Golden Thread

It was the third time this week the officer told the father, gently leaning against the yellow caution tape. “Someone needs to step up and stop this monster before someone gets hurt, or …ya’know worse” father demanded. The officer, slightly annoyed, only shook his head and tried to calm him “I assure you, we are doing all we can to track this entity down. It happens so fast we barely have time to secure the area before the oblivious media and crowds scatter the evidence. Now Sir, I have to get back to work,” he took a sip of coffee.  The aroma of hazelnut blend sharply penetrated and seemed somewhat alien to the mundane smells of the dense pine and mud fresh in the crisp cold rain. The officer bobbed under the tape. “Just go back home, we can handle it from here”.

Father returned home sometime after midday to find the front door ajar with then knob encrusted with damp mud. “W-what?…Hello!?” he yelled in his bellowing roar of a voice,…no answer. He wondered, was he the next victim that would find his family routed by the “threaded one” the named dubbed to the entity after the only evidence of a coppery gold strands of thread being found at every mutilated and brutally destroyed home.  He ran inside with his adrenaline filling his veins expecting an altercation only to find the house silent, but well kept; his wife and 4 year old daughter nowhere to be found. The door flung open behind him smacking the wall with a loud muffled thud. A figure had materialized from the blinding rays of light coming in from the mid-day sun outside the doorway. Father’s eyes had adjusted to the darkness of interior of the home intinsifying the burn of the blinding light. Frustratingly he squinted, still unable to see more than a silhouette. The figure bolted toward him with blinding speed and was inches from him with seconds; it then latched onto him around the waist. Frozen with fear he couldn’t move but he then noticed embrace was not of aggression but warm and full of love. “Daddy!!”  His daughter shrieked, “Your home!”

He let out a large sigh of relief and lifted her to his large hip, “you’re really glad it’s me, aren’t ya!” she squeaked, grinning the best she could with her 2 front teeth still on their way. “You have no idea little one, no idea” father exhaled “where’s your mother then?”

“Right here!” Exclaimed mother as she brought in a 3 different sized clay pots of rich soil each marked with a different produce tag, tomatoes, paresley, and artichoke.

“Well that explains the mud” he said to himself, but aloud. “yes, our beautiful mud monster and I were changing the soil for our garden and indoor plants” she spoke softly as she watched Father clean the mud from the child’s hands and feet. “Now you go get cleaned up for supper ok sweetheart!” she called out to her cub as the 4 year old scurried up the stairs like a mouse. “…And then you can show daddy your new pretty flower.”

She rested her hand on his “so are you going to explain to me why you ran in the house like you were being chased by hunters...Or why you seemed so tense, I swear I can smell your anxiety” she questioned with concern.

He embraced her hand for a moment then moved toward the open window and inhaled the thick heavy scent of the deep pine forest “I past a crime scene today on my way home from work…” he tasted some of the porridge she was heating on the stove up from last night’s dinner “hmm not hot enough yet” he mumbled patiently. “But as I was saying that was the third house attacked this week that, and it was only a mile away this time” he said with a worried tremor in his voice. Mother motioned his large hand away from the cooking food. “Listen hun, we live in the outskirts of the community and we aren’t the richest family here” fathers face twisted in discomfort “what im trying to say is there is no reason for someone to want to attack us or hurt this family, ok” she kissed him on the cheek. “If it makes you feel better me and our little monster WHOS LATE FOR DINNER-” she yelled toward the stairs. “-we will make a latch for the doors tomorrow morning”

later that night about an hour after the quiet dinner where silence was only broken by the occasional giggles of the toddler playing with her gloppy meal. “what can I do to keep them safe..” father pondered to himself while cleaning the dishes. He looked out the window and noticed the wind picking up and the sky grow dark. His wife, holding their child fast asleep whispered from her soft red chair in the living room. “hun, can you close the windows, I feel a storm brewing up” he nodded and lit a candle so he could finish cleaning in growing shadows of the immense evergreen jungle reaching up and clenching the home in a black fist, a type of darkness native to the deep woods. He moved to close the windows watching the trees sway back and forth and the wind picked up quickly extinguishing all the candles in the immediate area “Damn!” he grunted as he dropped the match book. Returning the standing posture he rose in complete darkness. He jumped nearly hitting the ceiling in shock as a convenient flash of lightning that for a moment tuned night to day flooded the home and the field in their yard with a blue haze. In that Fraction of a second three images caught Fathers attention he saw the matchbook in the sink and his gold silhouetted reflection in the window and his wife trying her best to keep back a wave of laughter at his skittish movements in the flash. He began relighting the candles “Hahahaaaa….hey,you would have been startled too” he joked in his defense, laughing at himself. A few moments went by as the storm winds howled against the house. His wife smile quickly digressed into a fearful look of realization. She started locking the doors right away “close and lock the windows right now” she ordered in a calm but stern monotone voice. Father fallowed his wife’s military like instruction, perplexed “Sweetheart, is something wrong?” she quickly answered “you said you saw your reflection right?” putting their daughter in bed in the safety of the second floor. “Right” he answered with his shortened anxious breaths “but the window was wide open still! you didn’t see your reflection, someone was looking our home!

They both stood in motionless silence staring at their dim lit faces in the candle light thinking of their next move slightly distracted by the disorienting combination of the pungent smell of stale porridge and scorched candles filling the vicinity hearing only each other’s heavy breathing and massive gales battering all sides house harder than before. A another bolt weaseled its way from  above the treetops illuminating the sky again for a second illuminating the black land The house still, wind howling but most important the back yard deserted then followed a blast or thunder followed by a second loud explosion. With his eyes growing more frantic “The hell was that!?!” Begging his wife for an answer they both knew she didn’t have. She moved close and grabbed his arm “I don’t know but im not sitting here to find out” as she lead him up the stairs to the main sleeping area. Terrified but feeling a strong need to protect his family from anything he sat sleepless throughout the night watching over his wife and daughter in his firm large chair.

 The sun pierced through the window with it flowing in the sound of birds and burning wood bringing and a blend of hazelnut coffee to mother to her senses “what in gods name..” as she realized it was Police sirens not birds. “what happened out there?” she questioned her husband who was still awake standing in the window sipping on a cold glass of juice. Father turned to her with the red and blue flares glistening on his sleep deprived eyes and the juice left behind on the whiskers above his lip. “Well..they got em,…but at a price and an expensive one at that.” he stated with a melancholy look. She went to join him in the window for a look.

She gasped “oh my…did anyone make it?!” Father looked into her eyes and hugged her as the both looked upon the sight.

There was the officer from before packing the last of three body bags into a truck surrounded by the only news crew within a hundred miles and the same curios crowd as usually but they were yelling and screaming with hate in between them there was a figure being led to a police vehicle. They could never make out who it was. Later that at the table, shoving food in his mouth with one hand tuning the radio with the other “well I’m glad that’s all over and done with-” “SHhhh!” his wife stopped his hand on a station..

_____________Radio Broadcast______________________

“*SHH*-convicted-*CHHHCK* she has--*STATIC* -Vandalisms, breaking and entering, theft, arson, trespassing, unlawful use of blunt tools, assault, littering, damage of federal property, third and first degree murder, endangering of animals…..Goldilocks how do you plea?”