Eliana hated how the one thing she had grown accustomed to seeing on a daily basis became a complete stranger to her in a matter of minutes.
It greatly unsettled her and somewhat terrified her more than the television downstairs.
Her dark emerald hair was slightly tousled from all the motion. Black eyebags formed underneath her amber eyes. That mole stamped just below her left eye, labeling it as a beauty mark.
Last time she checked, she could've sworn she wasn't wearing a nightdress before.
But who cares?
She was too tired to fuss about something as irrelevant as her clothing.
Eliana turned the sink faucet and allowed the water the run through her fingers. She cupped her hands, a puddle of cold clear water rising in her palms. Then she splashed the overflowing water on her face and watched as the droplets fell down her pale and fatigued face.
Eliana wiped her face with a nearby towel, feeling a bit refreshed.
She noticed something peeling on the top-right corner of the mirror. Giving in to curiosity, Eliana pulled on it.
"What... The... Floopbugger?" Eliana frowned as she observed something red hastily drawn underneath the peelings.
She tilted her head and squinted, trying to read whatever it was supposed to be.
The only obvious thing she could make out there was a smiley face right next to some letter-looking scribbles, which she tried to read.
"Mid… N-ight? Hmm, midnight. That sounds about right."
Eliana moved on.
Ah-vid... No... Hold on… A-viaaaa-tors? And the next one, Cl-oh-ve? Oh! Cl-uh-ve…" Eliana contorted her face as she pronounced each syllable.
"Midnight Aviators? Clove? What are those supposed to mean-
All of the sudden, out of nowhere, she heard an ear-splitting crash.
Right when she heard it, Eliana was abruptly flung to the wall. Next thing she knew, a high-pitched ringing mixed with the sound of her own fast beating heart filled her ears.
She felt something run and branch out down the side of her forehead. It ran down her eyebrows and down her eyelid until her field of vision in her left eye was stained with a hue
of a deep scarlet red.
'… I just wanna beeee the one you love, love-
(* Click! *)
'Put your head on my shouuuulder...' A slowed-down and slightly distorted tune started to play.
Every single part of her body ached, a blunt pain in the side of her forehead, throbbing and pinching pains spotted throughout her legs, a sharp pain in her left lung as if some foreign object was struck right through her and especially pain in the whole of her back.
She tried to call out or say something, but only a hoarse and strained wheeze came out.
Eliana reached out… Cuts and bruises of all sizes gradually appeared all over her arm and hand.
For something...
Or anything…
Eliana dug her fingernails into the gritty rough concrete floor as she pulled herself forward, pulling her nails back.
She managed to drag herself out of the bathroom and into the hallway in hopes of reaching her phone on top of her bedside table, but she was moving at an extremely slow pace.
Eliana turned her head to face the direction she was heading and found something two identically bright circles followed by flashing blue and red lights growing larger and larger at the end of the hallway.
She squinted as she watched it continue to grow brighter and brighter as it grew closer.
When Eliana felt like her eyes couldn't take any more, it became pitch-black like when someone flips off the switch to a lightbulb.
＊＊＊
(*...Woooo... *)
Eliana gasped as woke up with a start, alarmed and completely terrified. Her breathing was erratic and her eyes wide open with anxiety.
She sat up straight and tried to still her pounding heartbeat. Without a minute's haste, Eliana flicked on her silver tree lamp and relaxed as the dim warm glow washed over every corner of the room.
She inhaled and exhaled and decided to head downstairs to drink a glass of water and possibly take her pill.
(* Weeeeeeee…. Woooooo… *)
As she pushed her Clava Luna quilt bed cover and dull golden yellow bed sheets off of her, Eliana noticed bright blue and red flashing lights coming from the gaps of her window shutters.
Her heart skipped a beat for a moment as she recalled her recent dream, but she shook it off the lights as something else.
While peeking through the shutters, Eliana found police cars parked right next to the curb of this one specific house not too far away and a crowd of confused and drowsy people gathered around them.
(* Weeeee! Wooooooo! Weeeeee! Woooooooo! *)
Some policemen and policewomen were entering and exiting the house while others kept some curious bystanders away from the yellow tape.
