As Sadie's breathing gradually slowed down, the world seemed to stabilize around her at a reduced speed, as if responding to the vibrations of her thoughts. The drowning splashes assaulting her nerves now seemed sporadic, with longer interstices between them. Her power was triggered, and she became the object of a time-lapse. But there was still no time for a sigh of relief, not while her only friend was drowning.
She rushed towards Josephine's door and flung herself against the hard wood. The impact did little more than send tremors through her entire body, but she fought through the concussive blows, and pounded her body against the barrier with such unrelenting might that the old door started to creak and groan, responding to her persistent efforts.
With one final desperate lunge, the locks gave way, and she stormed into her neighbor's house like a wild woman. Miss Josephine stood there, caught off guard and screaming in shock. Their eyes briefly met before the collision sent Josephine flying across the room, her fall unfolding in slow motion.
Without even sparing a glance at the flying hag, Sadie lunged for the bucket and delivered a swift kick, sending its contents cascading out, flooding the floor. Water splashed in all directions, creating a chaotic scene as a matted clump of greyish hair emerged from the pool amid the fading din.
The room fell silent as the water slowly settled. Suddenly, there was movement! Big Mac struggled to claw himself upright, gasping for breath and coughing out the water logged in his lungs. He managed to regurgitate some of the water between fits of coughing, slowly regaining some of his strength as Sadie gently lifted him into her cupped palms.
The tension that had gripped her subsided, but rage filled its stead, and she directed her attention at the old woman which was still stuck in a motion of falling. As Sadie headed to the open door, rat in hand, she tripped a chair with her foot, pushing it as to position it right under falling Josephine's neck.
And through it all, the TV in the room was blaring an opera piece at a high volume, and its resounding melody echoed across the halls, giving the unfolding scene a dramatic edge.
Then _crack_.
A cracking noise was heard from the neighbor's house a few minutes later as Sadie was boiling a kettle of tea in her kitchen to warm and comfort a trembling rodent.
As the evening wore on, the tranquility of a setting sun was replaced by the signature flashy red lights of an ambulance. Its blaring siren disturbing the peace of the whole neighborhood.
Shortly after, two men clad in pristine white uniforms emerged from Josephine's house, rolling out a corpse on a stretcher fully covered in a white sheet.
The main doctor, with a sense of solemnity, carefully unveiled the sheet from the face of the deceased, meticulously studying the fractured bones and the unyielding expression etched upon her features.
Miss Josephine's eyes were deep, dark, and wide open, reflecting a spiteful anger in her final moments. Her grey hair was disheveled and repulsively long, cascading over her twisted neck.
Her face appeared to be frozen in an expression of perpetual screaming, and her mouth was stretched so unnaturally that her dentures seemed on the verge of escaping from her jaws to bite at Sadie's face.
Sadie was standing at the threshold of her own doorstep, watching them while keeping a distance from the terrifying body. She hid her satisfaction with a concerned expression when she was approached by the doctor.
"Excuse me to disturb you young girl, we usually attribute the death of old women to be related to their age, but we've noticed the door lock was broken and we were wondering if you've noticed any unusual activity coming from your neighbor's house."
"Yes, I did." Sadie admitted, "I've heard screaming and struggling noises coming from Miss Josephine's house. So I barged into her house in an attempt to save her life."
"And what about the shattered window?" The doctor remarked as he tapped his pen on the notebook. Sadie was confused, is he a doctor or a forensic analyst?
"There was a heavy storm last night, the tree branch in the garden must have swung a bit too close to the glass."
"It's quite admirable that you wished to intervene," the doctor said as he started scribbling in his notebooks, "but why did you not contact the relevant authorities or seek professional help afterwards?"
"I have no money to pay for my own medication bills, and certainly not for expenses of an ambulance to transport a corpse," Sadie responded with genuine upset, catching the suspicious doctor off guard.
He gave her a hard look, noticing the apparent symptoms of Crohn's disease – the rash on the lower end of her face, her visibly thin frame, her fatigued amber eyes that were drilling into him with a sort of blame, and her brown skin, slightly ashy pale from the effects of the condition.
As he glanced behind her, he couldn't help but feel a sense of sadness at the depressingly bare state of her apartment, which was devoid of basic amenities. The room contained only one old couch, already showing heavy signs of wear, and the ceiling showed hints of water damage, with a few steel bars bulging out from the decrepit concrete.
"What is your name girl?"
"Sadie."
"Very well Sadie," the doctor said with a reassuring voice. " I will write down my office address for you on this piece of paper. You should not neglect your health, even when struggling with financial constraints. You can come visit me for free consultations."
She pretended to care and leaned near the doctor to perceive what he wrote down on the death certificate.
Cause of Death: Accidental fall resulting from advanced age.
That was all she needed to read. She expressed gratitude to the young doctor as she snapped the address paper from between his fingers and shut the door behind her.
