Leonard sat quietly in his apartment. He felt wrong. Like something was, off. A combination of nausea and the cold chill of staring down at the world from too high a place. Deathly afraid and he had no idea of what.
After thoroughly searching his home, room to room, the cheap chandelier lighting every square inch of the floor, he came up short. Nothing was there. No one was there. He was certain now that what caused him unease was a presence, but one that he’s yet to see.
Leonard felt sick. He could taste sour milk and he was sweating below the belt. It’s getting worse, oh boy was it getting worse.
To coddle himself into comfort, he went over his day. Mundane work always bored him, maybe boring will help that awful, nasty feeling.
At 6:14 that morning, he entered his precinct. His captain always rolled in two hours after everyone else, so most of his activities before that were nothing to write home about. He checked his email, ate two unnecessary packs of Nutter Butters, and signed a document or two he wasn’t even sure was important.
A few hours later, he went to take a piss and heard a scream. No, he heard what was supposed to be a scream, but seemed wrong. It was more like the sound of an angry cat combined with the high pitched winds of a mountain range. Sharp and guttural. It came from a woman standing at the front of the precinct, covered in blood and tears.
She was promptly escorted away so as not to disturb the other victims, criminals, and officers working in the bullpen. As they dragged her into a cell, she looked at Leonard. Really looked at him. That fucking look was bad, terrifying. It wasn’t drugs, she was visibly sober. It was a mix of madness and rage, the kind of anger that would make you bite off your own tongue and spit it at someone you hate.
That event upset him so much he went right home. He didn’t care what happened to her, he just wanted to be away from…it. His captain called and asked what had bothered him so much, but he didn’t have a rational answer. He’s been a police officer for five years and didn’t so much as flinch at the sight of a dead body or an addict reacting to Narcan.
The call. That call was ringing an alarm bell deep in his brain. It made Leonard feel sicker than ever. What did the captain say?
“-cookies for breakfast, but you’re a grown man so I guess I can’t stop you. Just don’t let acid reflux affect your work. Speaking of-“ after a brief pause and the sound of rustling papers, he came back to the phone.
“Lisa Menri? Do you remember that name? She was the…well her mother slit her wrists in a bathtub, claiming someone was following her. You took her statement, signed her out, and didn’t follow up. I know you didn’t follow up because a week later she beat her son’s head in with a cast iron. That kind of thing usually has warning signs.”
Leonard could taste peanut butter and bile. “Why are you-“
“That was today. She beat her son to death today and went directly to the precinct after.”
The young cop sat down and fought the urge to throw the phone away from him and pretend the call never happened.
“You must have seen her when you left. Someone said you flinched and moved away from her. You ducked out ten minutes after that. Anyway, I….Normally this would be something we discuss in person, but I’m feeling a little nervous. When we finally got her to stop screaming, she said two things, and she kept saying them over and over. She had to be sedated.”
“The first thing she said was ‘I stopped him from a worse fate’. That was about her son. She clubbed a nine year old with a skillet until his skull dented in and told us there was a worse fate than that. She’s crazy.”
Leonard didn’t want to be on the phone anymore. He didn’t want to know any of this. “We can talk about this tomorrow, I promise to stay for overtime if you stop-“
The captain ignored him. “It’s important you remember that Leonard, she’s mentally unwell. Because after that she said… she said-“
Leonard tore the phone away from his ear and hung up. He hadn’t done it fast enough and managed to hear part of the second message.
That phone call was an hour ago and those last two words came back full force, freezing his veins and making his heart pump a fucking downbeat against his rib cage.
Out of the corner of his eye, Leonard saw movement. Something very tall was in the corner of the room. It gently bent its oblong head in his direction. It knows he sees it.
Frozen to the spot, tears began falling from Leonard’s eyes. As the captain’s final words ran through his mind, he pissed himself in fear.
“It’s coming-“.