House Sitter

The House Sitter

I'm back in the house.

I don't remember getting home.

The lights are all off.

I have a headache.

----

It's morning, or anyway the sun is up.

It's hot in here.

My back hurts.

I'm hungry.

----

My phone is almost dead.

Nobody's texted me or called me or anything.

Not even her.

----

It's dark again.

Where's the cat?

I should find the cat.

I could use a little cat therapy.

----

I get up off the floor. I grab a nearby piece of paper and wipe the blood off my face. My phone is dead and the power must have gone out and come back on because the clock on the stove is blinking 12:00. It's dark out and the street is quiet. Not city quiet, with the distant hum of cars and trucks and rooftop radiators, but totally silent. The only sound is a thumping coming from downstairs.

And

Jingle jingle jingle

The basement. Did she get in through the back window? I stand at the top of the stairs. The lights won't come on. I start to head down. My brain is killing me; like I'm hungover. My jaw hurts--a deep ache. My vision is blurry. I take my glasses off before I go down the stairs and find one of my lenses has popped out. I put them back on because they're better than nothing. I go down. It's dark and smells of dusty concrete.

Jingle jingle jingle

The laundry room is in the back. The basement is crowded and claustrophobic but Bonnie has tried to make it nice: there's an antique side-table with a vase of flowers on it halfway down the hallway, right before the little step up to the hot water heater. The heater's pilot light blazes with blue flame and faint amber streetlight spills in through the basement window. My throat is killing me, like I've been screaming in my sleep.

Jingle jingle jingle

The thumping is loudest here. The dryer is on, cranked up to full. I put my hand to the door handle and the heat of it feels freezing cold for an instant, then burns. I wrap my hand in a tea towel and open the door. The dryer spins violently. Something is inside, thumping around, something dark, and as the tumbler slows I can glimpse a grey shape spinning around and around until it drops with a metallic thud to the bottom of the vessel. 

I reach in and pull out something soft and sticky it's dark and I have to bring it right up to my face to see it something soft in my hand it's been torn apart it's been eaten I'm screaming my voice is raw and I drop it and when it hits the ground it jingles.

----

Bonnie and Peter cut their vacation a few days short because they haven't heard from Sean in days. Peter has to climb in through the bedroom window and wade through piles of trash to open the front door for his wife who puts her hand in front of her face to cover the smell. They find him in the basement clutching a bloody piece of paper in his hand that says:

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!

WE LOVE YOU!!!!!!