Tonight, Sadie could finally sleep without the eerie feeling of eyes watching her. The evil old lady was gone from this world, and Sadie earnestly hoped that ghosts weren't real, so she wouldn't have to deal with a floating Josephine, spying on her through walls and sabotaging her life from beyond the grave.
Thankfully, it seemed that spirits had little effects on this dimension, and Sadie peacefully slept the entire night. When the morning came, she decided to resume ber investigation about the whereabouts of the boy.
She took Big Mac with her this time, gently sliding him into the flap of her pocket as she made her way to the butcher's front entrance at the intersection of the next street. Being a vegetarian, she had never set foot into a butcher's shop before, and the overwhelming smell of blood made her feel nauseous as she approached the counter.
Behind it stood a very rotund and repulsive man, his hair thinning out, leaving scattered patches barely connected on his round neckless head. His body seemed to consist of layers upon layers of fat gathered from the meat of a thousand slaughtered animals of all kinds, with lumps of meat and sludge stacked into his folds, only covered by a bloody apron. His bulging eyes bore into her, showing no appreciation for her silent and uncomfortable stare.
"State your business." The butcher demanded as he rubbed his two knives together, thinking she may be his worst enemy, a health inspector.
Sadie swallowed, mustering a forced sense of confidence as she responded, "I was recommended this butchery by countless of your clients! They assured me that the meat here is always fresh and slaughtered daily."
"Yes!" The huge man erupted, letting out a deep, booming roar of a laugh, revealing very square, big teeth that, surprisingly, weren't as sharp as one might expect given his diet. He then pointed behind him at a door with his thumb over his shoulder, "I do the slaughtering myself in the backroom. I've soundproofed it completely to ensure that nearby residents won't complain about the noise of groaning kicking cows."
Sadie's face turned pale as the disturbing image of the slaughterhouse lingered in her mind, causing her blood pressure to drop. Despite her unease, she gathered the courage to ask, "But surely, with a space the size of a warehouse, you could have made a more profitable decision."
The butcher seemed agitated by her remark, retorting, "I rent it out to other groups for the rest of the day."
"And what kind of business do they use it for?"
"I don't advise you to meddle in the affairs of others," the pudgy man grunted, his tone becoming stern and threatening.
Apologizing for her overt curiosity, she quickly changed the subject, "I'd like to order a rib steak, please."
Realizing she had gathered as much information as she could from the butcher, Sadie discreetly released her rat behind her back, allowing it to fetch the keys for her.
As the butcher grunted a response, Sadie watched him turn his back to her and head towards a hanging carcass to prepare her rib steak. Seizing the opportunity, the clever rat, Big Mac, exploited the butcher's preoccupation and agilely climbed on the fabric of his pants. Using its sharp incisors, the rat bit onto the keys, attempting to free them from the butcher's pocket.
Suddenly, the fat man wobbled around, causing Big Mac to leap into the corner and quickly slip under a nearby shelf, the keys still in his clenched jaws. The metallic sound of the keys clanging against the shelf caught the butcher's attention, causing him to bulge his eyes towards the corner.
Sadie's heart raced as she saw the butcher inspecting the corner where Big Mac had taken refuge. Fearing that he might notice her rat, she needed a distraction. Thinking on her feet, she sneezed violently on the hanging meat near her with such force that it almost seemed to shake the hooked meats in the butchery.
The sudden loud sneeze successfully diverted the butcher's attention away from the corner, and he trudged towards Sadie, his enormous shadow overwhelming her small figure. She felt cornered by his fat, with his immense girth closing in from all sides.
He looked at her, then at the hanging meat, and wiped the tainted carcass once or twice with his bloody apron before speaking. "Here is your order," he said gruffly, offering her the rib steak.
Sadie took it silently, still trembling. She felt Big Mac scuttering on her back leg which made her smile nervously. She hurried outside. Her heart was still pounding as she made her way through the street, the keys safely concealed in her pocket.
On her way home, Sadie noticed a dark Doberman standing in front of her apartment. The more she approached, the dog started growling internally, so she decided to throw him a steak to calm him down. "Poor dog," Sadie sympathized as he bit through the tough meat, "I hope you're not eating one of your own kind."
In the following days, Sadie took it upon herself to observe the white steel door facing her window. She discovered that every night at exactly 10 p.m, three men dressed in dark attire entered the premises. They would only leave when a black Mercedes pulled up at the entrance.
Having gathered enough information to raise her suspicions, Sadie decided to take action and don her superhero attire. Her outfit consisted of a balaclava with a round opening in the middle to reveal her eyes, nose, and lips. Additionally, she wore a sleeveless leather jacket with fur-trimmed armholes, the jacket was stitched to her mask around the neckline and to her leather pants from the sides.
With her disguise on, Sadie was ready to investigate further and uncover the shady activities happening near her apartment building. She sat and contemplated the alien watch on her hand, waiting for the right time to strike.