Happy Birthday

I can barely grip the photograph and it is taking everything in me not to hyperventilate. Who is stalking me and what did they do with my best friend? Are they still in the closet? They can’t be if they just knocked on the door, right? Either way I’m not taking any chances. I look to my left, where Tyshae’s closet is. The door is shut...for now. Looking around the room I see Tyshae’s desk and have never been so happy that she loves antique furniture. The chair in front of her desk is made of solid wood and heavy. I take a deep breath and sprint for the chair, nothing but pure adrenaline coursing through my veins as I manage to grab the chair and drag it in front of the closet door, wedging the top of the chair under the doorknob. I turn and bolt for my room, shutting the door behind me.

I grab my gun from my bedside table, load it, and pull my phone out of my jeans pocket. I dial 911.

"911 what's your emergency?" A male voice answered.

"I think there was an intruder in my house. Someone has been stalking me and sending me pictures and they left one in my house that they took inside my room mate’s closet. I have the closet door blocked but I’m not sure if they are still in there. I haven't looked through the rest of the house. Also I believe this person may have harmed my friend, Tyshae Hughes. She never made it home from work 3 hours ago and I know for a fact that whoever is in our house was waiting for her. I have proof." I whispered.

"Okay miss, I need you to calm down. What is your name and address?"

"My name is Olive Davis and I live at 89 Westview Dr, apartment G3"

"Nice to meet you Olive, my name is Ted. The police are on their way. Do you have somewhere safe to hide?"

"Yes, I'm in my room with the door locked and I have my gun."

"Can you hear the intruder?"

I listen for a moment. Silence. Absolute silence other than the 911 operator in my ear.

"I can't, actually. If anyone is in the closet they aren’t trying to get out." I can feel my heart racing in my chest. What if this guy found a way inside after I went into Tyshae’s room? I turn and look at my closet door. Could someone have managed to get in after I packed my bag?

"Are you sure someone was in there?"

"I'm sure someone was. Someone knocked on my door after the picture was taken so I blocked the door just in case but honestly it is probably empty. I'm going to check my room just in case." I walk over to my closet, trying to keep my hands from shaking.

"Olive, you may not want to do that. Can you get out of the house from your room?"

"Maybe. Our apartment is three stories up but my dad bought us both fire ladders for Christmas one year. Mine should be in my closet. So either way I'm going to have to open that door. Sorry, Ted." I don’t remember seeing the ladder when I was grabbing clothes, but I was in a hurry and not looking for it at the time. I opened the door, praying the only thing I’ll find inside was the ladder. No luck, the fire escape ladder was missing.

"Good news, Ted. No one is in the closet, bad news is they took the ladder. I -" I was interrupted by a knock at the door. I can see flashing blue lights below from my window. "Never mind. The police are here, I'm going to hang up now. Thanks for your help, Ted."

"You're welcome, I'm glad you're safe." Ted disconnected the call.

I put my gun down, opened my door, and walked down the hall to the front door where two officers greeted me.

One walked right past me and began searching the apartment, while the other stayed with me.

“Good evening, Miss Olive. I’m officer Jones. While my partner officer Smith searches your apartment, can you answer a few questions?”

“Yes, sir,” I motioned for officer Jones to come inside.

“Olive, you told 911 that you had proof someone was in your house, what kind of proof do you have? Did you see someone here?”

“Not exactly. Last week someone left me boxes with strange photographs taken from inside my apartment while I was sleeping. That’s why I moved back in with Tyshae and went back to my old job. I should have been there with her today, but I don’t start back until next week. Today a box was left here with another photo inside. This one was of someone holding Tyshae’s key. I went to pack a back for myself and one for her so we could leave when I found more photos on her bed. I’m sure your partner has them by now. They show Tyshae leaving work on time, but as of now she is nearly five hours late coming home, and one of the pictures shows someone using her phone to text me that she is staying late at work, and the picture was taken inside her closet. I blocked the closet door and ran to my room to get my gun and call 911. And here you are. I’m pretty sure it’s just one person but just in case I blocked her closet door in case there are two people doing this,” I explained.

“Why didn’t you call any one last week?”

“Honestly, I thought it was just some creep so I moved back here. I told the landlord and he changed the locks. I thought that would be the end of it. This was the first time I’ve lived outside of this town and I didn’t want my parents to worry. I haven’t even told them I’ve moved back yet.”

