July 27, 2011

"Home" - Chapter X

X.


I didn’t get a chance to ask Adam which way the dog ran, so I started walking quickly up the block toward the busy part of downtown, thinking that perhaps the dog would be attracted to the noise.


After a few moments, I saw the dog come around a nearby corner and start walking toward me.


“There you are!” I said, relieved. “Well, I guess we better head back and try to convince Adam to let you…”


I lost my train of thought. Something didn’t make sense. I was going to go back to… where? Well, I suppose it didn’t matter. I was pretty hungry, so probably the best thing to do would be to go get some food.


The dog and I started walking toward a tavern that had a sign on their door indicating that pets were allowed to come inside with their owners.
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The hostess asked if I wanted to sit inside or out. I told her that we would prefer to eat inside.


I sat at a table in the back, and the dog laid at my feet while I ordered some food for myself and some scraps for him.


About half way through the meal, I realized that I didn’t have my purse with me. I had probably left it in the car in my hurry to find the dog.


I looked around the restaurant, and noticed that there was a woman at the bar who had slumped over with her head on the counter. Her purse was hanging on the back of her chair, unzipped.


I looked down at the dog, who was looking at the woman again. I glanced around to find the bartender, who I located at the back of the restaurant, talking on the phone with his back turned.


I walked over to the bar, pulled a twenty out of the woman’s purse, and sat back down in my seat.


We finished our food, put the cash on the table, and left the bar.
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I crossed the street and sat down in a doorway to watch the door of the bar. I felt confused again, incoherent. Any thought that started to form became fuzzy and disconnected. At one point, an image crossed my mind - a little boy and a man, sitting on the stoop of a house that looked familiar. I struggled against the fog that started to overwhelm that image, but it quickly dissolved and my mind went blank again.
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Evening started to close in, and it began to get cold. I was still staring at the door of the bar when the drunk who had been passed out at the counter was escorted out by the bartender. She was stumbling and cursing, and started off down the street away from the bar.


I stood up and crossed the street to walk behind her.


I followed her for a number of blocks, until she stopped to enter an apartment building. I stopped walking and stood in the shadows of the building next door. The dog quietly ran up behind her and slipped through the door before it closed.


Some small amount of time went by and I went to the apartment building to open the door for the dog. His eyes were glowing fiercely, and his muzzle looked wet and sticky. I noticed these things, and felt the faint glimmer of panic start in my chest. It wasn’t long before the sensation faded, and I felt myself drift back into a fog.


We crossed the street to a vacant warehouse. The dog and I entered the building through a gap in the boards covering one of the windows.


I sat on the floor, which was covered in dust and dirt. It was cold in the building; the crumbling structure and gapped planks covering the windows offered little protection against the winter air. I looked at the dog to see if he would let me come close for some warmth. He bared his teeth at me and growled.


I started to feel defeated and overwhelmed. The fog that had been overpowering my thoughts all day slipped away, and I started thinking about Adam and Micah. I missed them so much. I looked back at the dog, who was sleeping a few feet away. I knew he was aware of me, even in his sleep. I slumped over and laid on the cold floor.

July 26, 2011

"Home" - Chapter IX

IX.


Adam called me just as I was leaving Micah’s daycare.

“There’s a dog in the house! I think it’s that Eli guy’s dog? How did he get in here, do you know?”


“Oh, yeah, Eli died today. I thought we could take the dog in, since Micah has been wanting one. He seems really friendly, right?”


“How do you know that Eli died? How do you know the dog is friendly?” Adam asked, “I think we should probably bring him to the shelter. We don’t know enough about him to keep him here with Micah in the house.”


“I know Eli died because I … because…”


I couldn’t remember how I had heard that Eli had died.

Oh well, it didn’t really matter how I knew, right? All I was sure of was that I wasn’t going to let Adam talk me out of keeping the dog. He was my dog now. The thought of leaving him at a shelter made me feel panicked and my thoughts started to jumble together again. I tried to answer Adam’s questions.


“I heard sirens earlier and so I know that’s what it was… that’s why the dog came over and he wants to stay with us now.”


“What? That doesn’t make any sense, hon.”


“Yes it does. You know what, don’t worry about it.  I am not bringing the dog to a shelter.  I am keeping him.  He’s not dangerous!”


