A Yellow Cat and a Sugar Cube
Rebecca flicked her hood up and tilted her head forward, cowering, as the tiny rain pellets stung her relentlessly. The wind whipped leaves around, and they mixed with the rain. A walk that should only take 10 minutes was turning into a half hour trip. She always walked, rain or shine, when she went to work, because the boss tore down the parking lot to promote exercise and a healthy lifestyle. Hypothermia didn't exactly count as a "healthy lifestyle", but what can you do? Rebecca walked in the front door of the warehouse and shook the rain off her jacket. To her surprise the usual chill that ran through the giant building was gone, replaced by a comforting heat that raised goose bumps on her arms. Ha, maybe her boss did have an ounce of guilt in him.
Rebecca flicked her hood up and tilted her head forward, cowering, as the tiny rain pellets stung her relentlessly. The wind whipped leaves around, and they mixed with the rain. A walk that should only take 10 minutes was turning into a half hour trip. She always walked, rain or shine, when she went to work, because the boss tore down the parking lot to promote exercise and a healthy lifestyle. Hypothermia didn't exactly count as a "healthy lifestyle", but what can you do? Rebecca walked in the front door of the warehouse and shook the rain off her jacket. To her surprise the usual chill that ran through the giant building was gone, replaced by a comforting heat that raised goose bumps on her arms. Ha, maybe her boss did have an ounce of guilt in him.
She walked over to the coffee machine on the folding table in the corner, like she did every morning and
poured herself a cup. There was something sticky all over the floor and she looked down to see that someone had spilled the milk all over the floor. She reached for a sugar packet, but there weren’t any left. Rebecca sighed and reached for a cube. She hated using the sugar cubes, but nobody else seemed to care that anyone could potentially poison them or something. She not being overcautious, she thought, it just seems wrong. As much as she loved her coworkers she didn’t exactly love it when her coffee tasted like cat hair. After she finished her coffee, she glanced at the clock on the wall and jumped.
She was late, again. Rebecca sprinted down the hall to the meeting room and slowly opened to door to not disturb her coworkers. She poked her head in to the completely empty room. Of course the first thought that came to mind was that she missed the meeting, and she started to panic. She wandered around the warehouse for awhile; trying to stick to the more shadowed areas, but was a bit on edge by the unusual silence that seemed to hang over her head like a raincloud. The warehouse itself was quite large and spacious, and she found that if you were to shout from one end of the building to the other, the person on the other end would have no problem hearing the obnoxious echoes that rang out. This was silent. Dead silent.
The sound of the front door was a sweet relief, and Rebecca slowly exhaled the breath she had been holding for who knows how long. She walked fast, but with purpose, to the door. As the cold metal door came into view she was surprised to find none other than Daniel Jacobs, her coworker’s husband. He had a look of frightened urgency, his face pale against his clouded eyes. Rebecca asked what he was doing here, but he paid no attention and hurried past her. She ran after him and had to practically chase him across the warehouse until he suddenly disappeared. Rebecca looked around; confused, as to where he could have gone. She scanned the area with my eyes but could not seem to find him. Then there was the scream. It was a bloodcurdling, hair-raising, eye-rolling scream that seemed to come from above Rebecca’s head. She began to tip my head backwards to see what was up there when something warm and wet landed on her forehead. She swiped it off with her finger and in the florescent light of the building saw the unmistakable red of human blood. Rebecca couldn’t stop herself, she tried with all her willpower but she couldn’t push back the urge. She looked up, saw, and screamed.
The man was masked. Rebecca couldn’t see his face, but I can tell you what she did see, and that was the silver glint of a handgun pointed at her. He was standing on the catwalk that they used to reach the top shelves and the walk seemed to sway hypnotically back and forth, but the man was still. What should you do if you were there making eye contact with a killer? Run, of course, is correct. Unfortunately like in any exciting chase scene, her feet were like iron weights, the ground felt like bubblegum. She ran, but the entire world felt like it was going in slow motion, except the man.
“STOP!” he yelled. Rebecca weighed her options. Die, or die with glory. She chose the second and forced her legs to move faster. The door had come into view, but every step seemed to be taking her farther away from it, rather than closer. Out of the corner of one eye she thought she saw a cat, but as soon as she looked there, it was gone. Her feet felt like they were getting all tangled up and her knees went out. She fell forward and threw her hands out to save herself, but they hit something cold and hard. The door! How had she gotten all the way to the door? Her eyelids were heavy and all she wanted to do was fall asleep. With the last of her energy she pushed open the door and tumbled out into the rain.
That afternoon nobody noticed the large green van pulling out of the parking lot of the warehouse. All they could see were the swat vans and the police cars, along with every other emergency vehicle you could possibly sent to a mass murder site. A young woman by the name of Rebecca had tipped them off when she was found crawling through the street on her hands and knees screaming for help. She had taken in a large amount of poison that just so happened to be hidden in the sugar cubes she had put in her coffee that morning. They found six bodies; all poisoned, and were only able to save three. A poison control team was investing an almost sterile crime scene when they came across a pale yellow mask thrown into the corner apparently in a hurry. Rebecca was investigated to no end, but she remembered nothing except seeing a yellow cat that seemed to be looking at her right before she left the building.
