Jealousy can be a very ugly thing. The feeling of obsession and wanting to own a person completely. Kenna was unfamiliar with this type of feeling until the day she laid eyes on Maria. The feeling was so reinforced in her that it made her do something so out of character. Kenna knew how impulse she could be. She was fond of jumping right into things without taking her time to think about it. But not once had she thought about doing something like this. Maria looked at Kenna, who stood right in front of her. Her stare felt like it was boring holes deep into Maria's skin. The silence, even though it was short, made Maria feel very uneasy, so she decided to speak first.
"is…..there a problem?" she said in the nicest way possible.
Maria hated trouble and would do anything to avoid it. "You're Oliver's coworker, aren't you?"
the tone in Kenna's voice wasn't very pleasing and welcoming. It was evident to Maria that she didn't like her.
"Yes I am, is there a problem?" Maria replied.
Kenna took a seat opposite Maria and crossed her legs.
"I would like it if you stopped being partners with Oliver."
Maria blinked her eyes twice.
"I'm sorry, what?"
"Do I need to repeat myself again?"
Maria was totally dumbfounded. She couldn't believe that a grown woman could utter something so ludicrous.
" look, that's not how these things work, in case you don't know."
Kenna scoffed.
"I don't care. I don't like it when you're around Oliver." "I think you have the wrong idea. Although I spend most of my time with Oliver, there's nothing going on between us. It's strictly work."
Kenna's facial expression was enough to tell Maria that she wasn't convinced. Maria looked at her wrist watch. She had to get back to the office and time was running out. Wasting her time on this would be dumb. "Look, I don't have time for unnecessary banter. I need to get back to work now."
Maria said as she stood up from her chair. She walked out of the restaurant, leaving Kenna by herself. Kenna was seething with rage. She felt insulted by Maria. 'unnecessary banter?' Kenna played Maria's words in her head over and over again. This only succeeded in making her even more angry. She stood up from the chair and walked away hastily.
"Finally, you're back." Oliver said when he saw Maria walk through the office door.
"what took you so long?"
Maria paused. 'Should I tell him that his girlfriend was chewing me out in a restaurant?' she pondered on this for a while. 'No, that would only have a negative effect' Maria decided not to mention his girlfriend.
"Eating lunch took longer than I expected."
"Alright."
Maria sat down and started sorting out the scattered documents on her messy desk.
"We've finally gotten work from the DNA analysts." Maria breathed out a sigh of relief.
"Finally. I wonder why it always takes them so much time to get back to us."
Oliver shrugged.
"I'm used to how slow they can be."
Maria could never get used to it. It made work more tedious and stressful.
"According to the documents, they found fingerprints on the glasses as well as hair strands. They belonged to a girl called Nancy Evelyn." Oliver said while looking at the papers in his desk.
"As for the knife, the fingerprints and blood they found on it both belong to Jerry Morgan."
"And the knife was found close to his dead body." Oliver ran his right hand through his hair.
"And here I thought that the knife was the murder weapon."
Maria frowned at Oliver's statement.
" Did you see those wounds? They definitely weren't caused by an ordinary knife."
Oliver scoffed.
"Maria, don't tell me you actually believe that a monster killed those teenagers?"
"Yes, I very much believe that a monster killed them. I mean, what else could have?"
Oliver threw his head back, laughing hard.
"Come on Maria, you're taking the words of a delirious kid. Who knows she might be a drug addict. She was probably high during the whole thing."
"What about the creature I saw?"
Oliver rolled his eyes.
"You were drunk Maria, you were hallucinating."
Maria stared at him in disbelief. When she told him about it, she thought he'd believe her. It seems like she was terribly wrong.
"Look, there's only one suspect now, Nancy Evelyn. She was the only one absent from the scene. I think it'll be best if we look for her. I'm going out for a smoke." Oliver said this and left the office.
Maria sat there in the empty office feeling hurt and angry. Oliver had treated her like some lunatic. She felt her eyes sting a bit. The tears she was holding back were begging to be let out. Maria hated how emotional she gets for the slightest things. She trusted Oliver enough to tell him about the creature. She didn't think he would react in this manner. Brushing all her thoughts aside, she wiped her eyes and got back to sorting out the documents.
"Your daughter is not doing so well. You're supposed to be with her right now. She needs as much emotional support as she can get." Catherine said. She frowned when she heard the response from the phone, which was placed on her Ear.
"What do you mean you can't leave work? This is our daughter we're talking about. Is your work more important than she is to you?"
Catherine was only getting irritated with his reply.
"I honestly don't know what I expected from you Harold."