“You don’t know that! Eli said his dogs fought, and if this is one of the ones that was fighting, he isn’t safe to keep in the house. I’d also like to know what happened to the other dogs Eli was keeping.  We probably need to talk to someone about everything that we heard over there. I am taking him to the shelter, and I am going to talk to someone there about Eli and his dogs.  People need to be aware that any dog coming from Eli’s house is probably dangerous.”


“Please, Adam!  Just give him a chance.  I am almost home with Micah.  We will see how the dog behaves, ok?  I promise the dog will be just fine.”


“No, I am taking him to the shelter.”


“Well then I am coming to meet...”


I was interrupted by Adam talking to the dog.

“No, boy, come here.  Dammit.”


Then to me.


“He took off.”


“Great!” I cried, “how am I going to find him?!  I am still five minutes away!  You need to go get him!”


“No, I am not going to chase him down.  He will be picked up by someone, and they will bring him to the shelter, or they will take him in.  I am not budging on this - we cannot bring him into our home.”


I hung the phone up, and in a panic, I sped the rest of the way home.


When I got there, I went inside, handed Micah to Adam, and walked out the front door to look for the dog.


“Where the hell are you going!?” Adam said, frustrated.


“I am going to look for the dog.”


“To do what?  I already told you that dog is not worth risking Micah’s safety over.  We don’t even know the dog.  You are acting like he is more important than our son… what is wrong with you!?”


“Nothing is wrong with me.  There is something wrong with you.  I will see you later.”


“Not if you bring that dog back.”


“Okay then, if that’s the way it’s going to be.”

I walked away.

July 25, 2011

"Home" - Chapter VIII

VIII.

I awoke again. I was laying on the floor in my living room. I felt strange. Almost as if I had been awoken in the middle of a heavy sleep. My mind was working incredibly slowly; I couldn’t form a full thought.

I looked around me, and discovered that I was alone.

The light coming through the window put the time of day at around noon.

I sat up and pulled my phone out of my purse, which was lying right next to my hand.  I was right; it was just after noon, so I guessed about four hours after I had left in the morning to go to the electric company.

I called my boss and told her that I wasn’t going to be in.  I felt sick and needed to sleep.

I sat down on the couch and put my head in my hands.  I couldn’t decipher whether what I remembered had actually happened. It didn’t make any sense to me.  Remembering the dog attacking me, I looked down at my arm. It was bruised and I could see the teeth marks in my arm.  So, I knew.  I knew what I thought had happened, did happen.

I dialed Adam’s number.

He picked up the phone, and I started to tell him what happened at the electric company.  I related the conversations with the employees, and paying the bill, and my anger over everything.  I then started to recount what happened after I left the office, and suddenly, I couldn’t think straight.

I was trying desperately to think.  I left the office and went to the stairwell, because I didn’t want to take the elevator. I hadn’t told Adam about the elevator!  That was important.  Then… what happened in the elevator?  Everything was becoming muddled.  I ended the conversation, letting him know that we were supposed to follow up with someone on the electric bill.

I went to lay down, remembering to set my phone alarm to make sure I picked Micah up from daycare on time.  I could hear sirens outside, as I started to drift off to sleep.  It sounded like they were close.  Almost right in our backyard.
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My alarm went off at 4:15.  I still felt fuzzy and disoriented, but was aware that I needed to go get Micah.

As I walked down the stairs, I noticed a black shape lying on the rug in the foyer.

I felt a flash of extreme happiness, and I rushed down the remaining steps to greet the dog.

I knelt beside him, and he looked up at me with his green eyes, stood up, and rested his head on my thigh.

“I missed you boy!” I said, “But, I have to go get Micah. He will be so happy that I finally got him a dog!”

The dog yawned, and lay back down on the rug.

July 20, 2011

"Home" - Chapter VII

VII.

I awoke to an over-powering stench. The smell was that of wet dog combined with rotting garbage. The room was stifling. I could feel that I was propped up against a wall and sitting on what felt like concrete. My head felt as if it was splitting open right down the middle.

I didn’t want to move, but eventually decided that it might be a good idea to try and figure out where I might be. I opened my eyes just a bit and peered out through my eyelashes, trying to take the room in as surreptitiously as possible.

