Abnormal (Beginning)

Chapter One

                            The Police Station Records Room, Hoquiam, Washington, Present day

    The police records room was not a pleasant place to be. No one wanted to work down there; it was dark, damp, musty smelling, and the place where death by paper cut was an actual possibility. It was in the basement, and right next to the door that led to the holding cells. So anyone working there often heard screams, shouts, yelling, banging and frankly, that scared a lot of people. A lot of people, but not Anna Tomilin.
    Anna Tomilin was sitting in her favorite chair at her desk in the damp, dark records room and looked over the newest police records. Her red hair poured around her face as she read over one file about a man who escaped from jail after killing three of his neighbor’s cats, when she heard knocking on the door of her office.
    "Come in," Anna said with a slight Russian accent, after a moment, a girl with light brown curls and a colorful jumper walked in. She looked about twenty-one and ovely excited to be in such a dismal place.
    "Hi ma'am, I’m so sorry to interrupt you but I wanted to know if you wanted any coffee." The girl talked very fast, like the words just couldn't squeeze out of her mouth soon enough.
    "No, sorry, I don't want any, but thank you."
    "Are you sure? I saved you half of a cup, it's the kind with fudge, I think." Anna looked at the tray of coffee and saw that there were twelve cups on the tray; all empty.
    "Did you drink all of that?" when the girl nodded, smiling broadly, Anna stared at her, with a mix of disgust, surprise and annoyance.
    "But there are a dozen empty cups there."
    "No, not a dozen; only eleven and a half. Remember, I saved you half a cup. So, do you want it?" The girl asked persistently.
    "No," Anna said and looked back down at the file.
    "Oh, that's sad."
    "I haven't seen you around, are you new?"
    "Yep just hired three days ago, I worked at a hospital before this, but it didn't work out."
    "Ah, interesting, what's your name?"
    "Tatum, Tatum Piccadilly" She extended a hand out to Anna who shook it with reluctance, and stood up, putting her hand on Tatum's back and leading her away from her desk. Tatum immediately dropped the coffee--spilling the remaining half-cup-- and walked with her.
    "My name is Anna Tomilin, I am the head records keeper here at the police station." Anna lead her into the detectives wing, she had a certain person that Tatum may need to meet.
    "Oh, cool, I'm not. I heard it was a sucky job, pretty much you’re a secretary they didn't want so they stuffed you in the basement." Anna sighed and laughed angrily, she didn't like this girl so far. Anna knocked on a hard wooden door.
    "Who is it?" a woman's voice cried out
    "It's Anna, there's someone here that needs to see you."
    "Come in."
    The room they entered was fuzzy with ugly pink couches, odd patterned chairs and overly bright paintings. And there in the middle of it all sat a bright cheery woman with bright blond hair and a sickeningly yellow dress, even her eyes were hard to look at, they were so blue. Anna had only been in here three times and hoped never to come back, but it appeared that Tatum may need to chat with someone and it certainly wasn't going to be her.
    "Tatum, meet Queenie Miles she's the police psychiatrist, you can bother her for a while, tell her whatever you like," Anna said.
    "I'm sorry, does she even work here?" Queenie asked.
    "I'm new," Tatum spoke up.
    "Ah, why does she need to talk to me?"
    "Because she's annoying me, and I figured it's your job to listen to people so here you go." Anna said giving Queenie a sympathetic look and turned away smiling in triumph. She figured while she was out of the basement she might as well get the next stack of files, no use going back down filing ten more than coming back up, if she did that Tatum might follow her back down there. So she walked over to the front desk got the new pile, saying a quick hello to the front entrance secretary and walked carefully down the stairs careful not to drop the papers.
    As Anna walked back into her poorly lit, stale urine smelling office she started to wonder why she even worked here. She had so much potential, she could do anything, be anything and yet here she was. But she knew the answer, this job kept her fed, it gave her somewhere to be, and it made her completely unnoticeable. She could walk up into the police station and nobody would know who she was, she did it everyday, some people even asked her why she was there some days. It was the same outside, nobody looked at her twice, knew her name. She never did anything that was worth remembering that way if she ever needed to, say, drop off the grid, she could and nobody would ever notice. She set her files on her desk and sighed, she didn't want to live her life like this, but what other choice did she have other then going back to her old job, and that was not ever happening.