A good-looking man appeared before her, a slight smile tingling at her lips. He was trying his best to communicate to her, obviously something of dire importance. But, there was nothing except silence.
Annabelle's eyes shot open as she sat up tall in bed, blind just for a moment in the pitch blackness of the room. The clock sitting on her bedside table read 4:50.
Moonlight streamed through the blinds of the window her bed was set against. She peered out the window at the looming trees overlooking the house, the miles of acreage stretching out beyond the eye could see.
She patted beside her on the bed, feeling for Dragon, but he wasn't there. Well, that's typical for him. After last night, I am pretty sure he's got some feline disorder or something, she thought.
She glanced back out the window just in time to see a dark silhouette standing out by the front porch steps, staring right at her before stepping behind a tree.
Oh what the fuck, what the fuck, what the fuck??!!
Spooked yet curious at the same time, she could not resist the temptation. There was no way that she was going to sit in bed for a couple hours, wondering who that person was.
Gliding out of bed, she threw on a pair of jeans and black tee shirt, hurrying out of her room. Smell of coffee permeated throughout the house.
Leonora sat at the table, enjoying a cup of the beverage, thumbing through pages of the county newspaper. She noticed her niece just in time to say a quick Hi, letting her know that her uncle and cousin Cassie were outside tending to the livestock. Annabelle just rolled her eyes, opening the door and stepping outside.
Pink and purple highlights brightened the sky, indicating that she had been out there for a good hour or so, searching for the figure. It was like the person had vanished into thin air. There was no way she could have imagined somebody standing there, could there?
She stood statue-like where the woods met the property line, fuming at the fact she had just walked every square inch of the property, only to come up with squat. Annabelle jumped from a flock of birds swooping out of the trees.
She crinkled her nose, her mouth set in a tight grimace, fighting the urge to shout out of frustration.
“I can't believe this,” she mumbled, as she set out to the starting point just to repeat the same mundane walk around the property, such a joyous experience. Yet she could believe it when only a short while and another boring walk later, she came up with the same results.
“There appears to be no one out there. Why are you wasting your time, Annabelle?” she murmured to herself. “Maybe if we take a stroll around here one more time, something will come up? Why don't we try it? After all, the definition of insanity is repeating the same action and expecting a different outcome.”
Nope, I'd rather go to the pond. Maybe Dragon will appear like he always does. That fucked up cat.
Annabelle took the long way around to the pond, a soft dirt path sprinkled with the falling leaves of autumn, shadowed by the oaks that stretched above her. Calmness filled her as it always does out in the medicine that is mother nature; a hint of a smirk teased her lips. This was much better than trying to pretend to interact with people.
As she rounded the final bend in the path, still cloaked by the giant trees, her movement came to an abrupt halt. Swaying in the gentle breeze was her uncle, a braided rope keeping him anchored to the thicker limbs of a tree.
Annabelle dashed into the woods, taking cover behind a patch of bushes that allowed visibility of the house. The slamming action of a vehicle caught her interest and she peered to the front of the residence, watching her aunt climb into her car. She remembered it was Saturday, the day her aunt always went shopping.
She watched her aunt just long enough to roar the car to life and disappear as though a cannonball had been shot up her bumper down the driveway; interest, gone.
Annabelle headed into the deeper cover of the woods. No way would she head that direction any time soon. She just hoped she was alone in the forest.
As she furthered deeper into the safety of the forest, a figure rounded their way to the house, their sight set upon the girl that had just awakened.
Lindsay Cunningham loitered around the kitchen, yawning loudly as she raided through the cupboards in search of something to eat. Oatmeal was overdone to the point she tired of it, eggs just sounded unappetizing, and pancakes were a hell-to-the-no; breakfast food didn't sound appetizing that morning.
Then she found it: an unopened box of cupcake mix that she enthusiastically grabbed out of the cupboard, smiling from ear to ear. As she stirred the ingredients together, a sudden flash in her peripheral vision caught her attention.
She had no time to turn around when someone grabbed her and spun her around to face them. Before her stood a man with the most terrifying expression she'd ever seen on a human being's face; a sinister smile tainted his lips.
He lifted her off her feet effortlessly, ignoring her cries of mercy and flailing body. In a flash he padlocked her in, chanting “375 degrees, Lindsay,”, the space above her ablaze in a bright orange.
Smoldering heat replaced the coolness of the air conditioned house. Lindsay screamed in agony as she felt herself light up from the inside, her skin burning up in sweat.
The heat intensified to unbearable levels and she watched in horror as the bones under her flesh broke through her skin, melting away from her body and dropping to the bottom of the oven in endless piles of goop.
“Let me out, please!” she screamed; the man smiled broader, making it clear he had no intentions of letting her out. Lindsay banged against the oven door in a final act of desperation, but to no avail. The entrance had been secured tight.
Maniacal laughter bounced off the walls as the smell of cooking flesh and guttural screeching filled the kitchen, watching his victim bake.
ns 15.158.61.6da2