It appeared that I was in an underground room, a basement, with two small windows high up on one wall. It was empty but for a vague shape in one corner, which I could barely distinguish from the general gloom.

I didn’t see any movement around me, or hear anything but my own breathing. I slowly opened my eyes all the way and peered more closely at the shape in the corner. As I did so, the dog’s eyes opened and it looked at me intently.

I was frightened, but didn’t move or make any noise, lest it decide I was going to be its next meal.

The dog got up and padded toward me.

I still made no movement, hoping the dumb animal would sniff me and leave me be.

As the dog got closer, I noticed that it looked like it was grinning. When it got close, it stuck its muzzle in my face. I held my breath and tried to keep my eyes down, but I couldn’t. I felt compelled to look at it. I slowly raised my head, finally catching its green eyes with my own.

As soon as our eyes met, a jolt of intense pain coursed through my head. Like a knife driven into my skull. My ears felt like they were full of cotton. I couldn’t look away, even though I knew doing so would stop the agony. My mouth was open in a silent scream.

Slowly the dog started backing away from me, never releasing my gaze. I felt myself get up off the ground. It moved to the other side of the room, until it was sitting on what looked like an intricate and detailed circular chalk drawing depicting a pentagram. I too sat inside the circle.

Suddenly the dog lunged and bit my arm, never taking its eyes off mine. I could not react to the pain and the blood running down my elbow to the floor. My mouth moved.

“Ego vester sum.” I said.

A flash of light threw me back into darkness.

July 19, 2011

"Home" - Chapter VI

VI.


The next morning I dropped Micah off at daycare and called my manager.

“I am going to be a little late this morning. I am having an issue with the electric company and have to stop by their office to clear it up. They won’t do it over the phone.”

“Ok. What time will you be in?”

“I am hoping it won’t take more than an hour.”
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As I pulled up to the front of the 3-floor, yet somehow squat, tan-brick office building, my mind was racing. I was angry. I had checked our bank account, and the electric company had received the electronic transfers I had set up.

I walked through the main doors, located the suite number for the electric company, and headed to the elevators.

I punched the 3 button on the elevator, and stood fuming as the elevator slowly brought me upward.

Suddenly, the elevator jolted to a stop. It had just beeped for the second floor, so I knew I was somewhere between the second and third floors.

I pushed the 3 button again. Nothing happened. Pushed the button to try to open the doors. Still nothing. Pulled the emergency button. Nothing. Looked for an emergency phone. No phone.

My phone! I pulled my phone out of my purse, but there was no signal in the elevator shaft.

“Hey!” I yelled, “I’m stuck in the elevator!”

I stood there yelling for what seemed like forever when suddenly the elevator started upward again.

As it started moving, I thought I heard what sounded like a snicker, but told myself it was a sound coming from the elevator mechanics.

The doors opened onto the third floor corridor. I could have been yelling for hours and no one would have heard me. There were no doors in the vicinity of the elevator.

I looked around and located a sign pointing to the left noting “Suite 301 - VADP”.

I walked down the hallway for a ways and then around a corner. Another long hallway met my eyes. Down that hallway. Around a second corner, and finally Suite 301.
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I walked through the door marked 301 and up to the front desk.

There was no one at the front desk, but a bell was available. I pushed the bell and sat down on one of the chairs to wait.

After a few minutes a young woman walked up to the front desk. Her name badge said “Audrey”.

“Hi Audrey. I believe I spoke to you on the phone yesterday about my account? You told me to come in and speak to one of your auditors?”

“Mrs. Colby?”

“Yes.”

“Please have a seat.”

As she walked away, I could see her face wrinkle up in disgust.

“What is her deal?” I asked myself.
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I waited for twenty minutes.

A middle-aged man came to the front of the office.

“Mrs. Colby?”

“Yes.”

I couldn’t even begin to disguise the frustration and impatience in my voice. I could see my tone register in his expression, which turned from patronizing and slightly amused to anger.

“Mrs. Colby, please follow me.”

He turned and walked angrily toward the door from which he had emerged earlier.

I followed him into a small office crowded by an over-sized executive desk covered in folders and paperwork.