With this she hung up the phone sharply. She knew her husband was like this, always choosing work over family. In the past, they've always had arguments about this. Catherine sighed and rubbed her aching temples. She looked at the bed side stand. The photo from their marriage sat there in a golden frame. She picked it up and examined it. There she was clad in her floral white wedding gown, grinning from ear to ear. Her husband stood beside her in his black tuxedo, his mouth open like he was saying something. He was, but Catherine couldn't remember what it was exactly. It has been eighteen years since they got married and the happiness she felt eighteen years ago, had died down completely like a candle, whose wax had been completely exhausted. Things weren't always like this. Believe it or not, there was time where Harold actually cared about his family. Harold didn't get a decent job until Amelia was three. Everything went downhill when he got a job in an oil and gas company. It helped then financially, they were able to move out of their rented apartment and into their own house. But after that, Harold's presence became very scarce. They would go weeks without seeing him and it bothered Catherine greatly. The night the finally talked about it, Harold got very defensive and it turned into a heated argument. Catherine dropped the topic and never spoke about it again until he didn't show up for Amelia's tenth birthday. Her heart broke when Amelia kept asking if daddy was coming. That night, they had an argument on the phone. All her efforts were in vain. Harold was thick headed and didn't want to listen to anything she had to say. Catherine looked at Harold's eyes in the picture. They were full of light. She sighed and ran her hands over the photo. She wished they could rekindle the old flames from the beginning of their marriage. Catherine put the picture back on the bed stand and looked at the wall clock. It was 7:15pm. She decided to check up on Amelia who hadn't come out of her room since she got back from school. She got up from the bed and made her way to Amelia's room.
Catherine placed her ear softly on the door for a few minutes. The room was oddly quiet. Usually she would hear a rustle or some footsteps. But it was dead quiet and Catherine's anxiety was increasing.
"Amelia?" she said as she knocked on the bed room door lightly.
No response. She called her name two more times, and still no response whatsoever.
"Amelia, I'm coming in." she said this and opened the door slowly.
The room was dark and cold. She felt the wall for the light switch and flipped in on when her hands found it. The bed was empty.
"Amelia?" she said walking Around the room.
She walked over to her desk which had a dairy on it. Amelia picked it up and flipped it open. Hey eyes widened as she saw what was it the book. On the first page was an incomprehensible drawing. As Catherine looked closely, it looked like a deformed monster of some sort. She flipped the page. The second page had some writings on it. The most disturbing part was the word written on the page. The word die was written multiple times. Catherine placed a hand over her mouth. The other pages had incomprehensible drawings and words. Catherine's heart broke. Her daughter was suffering so much and she was clueless about it. The sound of a creaking door caught Catherine's attention. She turned to her right to see the bath room door slightly ajar. 'is Amelia in there?' She thought.
"Amelia honey, are you in there?"
she was replied with a painful silence. Catherine walked over to the bath room slowly. She pushed the door open even further making the creaking noise intensify. She felt some kind of cold liquid around her feet and quickly turned on the light switch to see what it was. She looked down and saw a red liquid around her feet. Catherine's breathing became harsh and heavy. Her mind began to play different scenarios and she prayed that none of them were right. She looked at the shower curtain and paused.
"Amelia?" she said in a shaky voice.
She swallowed hard and walked over to the shower. She let out a small breath before sharply dragging the curtains back. She stumbled back, slipping on the red substance and falling down on the cold floor. Her eyes went wide and her face went pale. She sat there on the floor, in a state of shock.
"Amelia…..Amelia!"
her brain had finally registered that her daughter was lying on the bathroom floor, not moving a muscle. She quickly crawled over to were she lay and grabbed her face. Her skin felt ice cold. Catherine turned to look at Amelia's hand which had blood flowing out of it. 'no, no, NO, NO!' her heart and mind was racing.
"Amelia, wake up….. Please!"
Catherine's vision began blurry as tears gathered. She blinked, letting the tears run freely down her cheeks. Amelia's face was as pale as snow. 'Maybe she's still breathing' Catherine thought. She placed her ear on Amelia's chest hoping to hear any sign of life. Her heart sunk when she didn't hear anything. 'I need to call 911!' she said as she picked herself up and ran out of the bathroom. She was halfway down the stairs when she slipped and fell, hitting her body on the sharp edge of the stairs. Ignoring the sharp pain, she stood up and ran into her room. 'phone, phone phone' her eyes scanned the bed room in search of her phone. She stripped the duvet cover off the bed and heard a thump on the ground. She looked down and sighted her phone. Catherine had tossed the phone in anger after the call with her husband. Picking it up with shaky hands, she dialed 911.
"hello, 911 what's your emerge-"
"My daughter! She's not breathing! She's lying on the bath room floor. There's blood-"
Catherine throat became choked up, making her unable to speak.
"Okay ma'am calm down. What's your address?" Catherine wiped the tears from her eyes and told them the address.
"Alright, we're sending an ambulance and some police officers your way. Please be patient, they will be with you soon."
Catherine nodded and hung up the phone. She slumped down on the ground, helpless. The only thing she could was wait.