Eliana checked the time on her phone, '3:54 am.'
"Almost four in the morning? What happened this late at night?" She thought as she buttoned up her swing coat and tied her messy hair out of the way.
She headed downstairs, quickly chugged a clear glass of water, and swiftly tied the shoestrings to her boots.
After exiting her house, Eliana locked the front door and hurried down the street.
＊＊＊
(* WEEEEEEEEE! WOOOOOOOO! WEEEEEEEEE! WOOOOOOOO! *)
"What's happening?" Eliana asked a nearby bystander.
"I'm not too sure myself, but I heard an older man was murdered about two hours ago." The bystander shrugged.
Eliana tried to see all the commotion up close over the shoulders and heads of the bystanders, but the people were too tall and she was too short.
"Cursed genes… Ughhhh, I can't see!" Eliana puffed out her cheeks as she tried to stand on her tippy-toes.
After many attempts on her toes, she instead pushed and shoved through the crowd until she was in the front row and could see everything the police were doing.
Radio chatter, police sirens, and mutters and the questions of the crowd filled the heavy atmosphere. The fatigue and drowsiness seemed to wash away from the crowd's faces as their eyes followed every movement of the police.
They weren't that surprised but some gasped as they watched the police carry a body covered with a white cover out the door.
The police hit a bump, which caused an arm to fall out from the white sheet.
Blood ran down from the arm and dripped onto the concrete of the street, leaving a trail of blood spots from the curb to the ambulance.
Eliana watched as they carried the body into the ambulance and closed the door with a loud click.
To the left side of the house, away from the door, two detectives stood with one bawling woman and one teenager and one young boy with innocent wide eyes, clutching a teddy close to his chest.
One detective was trying to calm the woman by patting her back and the other seemed to be questioning the teenaged girl, who seemed to be a high-schooler.
She had dark brown eyes on her fatigued light brown face. She was wearing navy blue jammies and her long straight hair, tousled from sleep, cascaded down her back.
Eliana felt a tingle of envy when she saw her tall slim legs. Eliana had slim legs as well, but… She was short.
Their eyes met for a brief moment, Eliana's inquisitive almond eyes locked with the girl's slim cold eyes, but then the girl looked away and continued to answer the detective.
The woman stopped bawling now and she was now on the ground. She was mumbling something and her eyes were glazed over.
Eliana heard a screeching sound nearby that sounded like reckless driving and the whole crowd turned their heads.
A silver Sedan had pulled up in the driveway and from it, a lady with an orange beanie emerged and frantically rushed to the side of the woman, nearly tripping in the process.
The detectives and the lady exchanged a couple words, pointing to the house and the woman on the ground. The lady gasped and looked at the woman with a pained expression and then the detectives nodded to her.
The teenaged girl pulled the young boy closer to her while the detectives and orange beanie lady helped the woman stand up. Then, they lead her into a car along with the teenager and the young boy.
"Come on, Max. We have to go with Ms. Lisa." The teenager suddenly yanked her brother, surprising him and making him drop his teddy.
"My… my…" He reached out for his teddy, but his seemingly older sister kept tugging him into the car.
The doors closed and Eliana saw the boy looking at his teddy
After Eliana and the crowd watched as the silver car drove away into the darkness of this confusing night, the ring of bystanders dispersed and headed back inside their homes.
All the sounds, police cars, and the ambulance disappeared along with the Sedan, making the neighborhood dead silent. The bright police tape bordered a house that, without it, would look just like all the other tawny-yellow houses.
Eliana lingered on, observing the house and the trail of blood spots on the street.
She picked up the fluffy chocolate brown teddy bears the boy dropped. Its beady black eyes glinting at her as she examined all dimensions of it.
"Hmmm… Why do you seem so familiar..? Have I seen you before?" She asked the teddy as she rubbed its head.
Eliana tucked in under her arm with the intention of returning it to the boy if she ever saw him again.
She was not a thief and she understood the value of teddys to children. Not to mention that she herself was once a child deeply attached to a teddy bear.
'But that teddy is gone now…' Eliana thought as she looked in the direction where the car had been engulfed by the darkness of this strangely eventful night.
'Gone for good…'