“Please sit.”

I sat.

“My name is Eric Green,” He said as he sat behind the desk. “I have been looking at your account for the past few hours. It has been flagged for abuse.”

“For what!? “

“You have been letting other homes tap into your lines illegally!”

“I don’t know what the hell you are talking about!” I said angrily. “We have only lived in this damn house for the last few months, I don’t know anyone that lives around me, and even if I did, I sure as hell wouldn’t let them use our lines! I didn’t even know that could be done! If someone is doing something illegal, you all need to figure out who the hell it is instead of creating problems on my account and throwing around nonsense accusations!”

I could tell he was taken aback by my outburst, but I didn’t regret it. This was the most ridiculous allegation I could fathom. The whole thing made no sense. I had heard of people hacking or sharing cable lines, or internet lines or various other installed data lines, but sharing an electricity account made no sense to me at all.

“Well, Mrs. Colby, I will tell you something. The line that was diverted is in the basement of your home. It was discovered when our meter reader went out and discovered that your meter had been tampered with to slow the usage transfer down. When the tampering device was removed, your usage tripled, and back-charges were applied to your account, as well as fees and late charges. In further looking into the tampering, we contacted your land lord, and he allowed us to look in your basement.”

“That basement has a separate entrance, and is only being rented by us to use as storage space. Where was the line run? Whose house is it going to?”

I had a bad feeling. I knew the answer before it came out of Eric’s mouth.

“The address is 1200 William Street, it’s the house behind yours.”

“Then you all need to investigate the man that lives there. His name is Eli. And you need to leave our account open, and you need to fix all of the charges on there. This is ridiculous.”

“Ma’am, we are not going to allow any changes to your account until this is resolved. You still owe for the electricity used, and the late charges, and any fees. IF it turns out that this man has been stealing from you, you will need to get recompense in court. If you want your electricity to remain on, I need you to provide payment to Audrey at the front desk before you leave.”
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I paid the full amount to snotty-Audrey and made sure I got a full list of charges and explanations, and slowly made my way back to the elevator.

Distracted as I was by everything that just happened, I still was cognizant enough to realize it was a stupid idea to take the elevator again. I hunted around for a bit and finally found a staircase to take me down to the first floor.

I opened the door and stepped onto the third floor landing.

Just as I started toward the first step, I caught the flash of something coming at me out of the corner of my eye. I turned, just as someone grabbed my face from behind. I felt the cloth cover my nose and mouth and I stopped sucking in air. I tried to drop down into a crouch to throw the assailant off balance, but they had one hand over my face and the other was wrapped around my waist. I could tell it was someone very large. I couldn’t get away, and I couldn’t hold my breath. My mind became numb just before everything went dark.

"Home" - Chapter V

V.


I was in a daze as I picked Micah up from daycare.  I called Adam at work.

“Someone put a fraud hold on our mail.”  I said to him.

“What?”

“Someone put some sort of fraud hold on our mail.”  I repeated.

“I don’t understand.”

“The reason we haven’t been getting mail!”  I said, getting frustrated.  “Someone put some sort of fraud hold on our mail and has had it forwarded to some other address! They won’t give it to me; I have to get a hold of someone in freaking D.C. to figure out what the hell is going on!”

Adam was silent.

“I’m going to go.”  I said.  “I need to get home and check our accounts.”

“Ok.  I’ll be home in a little while.”

I hung up.  I felt a heavy weight in my gut.  I thought about all of the things that could be done with the type of information that might have been on some of that mail.  Medical bills, credit card information, insurance, bank statements… I was getting more and more panicked.  How could I possibly think of all of the things to check?

I parked in front of the house and pulled Micah out of his car seat.  On auto-pilot, I checked the mail-box.  Nothing.  I unlocked the front door, and went to the kitchen to get Micah a snack.

After Micah had been situated in his booster seat, I went to the computer and started looking at any account I had access to online.

First, I checked the bank – nothing looked out of place there.  I would have caught anything as soon as it posted, anyway, being overly cautious about our finances as I was.

Then, I checked the credit card accounts.  Nothing unusual there, either.

After some thought, I decided to check some of the other bills.  I pulled the electric bill and pulled up the login screen.  My login information didn’t work, so I called the number on the bill.

