Page 3 of Wicked Winter Night

“Is anyone hurt or injured?” she responds.

“Not physically, but if you count emotionally, then YES! Please just get someone out here. I feel so violated.”

“An officer is en route. I see you’re calling from 486 Pinewood Valley. Is that correct?”

“Yes, that is correct,” I sob, staring at the piece of paper on the counter. “Please,” I whisper. “Just hurry.”

It feels like forever until the red and blue lights flash through my window, but it’s only 8:15am, about forty minutes from my call. I sat here, sitting on top of the ice chest, staring at the piece of paper like I thought it would simply disappear, and I would seem crazy. Hard knocks on the wooden door pull my focus away, andI get up, moving to the door to open it, but not without taking a few glances back to make sure the paper is still there.

“Sheriff’s Department, open up,” an officer shouts on the other side.

I yank the door open, and two officers stand before me. Both are men, upper 50s.

“Hi, ma’am. I’m Officer Hilton, and this is my partner, Officer Jefferson. We got a call that someone might have broken into your place?”

“Uhh.. yeah, please come in,” I tell them, ushering them inside and out of the cold.

“Do you mind telling us what happened?” Officer Jefferson asks.

“So, when I woke up this morning, I had this… substance around my mouth. I didn’t think anything of it at first, but then I came downstairs to make coffee, and I noticed this piece of paper on the counter.” I hand them the note, and they open it, reading the contents inside. They seem a bit confused, so I elaborate.

“The substance on my mouth this morning was… white… salty…” I say hesitantly, a little uncomfortable about explaining this to two men.

Officer Jefferson’s eyebrows are furrowed until a light bulb clicks, and his eyes widen, looking directly at his partner before he leans in and whispers. Officer Hilton’s eyes widen before he clears his throat, handing me the note back.

“Did you see anyone?” Officer Hilton asks.

“Well, no. But I think it’s obvious someone was here.”

“Do you know who could have done this? Do you know who ‘L’ could be?” Officer Jefferson asks.

“Well, I just split with my ex, Liam. I caught him cheating on me with my best friend last night and packed up and camestraight here. It doesn’t seem like anything he would do, but I’m not sure anymore.”

“Do you have a contact for him?” Officer Hilton asks.

“Yes, I do.” I give them the information they need as Officer Jefferson writes it down.

“We’ll follow up on this and get back with you. In the meantime, do you mind if we take a look around, do a quick search to make sure the place is clear?”

The thought honestly hadn’t occurred to me, but I appreciate their offer. “Yes, yes. Please. I would love that.”

Both officers spend the next forty-five minutes going over every square inch of this house, from every room upstairs down to the basement below, and around the outside perimeter. They don’t find anything, but they make sure to lock every door and window they come across along the way.

“The house is clear, ma’am. We’ll look into this for you and be in touch. Please give us a call if anything else happens,” Officer Jefferson says, tipping his hat.

“Thank you both so much,” I respond, closing the door behind them. I slide down against the wooden grain, hitting the floor and hanging my head in my hands.

What the fuck is happening?

CHAPTER FIVE

I’ve been sitting on the couch drinking my coffee for the last twenty minutes. I threw the note away. I’m not sure if that was a good idea or not, but I couldn’t bear to look at it anymore. I’m just telling myself it was Liam. While I’m not thrilled about that idea, it beats the hell out of the alternative. A stranger’s cum on my lips? Fucking GROSS.

It’s Christmas Eve, and I decide to pick myself up and do what I set out to do today, which is to decorate. I head down to the basement and grab whatever Christmas decorations I can find, brushing off cobwebs and dust as I go. It’s not much, but there are some stockings, staircase decor, some Christmas-themed gnomes, knick-knacks, and some Christmas lights, both for decor and for the tree we would chop down. Digging a bit further, I also find the tree I remember having as a kid when the weather was too bad to chop one down.

I haul everything upstairs, sorting through broken items as I pull things out one by one. I get the staircase decorated with lights and garland, replace some of the kitchen decor with Christmas-themed items, hang the stockings, and string some of the lights around the counter and along the walls, using thumb tacks and tape to keep them up.

Lastly, there is the tree. I pull each piece from the box one by one, and when it’s out of the box completely, I plug the lights in to test that they still work. The flocked fake tree comes with its own lights, but they're all burnt out, none of them illuminating when plugged in. Well, crap. I could just wrap this tree with the other lights, but what fun would that be? I could run out and chop one myself. The weather seems fine right now, and I think the fresh air would do me some good. Yeah, I think that’s exactly what I’ll do.