What happened on September 7th

The beginning of the end.

Anna's and Becca's parents were out on a trip to London. Their parents had strictly warned them not to meddle with anything that wasn't theirs since they had just moved into a new house. They arranged for a full-time babysitter, Layla, a heavy African woman, which Anna thought was completely unnecessary since she was a right seventeen-year-old girl and could most definitely take care of her little eight-year-old sister.

Layla tucked Becca into her bed and made sure Anna was in bed too. "Do you need anything?" she asked, popping her head into Anna's room. "Oh yes. I may have heard the kitchen tap dripping if you could check that please." Layla nodded, switched the lights off, and left, not fully closing the bedroom door. Anna unlocked her smartphone and began texting her best friend, Kendall when she saw someone walk past her door.  She turned to look but there was no one. She went over and closed the door shut. Being so engrossed in her phone, she hit her toe against something hard right before she climbed onto her bed. "Ow! Dang, this house is so annoying!" she said in an annoyed whisper. Using her phone flashlight, she looked down. She saw a corner of a box. Bending down to try and feel it, she shifted upon hearing her sheepdog, Bambi's whines for a distance. She opened her door and saw her approaching her room. "Hey, where were you?" Bambi made her way through the door, curled up next to the bed, and made herself comfortable.
During the night, Anna was woken up by the dripping sound. She went to the kitchen to turn the tap off; she went to the nearest bathroom just to make sure it wasn't coming from there. A little weirded out, Anna got back under the covers and stuck her hand under her bed for a comforting lick from Bambi. Sure enough, Bambi licked her hand. The licking and heavy panting reassuringly lulled her back to sleep although the dripping sound continued all through the night.

The next morning, when Anna woke up, she saw that Bambi wasn't there. The door was closed all night so she wondered where she could go. She went over to her closet to get a change of clothes. There she found Bambi. The poor dog was hanging by the throat, her neck cut out. On the wall, written in blood, were the words: Humans can lick too.

She wrapped her hands around her mouth and her body fell to the ground. Hearing the loud thud, Layla hurried upstairs. "Anna, are you okay?" she asked, racing into the room. When she followed Anna's gaze, she let out a loud gasp, "oh my god! Poor Bambi. Who did this? I'm calling the cops." She turned to Anna who was staring at the wall in tears. "If it wasn't Bambi, then who was it?" she whispered in a shaky voice. "What do you mean, sweetie?" Layla asked, puzzled. "Read it! That dripping sound woke me up during the night. Even when I got back, it never stopped. I was kinda freaked out so I didn't notice her when I jumped back into bed. I let my hand out to make sure she was there. I didn't realize she was already gone..." Layla helped Anna back up when Becca came into the room and saw what they saw. She let out a loud shriek.

Later that day, after the cops had cleared the mess, Kendall came over to spend the day with her best friend. Becca was sobbing the whole time and started crying once again after she spoke to her parents. Kendall tried to calm Anna but she refused to listen to her. "Hey, it's going to be okay. Please stop crying," she begged. "Kendall, someone or something, licked my bloody hand! My hand! Nothing is alright! Oh God, I can't even think straight," she said looking down when she saw the box again. She kicked it back under the bed with the back of her heel.

Becca wasn't getting any better. Concerned, Layla took her to the hospital. She was diagnosed with a fever. Her temperature was rising so fast, her body began to tremble. "She's going into shock! Nurse, get her to ER now!" the resident doctor ordered. "Doc, what's happening? Is she going to be okay?" Layla asked, worried. "She got a high fever. Did she have the flu or anything of that sort?"
"No, but something happened back home. It was rather disturbing. Maybe that caused her to feel sick?"
"It could. Can you explain what exactly happened so that we know what type of medications she requires," the doctor requested. Then Layla narrated the event of the morning. The doctor listened keenly, occasionally interjecting a question.