“Thanks for calling Dominion Virginia Power, this is Audrey speaking, how can I help you?”

“Hi… I can’t access my account online, and we’re having some problems with our postal service.  I want to make sure nothing is going on with our account.”

“Address please?”

I gave her our address.

“Hm… yes, it looks like this account overdue, and is accruing some significant late fees.  You are scheduled to be disconnected tomorrow.”

“I’m sorry?!”

“Yes, it looks like you had a sharp increase in usage over the last few months, and in addition to that you are now 45 days past due.  Late charges have been accruing on the balance owed for 30 days.  Also, it looks like we called 30 days ago to discuss the past-due payment, and we spoke to Adam Colby.”

“Well, I’m positive we’ve paid a bill in the last 60 days!  I think I would notice if we hadn’t paid an electric bill in 2 months!  Can you please look into where our payments have been posted?”

“Ok, please hold.”

While I waited, I wondered why Adam hadn’t told me about the electric company calling.

“Ma’am?”  The operator came back on the line.

“Mm-hmm?”

“We cannot keep service on at this address.”  She sounded angry.

“I’m sorry?”

“This conversation is being recorded per our policy.  Your account is being audited.  You will have to come by the office and speak to someone in the morning.”
She hung up.

At that moment, I realized that Adam wasn’t home 30 days ago.  There was no way the electric company could have contacted him at that time.

"Home" - Chapter IV

IV.


Adam’s schedule became more and more hectic. I tried to put on a positive front for Adam and Micah, but I felt like I was slowly losing my mind. Micah and I came straight home every day from work and daycare, and at this point I didn’t even feel safe to leave on the weekends, unless Adam was home.

The motion sensing lights were on constantly.  I checked the nanny cam every day, but never came across anything out of the ordinary on the recordings.  After a few weeks, I disabled the motion-sensing lights and turned the nanny cam off.
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Around the end of January, Adam’s schedule changed so that he was to be home for a few consecutive weeks to work on further developing the software they were trying to promote.

We decided to take a weekend vacation to Great Wolf Lodge to try and relax and put some of the strain of the last few months behind us. We left on a Friday morning and stayed through that Sunday night.

Micah played in the pools and on the water slides for hours each day, and Adam and I had a chance to re-connect and talk.
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That Sunday night, as we returned regretfully to the house, I checked the mail as we walked up to the front door. There was no mail, which I didn’t think too deeply into, since not having mail was a fairly frequent occurrence.
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After another few days, I started to notice that we weren’t getting any mail, except that following Saturday when we were home all day and caught the mailman as he was coming up to the porch.

The first week, I shrugged it off, thinking that since we did most of our bills and correspondence online, it wasn’t that odd to go a few days without mail. But, then after a couple of weeks having gone by and only receiving mail that one time, and thinking that, at the very least, we should be receiving some of our normal monthly bills, I started to get worried.

One day, I decided to leave work early to stop by the post office to find out if there was a reason why we hadn’t been receiving our mail.

After waiting in line for forty-five minutes, and becoming increasingly anxious about picking Micah up at daycare, I finally made it to the front of the line.

“Hi, can I help you?”

“Hi… I wanted to find out, that is, we don’t seem to be receiving our mail. We’ve not had anything in our mail box now for almost 3 weeks.”

“Last name?”

“Colby.”

“Address?”

“1412 Prince George Street.”

“Ok… let’s see.”

She paused, reading the information on the computer screen.

“There’s been a hold placed on the mail for that name and address.”

“A hold…?” I asked, confused. “Why is there a hold?”

“The hold was placed by Adam Colby.”

“That’s my husband, but he didn’t put a hold on the mail. Can you remove the hold? Do you have any mail here for me?”

“No, it’s is a fraud hold, we can’t remove it here. You have to contact our central office in D.C. and fill out some paperwork. We also don’t have your mail here; it’s been forwarded to a new address, based on the fraud report.”

“What address!?”

“I can’t give you that information, ma’am. You need to contact the central office. Here is their number.”

She quickly wrote the information down and handed me the sheet of paper.

As I slowly walked out of the post office, I saw her watching me while she dialed the phone and started speaking into the receiver.