeling a little bit apprehensive I decided to check every corner and crevice to make sure no one had put something in there - someone even.

Firstly, I took my drawers out. One by one. And searched them thoroughly and in a methodically slow pace just to make sure I didn't miss anything.

Next was my wardrobe which was full of my dressier clothes. It was next to my drawers because the nice clothes inside couldn't be folded, otherwise they would very creased whenever I went to wear them. Luckily, I also didn't find anything of substance in there, except one of my favourite black tops which I had been looking for, for ages!

I had a couple of boxes in my room for extra storage and so still needed to check them.

The first box was stored at the bottom of my wardrobe and was a bit of a pain to get out as the wardrobe had a lip at the bottom to stop stuff easily falling out and whatever I had put in this box felt like it weighed a ton.

Putting it down on my bed I opened it and started to make my way through the box, taking out each item and making sure it was mine and not broken. This was a slow process as I had quite a lot of little toys in the box that I had kept for no other reason than sentimentality.

Finding nothing, I sighed and painstakingly put everything back into the box, closed it, hefted it into my arms and then shuffled across the floor to put it back. I got to my wardrobe and put it down quite heavily. So heavily in fact that it sounded like the floor was broken.

"Are you okay?!" I heard mum shout from downstairs.

"I'm fine mum," I said back in a loud tone, "Just dropped a box."

Knowing I still had one box to go I got back up and pulled it out from under my bed but left it on the floor. This one didn't have as much in it so it didn't take anywhere near as long as the other box.

Nothing unusual was in my room.

I felt a massive sense of relief as I put the lid on and pushed it back under my bed. No one had entered my room. Although the rest of the house still felt unsafe at least I knew that no one had violated my personal privacy.

I flopped down onto my bed closing my eyes as I felt the effects of the night before wash over me and I instantly fell sleep.

                 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I woke up six hours later when I smelt food. My stomach rumbled and it make my think of the last time I ate, which was yesterday.

Rubbing the sleep from my eyes I got up and headed downstairs at a slow pace as I was still half asleep.

"Hey mum." I said.

"Hello Katie," Mum said with a smile, "I was just about to call you down for dinner."

"I just realised I haven't eaten all day and I'm starving now."

She frowned, "You've got to remember to eat, as you're just damaging your body if you don't."

"I won't forget again."

When the food had finished cooking I put some of the noodles on my plate and slathered them in beef stir-fry.

I headed upstairs with my food as I knew mum would be down here doing work and I didn't want to interrupt her.

As I ate the last bit of my food I heard mum shut her door and could tell by the squeaking sound of the bed that she was going to sleep.

Quietly moving out of my room I went and put my plate in the dishwasher but didn't turn it on as it only had a few dishes in it.

I decided that it was about time I went to sleep as the tiredness from waking up a couple hours earlier still hadn't worn off so I walked to my room, silently shutting the door behind me.

I got ready for bed, put on my fan, climbed into my bed and pulled the covers up to my chin.

Tossing and turning, I kept hearing a faint rustling from somewhere. It sounded like paper being squashed. It wasn't until I turned on my side that I realised the sound was coming from under my pillow.

Reaching my hand under I grasped onto a piece of paper and dragged it out from its hiding spot. Turning on my lamp I quickly read what it said.

My tired brain struggled to comprehend...

This couldn't be happening.

I immediately crumpled up the paper and shoved it into one of my draws, the words written on it replaying over and over in my head so much so that by the time I really started to process what the note meant the adrenaline had ran out and I had drifted off.

We'll be back