“I can understand that, but you really should have reported it. Not to be rude, Olive, but reporting a stalker last week could have prevented your friend going missing. I’m going to go see what Smith found. You should call your parents and consider staying with them until we find this guy and your friend.” With that, Jones walked towards Tyshae’s room to join his partner. I let out a sigh and pulled out my phone and called my parents house number. It rang twice before someone picked up.

“Hello?” I have never been so happy to hear my dad’s voice.

“Hi, dad. It’s Ollie. Can I come stay with you and mom for a few days?”

“Sure, honey. Is everything okay?” My dad didn’t bother hiding the concern in his voice.

“ I thought so, but I’m not so sure anymore. I’ll explain when I get there tonight. Bye, dad. Love you, see you soon.”

“Bye, sweetheart, love you too. See you soon.” He hung up.

I went back to my room and packed a few more things, grabbed another bag and went to my bathroom to swap my travel sized toiletries for my regular sized ones. I started out the door towards the elevator to put my bags in my trunk when Jones called for me.

I went back to Tyshae’s room and stopped in the doorway.

“Yes? I’m just taking some things to my car but I’m not leaving until you’re finished. Any news on Tyshae?” I questioned.

Officer Smith spoke to me this time. “Yes, ma’am. Dispatch sent a unit over to your office building and they found her car with the driver window busted out. The officers over there found some blood and they’re going to send samples to the lab. While they are positive some of it belongs to your friend, they are hoping her attacker was cut and some of the blood will belong to them.”

“Thank you, officer Smith. Did you find anything here that might help?”

“I’m not sure about helping find your friend, but there were more photographs hanging in the closet. I’ve bagged them for our forensics team to examine, but we need you to look at them first and identify the subjects in them.” Smith held out five clear bags, each containing a polaroid. I looked at the first one and my heart sank.

“This first picture is of my parent’s home...I guess I shouldn’t go home now, and I need to tell my parents they may want to go somewhere else.”

“We’ll help with that. Please look at the other pictures.” Jones instructed.

The second picture was of my mom leaving the grocery store. The third, my dad at a high school football game. The fourth was a picture of Tyshae’s parent’s home. I relayed this to the officers and looked at the fifth picture. It was the same gloved hand holding a handful of what looked like house keys. Another note at the bottom in silver ink read, “I can come get you whenever and wherever I want, Olive.” My stomach was in knots and I could feel the bile rising in my throat. I ran to the closest bathroom and the contents of my stomach came pouring out of my mouth and into the toilet. When I finished vomiting, I wiped the tears from my eyes and washed my face. I turned to see both officers in the doorway.

“Olive, why don’t you let us drive you to the station. We’ll call your parents and have them meet us there. We’ll contact your friend’s family as well to let them know of the threat.” Smith offered.

“Thank you, but is it okay if I follow you guys there? I’d really like to drive myself so I can clear my head.”

“Of course. We’ll ride down the elevator with you and escort you to your car. Here, let me carry your bags for you.” Jones said as he picked up my bags.

“You don’t have to do that. I have a gun, if anyone tries to grab me I’ll shoo-”

“We’re gonna pretend we didn’t hear that, and we’re going to escort you to your vehicle.” Smith interrupted as we walked into the elevator.

We exited the elevator and went towards the building’s parking area. As we approached my car, I noticed the lights were on inside and the trunk was slightly open.

“Hey guys, see that car with the lights on and the open trunk? Yeah, that’s mine.”

“Wait here, “ they said in unison as they approached my car, drawing their weapons. They opened the trunk and both of them had disturbed looks on their faces. I decided to walk closer to the car.

“Miss Davis, you don’t need to come over here yet. Jones will take you and your things to the station while I get more officers out here.” Smith’s voice was cracking a little, and I could hear Jones talking into his radio about back up and a possible homicide.

“No. I need to see what’s in there.” I walked up to the trunk and looked inside and screamed. Placed neatly in my trunk was a birthday cake with poorly iced writing. The cake read “Happy birthday Olive.” That might not have been so bad, except in place of candles the cake had ten bloody fingers sticking out of it. The finger nails had blue polish on them, and one of the fingers had a small black cat silhouette tattooed on the side. I looked to my left ring finger where a matching white cat silhouette resided. I could feel more bile rising in my throat and I began to cry.

“Officer, th-those are T-t-tyshae’s fingers,” I choked out between sobs.

Jones placed an arm around me, motioning me to his car, blue lights still flashing.

“Why don’t you wait in the car and when backup arrives I’ll take you somewhere safe?”