Cats.
I look for them. Porridge is curled up and fast asleep, but Pebbles is wide awake, too. She sits at the end of the bed, staring at the window with her tail flipping left and right. She is on edge, like me.
Tac-tac-tac-tac-tac.
I leave the lights off and walk over to the window. Carefully glancing outside.
My heart beats into my throat.
I can’t see anything outside because my room has a garden view, and there are no lights. But was there something moving there?
I am too scared to open the window. And as I have no torch, it wouldn’t do any good either.
Tac-tac-tac-tac-tac.
The noise is freaking me out.
I don’t know what to do, so I sink to the floor underneath the window and draw up my legs, rocking myself slightly.
I am cold, and yet I am not.
Tac-tac-tac-tac-tac.
Maybe this is just a dream.
Yes, it’s just a dream, I repeat in my mind.
When I wake up, I am flat on the floor, curled up like a cat, freezing and feeling horrible. My head pounds, my shoulder hurts, and overall, I haven’t felt worse ever. Did I hear knocking?
I scramble myself off the floor and slink into the kitchen to make some tea and go pee.
When I open the door, I almost have heartattack. Bella is standing right in front of it. So she did knock.
“What the hell, Bells?” I ask as I stare at her.
“Are you okay?” she asks with a strange tone in her voice.
“Yes, why wouldn’t I?” I ask, scowling at her. “What’s going on, Bella?”
She’s standing in front of me, so the view into the living room is blocked.
“You might want to put some more clothes on,” she says. I am wearing only a shirt, no trousers.
“And why is that?” I ask, as I crane my neck, but she steps into the way.
“Just do it,” she says, and I go back into my room.
Bella mouths something at me that awfully looks like “Police.”
I groan.
When I return, Bella stands at the side, two police officers in our living room.
“Miss Phillips?” asks one of them, a woman.
“Yes,” I say as horrors run through my mind.
Is my mother dead? Did someone else die? Has my father been found? A surge of cold horror washes through my insides.
